AP: 2nd US Virus Surge Hits Plateau, But Few Experts Celebrate
While deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. are mounting rapidly, public health experts are seeing a flicker of good news: The second surge of confirmed cases appears to be leveling off. Scientists aren’t celebrating by any means, warning that the trend is driven by four big, hard-hit places — Arizona, California, Florida and Texas — and that cases are rising in close to 30 states in all, with the outbreak’s center of gravity seemingly shifting from the Sun Belt toward the Midwest. Some experts wonder whether the apparent caseload improvements will endure. (Stobbe and Forster, 7/31)

The Guardian: Coronavirus Deaths Climb In US As New Cases Appear To Plateau 
Over the past week, the average number of deaths a day in the US has climbed more than 25%, from 843 to 1,057. Florida on Thursday reported 253 more deaths, setting its third straight single-day record. The number of confirmed infections nationwide has topped 4.4m. But based on a seven-day rolling average compiled by the Associated Press, daily cases of the coronavirus in the US fell from 67,317 on July 22 to 65,266 on Wednesday, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University. That is a decline of about 3%, though still a very high level of infection. (Walters, 7/31)

The Hill: Arizona, Mississippi, Florida See Record One-Day Coronavirus Deaths 
Arizona, Mississippi and Florida each recorded a record one-day increase in COVID-19 deaths on Thursday, as the south and western regions of the U.S. continue to face a surge in coronavirus cases. The Florida Department of Health reported 9,943 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and 253 deaths, its third-straight single-day record total of COVID-19 fatalities. The state has now reported a total of 461,379 cases and 6,586 deaths since the start of the pandemic. (Moreno, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: California Passes 9,000 Coronavirus-Related Deaths 
California has passed another coronavirus milestone: 9,000 deaths after a major surge in infections.The rising death toll comes as officials are trying to slow outbreaks across the state that followed the reopening of the economy in late May and early June. (Shalby, Lin II and Lee, 7/30)

The New York Times: Children May Carry Coronavirus At High Levels, Study Finds 
It has been a comforting refrain in the national conversation about reopening schools: Young children are mostly spared by the coronavirus and don’t seem to spread it to others, at least not very often. But on Thursday, a study introduced an unwelcome wrinkle into this smooth narrative. Infected children have at least as much of the coronavirus in their noses and throats as infected adults, according to the research. Indeed, children younger than age 5 may host up to 100 times as much of the virus in the upper respiratory tract as adults, the authors found. (Mandavilli, 7/30)

NBC News: Study Says That Young Children Carry As Much Coronavirus In Their Noses As Adults
Dr. Taylor Heald-Sargent, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children's, and her colleagues analyzed data from the diagnostic tests of 145 COVID-19 patients who had mild to moderate cases of the illness. The tests look for pieces of the virus's RNA, or genetic code, to make a diagnosis.The 145 patients were split into three groups: those under 5, those ages 5 to 17, and adults ages 18 to 65. "Children had equal — if not more — viral RNA in their noses compared to older children and adults," Heald-Sargent said. (Edwards, 7/30)

Bloomberg: Are Kids Covid Superspreaders? Your Questions Answered -
Children typically are “superspreaders” of respiratory germs, which makes the fact that they don’t seem to be major transmitters of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 puzzling. They’re relatively absent among hospitalized patients, which initially was thought to be because they’re less likely to become seriously ill once infected. Later studies indicate that those of primary school age, at least, may be less likely to catch the virus in the first place. With schools and universities in the Northern Hemisphere considering reopening in August and September, scientists and public health authorities are trying to determine the role of young people in spreading the pathogen and how best to mitigate that threat. (Gale, 7/29)

