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The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported on Saturday that administration officials were discussing replacing HHS Secretary Alex Azar, whose drawn public criticism for his early missteps during the coronavirus outbreak. But President Donald Trump reached out to Azar himself to reassure him that wasn't the case.
Stat and Harvard reviewed how many tests states are processing each day and found that some places, like New York, need to increase coronavirus testing levels by up to 100,000 more a day to keep up with the spread of the fast-moving virus. Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci says he's confident the U.S. will be able to double its testing capacity over the next several weeks.
Some scientists worry that government leaders are putting too much faith into the promise of antibody testing, when the results of the tests can often be inaccurate. It's a good tool to show the spread of the virus, they say, but shouldn't be an instrumental part of public policy.
Under Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan, upstate regions would move forward with reopening long before the southern part of the state, with an emphasis on manufacturing and construction. He did not suggest any loosening of restrictions on New York City in the near future. In New York, the daily count of new cases statewide has generally been trending downward.
Quarantine fatigue and economic concerns weigh heavy on governors as they move to slowly reopen their states. But Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator, says that social distancing measures should remain in place through the summer.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
More than 70 countries have restricted exports of medical supplies, putting Africa in peril, the U.N. says. Now, African countries are pooling efforts, but richer countries outbid them for equipment. Ten African countries have no ventilators. Media outlets report on news from China, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand, as well.
Opinion writers express views about pandemic issues.
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Psychiatric hospitals present special challenges to the strictures of social distancing, since many patients are allowed to come and go, in and out of the center, and once inside, they are not cloistered. This is creating a dangerous atmosphere for the staff working in the hospitals. In other provider news: new safety precautions pay off, certificate-of-need laws challenged, pay is being slashed for front-line workers, and more.
As more than 11,000 of the nation's deaths have been in nursing homes, advocates call for universal testing for all staff and vulnerable patients, citing the federal government's and states' failures to not make it the top priority. News on nursing homes is from Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Louisiana, California and Georgia, as well.
Physicians are prematurely relying on Epic's deterioration index, saying they're unable to wait for a validation process that can take months to years. The artificial intelligence gives them a snapshot of a patient's illness and helps them determine who needs more careful monitoring. News on technology is from Verily, Google, MIT, Livongo and more, as well.
Laid-off workers need money quickly so that they can continue to pay rent and credit card bills and buy groceries. But delays in benefits mean they're going longer and longer without help. That in turn means the hole the economy has fallen into is getting "deeper and deeper, and more difficult to crawl out of.” Meanwhile, the surge of unemployed workers adds extra stress on Medicaid.
Media outlets report on news from Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, California, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The new federal Bureau of Prisons' standard makes early release possible for inmates who served at least 25% of their sentence and have less than 18 months remaining on their term. Outbreak developments from a Virginia youth correctional center and Massachusetts, Missouri and Oklahoma prisons are also reported.
A New York Times reporter visits a campus in New York, home to scientists dubbed the ''Paul Reveres'' of climate change, a threat, they say, that could cause far greater problems than the pandemic and requires vastly more funding. Other public health news is on mental health, celebrity pledges to wellness care, advanced directives, repercussions from the fear of going to the ER, testing homeless people, research on male vulnerability, the forgotten flu, vaping risks, unusual symptoms in seniors and more.
With the usual food distribution chain disrupted due to the coronavirus outbreak, farmers are plowing unused produce back into the field. Yet food banks struggle to feed millions of newly unemployed Americans. While a federal plan will throw $19 billion dollars at the problem, it must still overcome the transportation challenges that created it in the first place. Other food supply issues reports on the meat industry, food plant safety and alleged price gouging on eggs.
“You could see it in almost every state, in every locality, and the federal government level: depleting the resources, depleting the inventory, and hoping when you need them they will be available,” said Gerard Anderson, a health policy professor at Johns Hopkins University. In other news, states turn to China for help with medical supplies. And a tip comes from an unusual source.
On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) announced that her oldest brother Donald Reed Herring died from COVID-19. On the same day, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) took a moment to dedicate the latest relief package to her sister, who she said is dying in a hospital.
Hypertension and obesity were common risk factors found in the patients. The study also found that one in five of the hospital stays ended with the patient dying--though more than half of the patients studied were still hospitalized when the study ended. In other scientific news about the virus: smoking in the time of COVID-19, convalescent plasma, reinfection threat, and more.
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