Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Lessons From Other Countries About Moving On, Opening Up; Native Americans Are Once Again Taking Care Of Themselves
The Wall Street Journal: Germany’s New Coronavirus Thinking
A strange thing happened in Germany this week: Covid-19 started spreading a bit faster and officials and the public managed to cope. It’s an important benchmark for other governments as they allow their own economies to emerge from viral hibernation.Scientists at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the German government’s epidemiological advisory service, calculate that the coronavirus resumed its spread through the population as the country’s lockdown started easing in late April. The reproduction rate, or R0, was above 1 for several days this week, and as high as 1.1 last weekend. That means that each person infected with the virus transmits it on average to 1.1 other people—exponential growth. (5/14)
The New York Times: I Live In Sweden. I'm Not Panicking About The Coronavirus.
It’s noon here, and from the window of my home office I can see my two daughters playing in the yard at their preschool across the street. I reach for my phone to text my best friend, a nurse who lives in Westport, Conn., to share some family trivia I just discovered. She has been hunkered down in her home with her husband and their two young daughters since March. She’s beginning to wonder what they will lose first — their jobs or their minds. “Guess what my great-grandmother’s name was? Jósephina Corona. From Italy,” I write. Unlike my friend, I am not forced to stay at home. No, the coronavirus has not spared Sweden. As of Thursday we’ve had over 28,500 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and at least 3,500 people have died. (Maud Cordenius, 5/15)
The Hill: The Pandemic And Human Rights: State Department's CUR Is Not The Cure
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unprecedented health and economic challenges, in this country as elsewhere. Some governments around the world are using this very real global crisis as an excuse to assert or further consolidate authoritarian power. Decades of progress in global respect for human rights and democratic norms are at stake. (John Shattuck, Harold Hongju Koh, David J. Kramer, Michael Posner and Tom Malinowski, 5/14)
Philadelphia Inquirer: Native Americans Wage War Against New Virus And A 400-Year Disease Of Bias, Ignorance
Remi Bald Eagle wants the rest of America to know one thing about his people, the Cheyenne River Sioux of South Dakota, as their tribal nation battles both the coronavirus and the hostility of an open-for-business GOP governor who wants to stampede both the tribe’s sovereignty and the measures that have largely kept COVID-19 off the reservation. “People think that we’re backward savages and now we’re putting a fence around ourselves,” Bald Eagle, the son of a revered Lakota chief and Army veteran of Afghanistan who now heads intergovernmental affairs for the Cheyenne River Sioux, told me by phone from Butte River, S.D. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” (Will Bunch, 5/14)
The Wall Street Journal: Scenes From The Class Struggle In Lockdown
I think there’s a growing sense that we have to find a way to live with this thing, manage it the best we can, and muddle through. Covid-19 is not going away anytime soon. Summer may give us a break, late fall probably not. Vaccines are likely far off, new therapies and treatments might help a lot, but keeping things closed up tight until there are enough tests isn’t a viable plan. There will never be enough tests, it was botched from the beginning, if we ever catch up it will probably be at the point tests are no longer urgently needed. Meantime, we must ea5/14)se up and manage. We should go forward with a new national commitment to masks, social distancing, hand washing. (Peggy Noonan, 5/14)
Dallas Morning News: It’s Time To Play Sports Again With Fans In The Stands
Long before I entered politics, I was a TV and radio sportscaster. I understand that the fans are as much a part of the game as the players, and there is no reason they can’t attend the games when they begin again. I don’t believe Anthony Fauci should anoint himself as the commissioner of sports and tell the owners, players and fans what to do. Here’s my plan: Large outdoor stadiums can easily accommodate about 30% attendance to start and increase attendance as COVID-19 conditions improve. Around 25,000 fans can make a lot of noise. (Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, 5/15)
Los Angeles Times: Trump Just Raised Rick Bright's Credibility By Attacking Him
President Trump reverted to form on Thursday when reporters asked him about congressional testimony by Dr. Richard Bright, who says the White House removed him from his position leading the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority because he, in essence, stood up to Trump’s political machinery in defense of science.“I watched this guy for a little while this morning,” Trump told reporters as he headed to Allentown, Pa., to tour an Owens & Minor Inc. distribution center for healthcare products.“To me, he’s nothing more than a really disgruntled, unhappy person,” the president said. " (Scott Martelle, 5/14)
CNN: Fox News Dumps Coronavirus Coverage For Anti-Obama Conspiracy Theory
If you woke up from a coma on Wednesday afternoon and flipped on Fox News, or checked the network's website, you'd be forgiven if you had no idea the country is currently grappling with a pandemic killing tens-of-thousands of Americans and leaving millions more unemployed. That's because the conservative network largely ignored the virus in the afternoon and into its prime time programming. After Republican senators released a list of Obama officials who sought to unmask the name of an unidentified American caught in intelligence reports, who turned out to be Michael Flynn, Fox News went all in on the story. (When asked about the lack of coronavirus coverage, a Fox News spokesperson pointed to coverage from earlier in the afternoon.) (Oliver Darcy, 5/14)
Los Angeles Times: Trump Hands Anti-Vaxxers Invite To Smear Coronavirus Vaccine
Convincing vaccine skeptics to trust any future COVID-19 vaccine is going to be a tough job, even if there are mountains of data from clinical trials showing that it is safe and effective. It’s going to be harder still if there is any reason for them to doubt the motives or the method behind the vaccine.With that in mind, I can see two potential trouble spots with Operation Warp Speed, President Trump’s effort to leverage the full force of military, pharmaceutical industry and government resources to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 by the end of the year. (Mariel Garza, 5/15)
Detroit News: End Lockdown In Northern Michigan, U.P.
From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, federal, state and local governments have been faced with hard — if not impossible — decisions affecting lives and livelihoods of nearly every American. Our frontline workers across the state have courageously kept our supply chains, emergency services, hospitals and so many integral parts of our society operational while thousands have fallen ill to the virus across Michigan. Yet, our state faces a unique challenge that many states do not — the road to the White House in 2020 comes directly through the Great Lakes State. In 2016, a mere 10,000 votes in Michigan helped President Donald Trump win the White House. Now, as the coronavirus rages on, Michigan has become a hotspot for political nonsense. While our governor has been auditioning for a vice presidential coronation on the late night talk shows, thousands of my constituents were losing their jobs and waiting weeks just to get through to the unemployment office. (Congressman Jack Bergman, 5/14)
Philadelphia Inquirer: More Transparency Needed From Gov. Wolf As Some Pennsylvanians Protest Pandemic Shutdown
By one of the tragic yardsticks we use now for measuring strong political leadership — the number of people dying — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration can be considered to be doing well. Pennsylvania’s per capita death rate by the coronavirus stands at 31 per 100,000; while certainly too high, it’s a reassuring number when compared with New York’s 140 deaths per 100,000 and New Jersey’s 107. And while Wolf is far from the telegenic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, he has, for the most part, provided a calm and consistent presence throughout the crisis that most people find reassuring. A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll revealed that 72% of Pennsylvania adults approve of the governor’s handling of the crisis. (5/15)
