Viewpoints: Greenlighting A Vaccine Would Harm Public Trust; Don’t Let Down Your Guard This Labor Day Weekend

Boston Globe: No Shortcuts On COVID-19 Vaccine
Another day, another horrifying COVID-19 milestone: This week the number of US cases topped 6 million. The death toll now exceeds 180,000. An equally undeniable truth is that life as we know it, as we once lived it — complete with in-person sporting events and theater and concerts — will not return until there is a safe and effective vaccine, widely trusted and administered. And there’s certainly no shortage of effort. At least a dozen US firms are working on a COVID-19 vaccine. Two are in Phase 3 clinical trials already (one made by Moderna and the other by Pfizer/BioNTech). The so-called Oxford vaccine by AstraZeneca begins trials in the US this week, and Johnson & Johnson’s entry into the Phase 3 field is expected later this month. It is widely anticipated that a vaccine could be available by the end of this year or early 2021. (9/3)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus: Trust In Vaccines Could Turn On A Knife Edge 
Finding a vaccine against Covid-19 that works and can be distributed widely enough to help stop the pandemic is a global priority. Given the urgency, governments are doing all they can to fund research and incentivize firms to ramp up trials — pre-ordering doses, lowering regulatory barriers to market and granting manufacturers immunity from costly future injury-related lawsuits. But when does the scramble for supply start to look like corner-cutting? (Lionel Laurent, 9/4)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Administration Seeks To Ease Pandemic 'Despair' With P.R. Instead Of Science.
The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend more than $250 million on its latest pandemic-related effort — not to combat the coronavirus itself, but to “defeat despair and inspire hope” on the issue. The agency is seeking bids from communications firms for what amounts to a public-relations campaign aimed at coaxing people back out into the workplace and society. This is classic Donald Trump: focusing on public perception rather than the actual problem. If the administration really wants to “defeat despair,” how about finally providing some national leadership on testing and tracing, consistent messaging about masks and all the other things it has so far failed to do? (9/2)

Los Angeles Times: Amid Coronavirus, We Want To Party. Just Don't
It’s Friday, the cusp of a Labor Day weekend that’s going to be a scorcher in much of the state, and we know what you’re thinking. Because we’re thinking it too. It’s been a scary, frustrating and exhausting six months since the novel coronavirus showed up and turned daily life into a sort of dystopian hellscape. As if that weren’t bad enough, the last few months piled on the unpleasantness with massive civil unrest, abnormal and dangerous weather, wildfires and blackouts, presidential campaign nastiness and a sad and painful reckoning over the nation’s entrenched racism. Oh, and more than 185,000 people dead in the U.S. from COVID-19. (9/4)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Refusal To Join A Global Vaccine Effort Epitomizes An America That’s Isolated And Weak
President Trump touted his “America First” philosophy in his inaugural address as making the United States “unstoppable.” But the reality is that under Mr. Trump, the United States is in retreat. His refusal to join a global vaccine effort organized in part by the World Health Organization is yet another example of America isolated and weak.The United States has decided not to participate in a global drive to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine known as the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility. The project is led by the WHO; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a public-private global vaccine development project. The Covax effort now has 172 nations signed up — Japan, Germany and the European Commission have joined — with nine candidate vaccines in its portfolio, four more under discussion and nine others being evaluated for the longer term. (9/2)

Los Angeles Times: Hard Lessons Learned When COVID-19 Hit San Quentin Prison
San Quentin State Prison has been no match for the coronavirus. Of the nearly 3,200 incarcerated individuals, 2,237 have been infected, more than 100 have been hospitalized, and 26 have died. As we stand over the rubble of this public health disaster, still stunned by the events of the past three months, we are compelled to give our account as front-line physicians and offer some hard-earned lessons for preventing similar outbreaks in correctional facilities. (Haiyan Ramirez Battle and John Grant, 9/4)

ABC News: COVID-19 Exacerbates An Already Fractured Opioid Addiction Treatment Framework
Opioid overdoses in the United States have spiked by about 18% during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program at the University of Baltimore. This, after the CDC reported 2019 opioid overdose deaths topped over 71,000, a record high at the time. (Donald J. Mihalek, 9/3)

The Wall Street Journal: The Case Against Covid Tests For The Young And Healthy
Should people who aren’t sick be tested for Covid-19? In August the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention revised its guidance to suggest focusing on the elderly and patients with symptoms. One may be excused for thinking that more testing is always better, but that isn’t true. Anyone can be infected with the virus, but there is a thousandfold difference in the risk of death between the young and the old. Testing strategy should reflect that.There is little purpose in using tests to check asymptomatic children to see if it is safe for them to come to school. When children are infected, most are asymptomatic, and the mortality risk is lower than for the flu. (Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, 9/3)

The Hill: Masks For All Children Aren't Needed Or Ethical 
This fall, many students lucky enough to have in-person schools are returning with required all-day face masks. In one sense, if children have face-to-face school, we should count our blessings, not complain about details. However, decisions about how to reopen often drive whether and when we open, and our nationwide expectation of continuous masking for all students, especially young ones, merits scrutiny. (Patricia Rice Doran, 9/2)

The Washington Post: Chadwick Boseman’s Death From Colon Cancer Compounds The Tragedy Of Racial Disparities In Health Care 
When the movie “Black Panther” was released two years ago with the African American actor Chadwick Boseman as its superhero, I shared in the pride felt by millions of people of color, especially children, who could for the first time see themselves save the world. Boseman’s death last week from colon cancer, a disease that I diagnose and treat, has stirred me to ponder racism, health-care disparities and the mortality of superheroes. (Akash Goel, 9/3)

Stat: Go National To Solve The Country's Looming Nursing Shortage 
Nurses need our support now more than ever as they manage the frontlines in the fight against Covid-19, working long hours and risking their own well-being to care for those who are sick. With nurses’ crucial work in the national spotlight, it is time for policymakers to address the long-anticipated nursing shortage that could leave the U.S. unable to combat the next health crisis. (Jan Jones-Schenk and Michael O. Leavitt, 9/4)

Bloomberg: California Fires: The U.S. Has To Get Serious About Fighting Wildfire
California’s wildfire season is off to a brutal start. Through August, this year already ranks as the second most destructive in the state’s history, with more than 1.6 million acres burned. Sparked by lightning strikes and record heat, fires in northern California have destroyed thousands of structures, wrecked air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area and carried smoke plumes as far away as Nebraska. With hot, dry weather likely to persist until November, the worst may be yet to come.   Looking farther ahead, the picture does not improve. As climate change worsens, wildfires are growing in number, scale and duration across the American West, overwhelming local firefighting capacities and putting property and lives in peril. Since 2017, fires have consumed more than 20 million acres of land and caused at least $50 billion in economic losses. The U.S. needs a coherent national strategy to address the threat. (9/3)