In related news —

Fast Company: COVID Fears Are Keeping Parents From Vaccinating Their Kids
In a hidden consequence of the coronavirus pandemic that public health experts find alarming, 16% of parents say their children haven’t received all the vaccinations recommended by their pediatricians, because COVID-19 has made scheduling inconvenient or impossible. The findings, from a national Harris Poll conducted exclusively for Fast Company, suggest that yet another public health crisis could be running parallel to the pandemic. (Meyer, 7/31)

Politico: Trump Calls On Covid-19 Survivors To Donate Blood Plasma 
President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Americans who have recovered from Covid-19 to donate their blood plasma to help stem the pandemic. "If you have had the virus, if you would donate, it would be a terrific thing," Trump said during a roundtable at the American Red Cross headquarters, flanked by his team of coronavirus experts — including NIH leaders Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx. (Brennan, 7/30)

The Hill: Trump Urges Recovered COVID-19 Patients To Donate Plasma 
Convalescent plasma is being studied as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Those who have had the virus and have recovered develop antibodies against the virus in the blood, which could be used to treat those still battling the disease. "We've seen that this is a safe treatment and we're encouraged by the early promising data that we've seen," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn said during a roundtable discussing the coronavirus. (Samuels, 7/30)

In related news —

GMA: Texas Couple Has Saved 68 Lives And Counting With Their COVID-19 Plasma Donations 
As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, one couple is helping to save lives one plasma donation at a time. Brian and Dina Murphy of San Antonio, Texas, have made it their mission to help others by donating plasma to 68 people after both fell ill with the virus in March. "I felt that really, God really saved me and to be a survivor," Dina, 60, told "Good Morning America." "I felt that this is really what he wants me to do -- to help others." (Bernabe, 7/30)

The Hill: Birx Recommends Face Shields In Addition To Masks 
Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, is recommending the use of face shields along with masks to protect against COVID-19 infection. Face shields can offer more protection to the wearer than cloth face coverings, which are intended to prevent asymptomatic individuals from spreading coronavirus to others. (Hellmann, 7/30)

The Hill: Fauci Says Eye Protection Can Help Prevent Spread Of Coronavirus 
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Wednesday that the U.S. could eventually reach a point where it recommends the use of eye goggles to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. During an interview with ABC News medical correspondent Jennifer Ashton, Fauci was asked whether the U.S. would one day recommend eye protection due to the pandemic. "You know, it might," Fauci said, noting that it would offer an added layer of protection. (Wise, 7/30)

ABC News: Face Shields Can't Replace Masks, Experts Say, But Some Hope They Work As Last Resort 
A number of the nation's top public health officials have said in recent days that Americans searching for extra layers of protection against the novel coronavirus while out in public may want to try face shields -- clear pieces of plastic that cover the face and can further prevent respiratory droplets from spreading when worn over a mask. "If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, told ABC News' Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jen Ashton on Wednesday. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House task force coordinator, made similar statements about the benefits of face shields on Fox News on Thursday. (Rubin, 7/31)

Also —

The New York Times: Fauci To Testify Before Congress On Coronavirus Response 
Two days after U.S. deaths surpassed 150,000, three familiar federal health officials, including Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, will return to Capitol Hill to testify in front of a new audience: the House’s special select committee investigating the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, will be joined on Friday morning by Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for health and the administration’s point person on coronavirus testing. (7/30)

CNN: The US Missed A Chance To Control Outbreak. Now It's 'Impossible To Predict' How Long The Pandemic Will Last, Fauci Says 
Without a national effort to adhere to preventative measures, the nation's top infectious disease doctor said, it will be impossible to predict how much longer the Covid-19 pandemic will last in the United States. The US is seeing a resurgence of coronavirus infections after states began reopening their economies, with the number of cases now at more than 4.4 million and the death toll at 152,070, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (Holcombe, 7/31)

The Hill: Trump Testing Czar Says 56 Percent Of COVID-19 Results Coming Back Within Three Days 
The Trump administration official in charge of the United States's COVID-19 testing strategy said Thursday backlogs are improving and most lab results are coming back within three days or less. COVID-19 outbreaks in the south and west have strained laboratory testing capacity, leading to turnaround times of several days or even weeks, hampering efforts to contain the spread of the virus. (Hellmann, 7/30)

