Perspectives: Pandemic Challenges Health Care Ethics; It Shouldn’t Be On Walmart To Lead Way On Masks

Stat: Must Health Care Workers Risk Their Lives To Treat Covid-19 Patients? 
The sweep of Covid-19 across the globe has raised a fundamental question about medical ethics: Do physicians, nurses, EMTs, and other health care workers have moral and legal obligations to risk their health and lives to treat patients during a pandemic? It’s an important question, given the toll that Covid-19 is taking on medical professionals. (Alan Kadish and John Loike, 7/24)

The New York Times: Meet The New C.D.C. Director: Walmart
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened branch offices in Bentonville, Ark., and Seattle this month. Not officially. But with the president trying to distance himself from responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, and Southern governors amplifying the damage with their flawed reopening strategies, the nation’s retailers have become the first line of defense against the pandemic. (Bill Saporito, 7/24)

Los Angeles Times: Making Face Masks Great Again
Who says you can’t teach an old president new tricks? After months of refusing to wear a face mask in public and making fun of people who did, President Trump is suddenly a big fan. This is quite the reversal from a man who suggested that people who wear masks were doing so as a political statement against him, which of course is more important that protecting oneself from a deadly infection. (Mariel Garza, 7/23)

The Washington Post: MAGA Masks Would Protect The Country — And Win Trump A Second Term
He’s also missing a huge political opportunity. Imagine how differently things would have played out at his Tulsa, Okla., rally if, instead of removing signs from seats asking participants to social distance, his campaign had left up the signs and handed out MAGA masks to everyone who entered. Rather than fending off criticism about how the rally was a third empty, the arena would have been filled to its socially distanced capacity with a sea of Trump supporters wearing MAGA masks. (Marc A. Thiessen, 7/23)

The New York Times: Why Can’t Trump’s America Be Like Italy?
Although Donald Trump keeps boasting that we’ve had the best coronavirus response in the world, and some credulous supporters may actually believe him, my guess is that many people are aware that our handling of the virus has fallen tragically short compared with, say, that of Germany. It may not seem surprising, however, that German discipline and competence have paid off (although we used to think that we were better prepared than anyone else to deal with a pandemic). But how can America be doing so much worse than Italy? (Paul Krugman, 7/23)

CNN: Trump's Briefings Were Meant To Show Him In Charge -- Now They Are Becoming Absurd 
President Donald Trump says the country is doing great in a pandemic that just infected its four millionth US victim and is killing 1,000 people a day. But his claim is based on a brazen confidence trick, requiring Americans to ignore his responsibility for the spike in the southern and western states as he claims credit for the success of northeastern states that suppressed the disease after not heeding his advice to reopen before the virus was under control. (Stephen Collinson, 7/24)

Nashville Tennessean: We Can't COVID-19 Delays Lead To A Cancer Crisis In America
A lot has been said about how cancer doesn’t stop for COVID-19, and now we’re seeing the first estimates of what that might mean. A National Cancer Institute model, examining just breast cancer and colorectal cancer, predicts in excess of 10,000 deaths in the U.S. over the next 10 years due to pandemic-related delays in diagnosis and care. The modeling suggests most of this increase will be felt quickly – in the next two years.  These worrisome trends are on the minds of oncologists across the country, especially as confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to increase nationwide, including at home in Tennessee.  (Dr. Jeff Patton, 7/24)

Modern Healthcare: COVID Only Makes Hard Financial Truths Worse For U.S. Healthcare
The events that turned an everyday trip into the "miracle on the Hudson" don't have a direct parallel in the healthcare policy arena. Unlike that fabled flight, warning lights signaling the financial unsustainability of Medicare, and by extension that of the American healthcare system, have been flashing for years. The Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund has long been in jeopardy. In late 2019, the Medicare board of trustees, in its annual report to Congress, projected that the HI Trust Fund would become insolvent in 2026. But COVID-19 could be the black swan event that takes it down even sooner, all in an environment of massive federal deficit and debt. (Joseph J. Fifer, 7/24)

The Washington Times: Bipartisan Push To Hike Foreign Aid For Coronavirus Relief Makes Strategic Sense
When the last COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, the last schools reopened, the last phase passed through, we will [be left] to sort out a new landscape in the world. Economic power will have shifted. Security concerns will have changed dramatically. A great reckoning of sovereign debt may be in order as the world rebalances after the pandemic. The United States will be in position to emerge from this in even stronger position than before if the help it extends the rest of the world — rebuilding economies, supplying medicines and vaccines, feeding the hungry — is handled effectively. (Brian McNicoll, 7/23)

The Hill: A Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate: Dubious Legality, Faulty Policy 
Though scientists are working tirelessly to create a COVID-19 vaccine, there is growing concern that many people may refuse to take it once one becomes available. According to recent polls,  only half of Americans said they would get a vaccine, and another quarter were on the fence. Some of the communities most at risk from COVID-19 are also the most resistant: Black people account for nearly one-quarter of U.S. COVID-19 deaths, yet 40 percent surveyed said they would refuse a vaccine. Twenty-three percent of Hispanics surveyed said they don’t plan to get vaccinated. Given this current climate, some have called for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for all Americans, including a New York State Bar Association task force. (Y. Tony Yang and Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, 7/23)

Stat: Using A Global Network Of Adaptive Clinical Trials To Fight Covid-19 
Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 can circle the globe with astonishing speed by taking advantage of human networks. The global medical research community couldn’t immediately contain it because it had no comparable network for defense — but we are moving quickly to create one. Employing adaptive clinical trials will help. (Andy Plump and David Reese, 7/23)

The Atlantic: Now We'll Know What The Recession Feels Like
This week, Congress will decimate the economy, in an unfortunately literal sense: It will cut unemployment-insurance payments to more than 25 million people, more than one in 10 American adults. When it does, the coronavirus recession, already historic in its severity, will become far, far worse. (Annie Lowrey, 7/24)