Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Putting A Dollar Value On A Life May Seem Callous But It's Common Practice In The Government
The New York Times: Putting A Dollar Value On Life? Governments Already Do
How much money is a life worth? To many, the answer is so obvious that the question is offensive: Life is immeasurably valuable. No price is too high. During the pandemic, some economists and health experts have said there’s not necessarily a need to weigh the balance between saving lives and saving the economy — that prioritizing fighting the coronavirus will benefit the economy. (Frakt, 5/11)
The Washington Post: As Deaths Mount, Trump Tries To Convince Americans It’s Safe To Inch Back To Normal
In a week when the novel coronavirus ravaged new communities across the country and the number of dead soared past 78,000, President Trump and his advisers shifted from hour-by-hour crisis management to what they characterize as a long-term strategy aimed at reviving the decimated economy and preparing for additional outbreaks this fall. But in doing so, the administration is effectively bowing to — and asking Americans to accept — a devastating proposition: that a steady, daily accumulation of lonely deaths is the grim cost of reopening the nation. (Dawsey, Parker, Rucker and Abutaleb, 5/9)
Politico: Trump Sticks With Positive Messaging As Coronavirus Misery Piles Up
Even as coronavirus deaths mount and infections make inroads into the White House, President Donald Trump is maintaining his upbeat message about reopening the country and restarting the economy. Trump has branded the moment a “transition to greatness,” casting himself as a “wartime president” and Americans as warriors in an epic battle against a disease for which there is still no vaccine. (Cook, 5/11)
ABC News: White House, Birx Now Say Detailed CDC Reopening Guidelines 'In The Editing Process'
The White House on Friday echoed Dr. Deborah Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator, who said she's still working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on detailed reopening guidelines for states during the pandemic even though a White House task force official said the guidelines wouldn't be issued because those decisions are up to local officials. "We're working with the CDC on a whole series of products, from how to improve community mitigation, what to do about contact tracing, how to improve surveillance, and certainly these more detailed guidelines about child care and camps. Those are still being worked on. No one has stopped those guidelines. We're still in editing," she told CNN Thursday night. (5/8)
The Associated Press: Strangeness Of The Day: For Americans, An In-Between Moment
In coming years, when they write the narrative histories of the 2020 pandemic — those paperweight-level volumes that reconstruct these strange days in painstaking and vivid detail — the past week in American life will be a particularly curious moment to unpack. It was unlike what came before, and almost certainly unlike what is still ahead. On social media and in real life, Americans fought fervent pitched battles about getting back to their lives — when, where and under what conditions. Mostly, these battles were verbal. Sometimes, they got physical. (Anthony, 5/11)
The New York Times: How Pandemics End
When will the Covid-19 pandemic end? And how?According to historians, pandemics typically have two types of endings: the medical, which occurs when the incidence and death rates plummet, and the social, when the epidemic of fear about the disease wanes. “When people ask, ‘When will this end?,’ they are asking about the social ending,” said Dr. Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. (Kolata, 5/10)
WBUR: Public Health Experts Say Many States Are Opening Too Soon To Do So Safely
As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. (Fadel, 5/9)
The New York Times: When Will New York City Reopen? The Path Will Be Difficult
Nearly 190,000 people were tested for the coronavirus in New York City over the past two weeks, a record number. The increase in testing, crucial for curbing the outbreak, came as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced plans to hire a small army of 1,000 disease detectives to track down the contacts of every infected New Yorker. The city is also paying for hotels to house people who cannot quarantine in their cramped apartments, and it may use the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens for the same purpose. (Goodman and Rothfeld, 5/10)
The New York Times: For Those Who Must Enforce Coronavirus Lockdowns In California, The Decisions Are Wrenching
How do you enforce a law that tramples the Land of the Free? This is the vexing question confronting Angela Alvarado again and again at her kitchen table, the improvised command post where she fields complaints about businesses and residents violating Santa Clara County’s strict lockdown order. Ms. Alvarado, a veteran prosecutor in the district attorney’s office, monitors two computers and a cellphone, and each time an email alert chimes, in sails another complaint. (Rusch and Smith, 5/11)
Kaiser Health News: How COVID Colors The Salon Experience
Blush Beauty Bar hair salon had been closed 48 days, a consequence of stay-at-home orders to stem the tide of the COVID-19 pandemic. But last Tuesday, the shop in this city of nearly 80,000, about 50 miles north of Denver, was finally reopening after the orders had been partially lifted on May 1. It was booked solid its first day — and for each day the rest of the month. After seven weeks of isolation, it seems people desperately want to get their hair cut. Still, as Colorado attempts a soft reopening, the three-person staff has had to adjust to a new way of doing business. (Hawryluk, 5/11)
Boston Globe: Does Rhode Island Meet The White House Criteria To Reopen? Pretty Much.
Governor Gina M. Raimondo is starting a phased reopening of the Rhode Island economy Saturday, giving rise to the question: Does the state meet the suggested guidelines the White House coronavirus task force says should be met before easing restrictions?Pretty much. The Globe looked at the state’s coronavirus statistics as well as the standards established by Raimondo’s health experts, which they say are tailored to the state’s needs. (Milkovits, 5/8)
The Washington Post: Northern Va. Nowhere Near Ready To Reopen Under Northam Plan, Officials Say
Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine, is nowhere near ready to reopen Friday when Gov. Ralph Northam plans to begin lifting shutdown restrictions, the region’s top elected officials said Sunday, citing the continuing increase in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. (Olivo, Tan and Portnoy, 5/10)
Politico: New Jersey Almost Required Stricter Infection-Control Rules. But Then It Backed Off.
New Jersey officials swore it would never happen again. Almost a year after an adenovirus outbreak killed 11 children at a long-term care facility in northern New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation requiring every such facility in the state to develop outbreak response plans to prevent future tragedies. (Sutton, 5/11)
The Washington Post: Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlor In Cape Cod Pauses After Reopening Because Employees Were Harassed, Owner Says
Friday was supposed to be a step back toward normal for Polar Cave Ice Cream Parlour. Instead, it turned into one of Mark Lawrence’s worst days in close to two decades serving award-winning desserts in Cape Cod. People disregarded a rule to order an hour before pickup and demanded their ice cream anyway, he wrote on his business’s Facebook page. (Knowles and Kornfield, 5/10)
CNN: Our Cities May Never Look The Same Again After The Pandemic
For advocates of walkable, unpolluted and vehicle-free cities, the past few weeks have offered an unprecedented opportunity to test the ideas they have long lobbied for. With Covid-19 lockdowns vastly reducing the use of roads and public transit systems, city authorities -- from Liverpool to Lima -- are taking advantage by closing streets to cars, opening others to bicycles and widening sidewalks to help residents maintain the six-foot distancing recommended by global health authorities. And, like jellyfish returning to Venice's canals or flamingos flocking to Mumbai, pedestrians and cyclists are venturing out to places they previously hadn't dared. (Holland, 5/9)
ABC News: Bringing America Back: The Post-Pandemic Workplace
New cleaning protocols. Employee temperature checks. Color-coding on floors to maintain social distancing. Those are just some of the measures that may come into play as COVID-19 helps shape the next evolution of the office. (Deliso, 5/11)
The New York Times: Concert To Test Whether America Is Ready To Rock Again
Being first is often a good thing, but the opening this week of what could be the first major concert in the United States is turning into a fraught affair. While the world’s big touring acts remain on hiatus or confined to sporadic online performances, Travis McCready, a country-rock singer, is set to take the stage Friday for an intimate acoustic live performance at a venue in Fort Smith, Ark. (Bowley, 5/10)