AP: Virus Testing Turnaround Times Reveal Wide Disparity
Cameron Settles was swabbed for COVID-19 in mid-June at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando and it took him eight days to get the results. “They originally told him that it would be five days,” said Jenna Settles, his wife. “Then when he went to log in, it said six days, then seven days. He eventually had to call and wait on hold for three or four hours to get his result.” (Lush, 7/31)

AP: Tyson Foods To Increase Virus Testing In US Meat Plants
Tyson Foods says it plans to administer thousands of coronavirus tests per week at its U.S. facilities under an expanded effort to protect workers and keep plants running. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., will randomly test employees who have no symptoms, as well as those with symptoms. Workers will also be tested if they were near someone who tested positive or displayed symptoms. (Durbin, 7/30)

In other news related to testing and reporting —

NPR: New Trump COVID-19 Hospitalization Data System Is Not Faster Nor More Complete 
Earlier this month, when the Trump administration told hospitals to send crucial data about coronavirus cases and intensive care capacity to a new online system, it promised the change would be worth it. The data would be more complete, transparent, and an improvement over the old platform run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, administration officials said. Instead, the public data hub created under the new system is updated erratically and is rife with inconsistencies and errors, data analysts say. (Huang and Simmons-Duffin, 7/31)

AP: Trump Offers, Democrats Reject Fix For $600 Jobless Benefit
With aid expiring, the White House offered a short-term extension Thursday of a $600 weekly unemployment benefit that has helped keep families and the economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Democrats rejected it, saying President Donald Trump’s team failed to grasp the severity of the crisis. Democratic leaders panned the idea in late-night talks at the Capitol, opting to keep the pressure on for a more sweeping bill that would deliver aid to state and local governments, help for the poor and funding for schools and colleges to address the pandemic. Without action, the benefit runs out Friday. (Taylor and Mascaro, 7/31)

The Hill: Democrats Reject Short-Term Deal Ahead Of Unemployment Deadline 
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said on Thursday night that Democrats rejected a short-term deal as negotiators remain at loggerheads over the next coronavirus relief bill. "We made a proposal for a short-term deal. And as of now they've repeated they don't want to do that," Mnuchin told reporters after a nearly two-hour meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and Meadows. (Carney, 7/30)

In related news —

The Washington Post: Public Health Experts Issue Urgent Call For Change Of Course As U.S. Economy Tanks 
Public health experts called for urgent new measures Thursday to halt the spread of the coronavirus amid warnings the U.S. economy is in a historic and devastating contraction as covid-19 is killing Americans at the rate of about one every minute. The stock market took a dive after the Commerce Department reported the economy shrank by 9.5 percent in the second quarter, the biggest recorded decline since the government began keeping track 70 years ago. The government also reported jobless claims climbing again last week by 1.4 million, another sign the recovery is fizzling. GDP shrank at an annual rate of 32.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. (Morello, 7/30)

The Hill: GOP Lawmakers Comply With Pelosi's Mask Mandate For House Floor 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) new mask requirement for the House floor had its intended effect Thursday: For once, there was effectively universal compliance. The new requirement came after Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) tested positive for the coronavirus the day before, rattling lawmakers and staff across the Capitol complex. (Marcos, 7/30)

The New York Times: Louie Gohmert’s Coronavirus Case Reveals A Dangerous Reality In Congress 
Representative Louie Gohmert, a mask-shunning Republican from Texas, might never have known he had the coronavirus had he not had a mandatory rapid test at the White House in line with its strict protocols put in place to protect President Trump. So when he tested positive this week, prompting alarm and anger on Capitol Hill, his case exposed a dangerous reality that lawmakers, aides and other staff members have quietly fretted over for months: that Congress, which is tasked with shepherding the nation through the pandemic, itself lacks consistent procedures for protecting its members and its work force. (Fandos and Edmondson, 7/30)

Politico: The Congressional Underclass Erupts In Fury After Gohmert Gets Covid-19
The revelation Wednesday that Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, a renegade lawmaker known for stalking the halls of Congress without a mask, tested positive for Covid-19 has unleashed a fusillade of anger on Capitol Hill — a sudden release of built-up tension over how the institution has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic within the confines of its own workplace. For months, the leaders of Congress have allowed lawmakers to enter the Capitol without being screened for the deadly virus, rejecting an offer from the White House to provide rapid testing while trusting that the thousands who work across the massive complex of offices, meeting rooms and hallways will behave responsibly. (Palmer, 7/30)

In other news on Republicans and mask-wearing —

The New York Times: Will Herman Cain’s Death Change Republican Views On The Virus And Masks? 
The death of Herman Cain, attributed to the coronavirus, has made Republicans and President Trump face the reality of the pandemic as it hit closer to home than ever before, claiming a prominent conservative ally whose frequently dismissive attitude about taking the threat seriously reflected the hands-off inconsistency of party leaders. Mr. Cain, a former business executive and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, had an irreverent, confrontational style that mirrored the president’s own brand of contrarian politics. (Peters, 7/30)

ABC News: Trump In Trouble As Nearly Two-Thirds Of Americans Disapprove Of His Handling Of COVID-19, Protests, Russia: POLL 
Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of President Donald Trump's handling of three major challenges facing the country -- the coronavirus pandemic, nationwide unrest over racial inequality and relations with Russia -- in a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, a sign of the obstacles that his reelection bid faces just three months before Election Day. With the White House confronting the most significant reckoning on race since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the worst public health crisis in a century, and a hostile Russia reminiscent of the Cold War, Americans have little confidence in the job Trump is doing in all three of these major areas. (Karson, 7/31)

NBC News: Biden Slams Trump, McConnell For 'Political Games' With Further Coronavirus Aid
Joe Biden on Thursday accused President Donald Trump and top Senate Republicans of “playing political games” with a new round of coronavirus pandemic aid to Americans. Speaking to the American Federation of Teachers’ virtual convention Thursday, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee slammed the White House and other Republicans for not doing enough to provide financial relief to workers in frontline fields, like teachers. (Edelman, 7/30)

AP: Trump Vs. Biden: Where They Stand On Health, Economy, More
President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, both promise sweeping progress over the next four years –- via starkly different paths. Trump, like many fellow Republicans, holds out tax reductions and regulatory cuts as economic cure-alls and frames himself as a conservative champion in seemingly endless culture wars. But the president, still trying to fashion himself as an outsider, offers little detail about how he’d pull the levers of government in a second term. Biden, for his part, sounds every bit the Democratic standard-bearer as he frames the federal government as the collective force to combat the coronavirus, rebuild the economy and address centuries of institutional racism and systemic inequalities. A veteran of national politics, Biden also loves framing his deal-making past as proof he can do it again from the Oval Office. (Barrow and Madhani, 7/30)

In other election news —

The Washington Post: Supreme Court Again Splits On Coronavirus-Related Election Issue 
The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down a lower court’s decision that cited the coronavirus pandemic as reason to ease the rules on gathering signatures for a citizens ballot initiative. The case from Idaho was the latest example of the high court deferring to state officials, rather than lower-court judges, in how to deal with election-related issues caused by the outbreak of covid-19. The justices put on hold a lower-court order that Idaho officials either put on the ballot an education initiative promoted by a group called Reform Idaho or allow the group to gather signatures electronically, although the deadline had passed. (Barnes, 7/30)

NPR: Trump Keeps Criticizing Universal Vote By Mail. But The Nation Isn't Doing That
President Trump's claims about why November's election could be marred and illegitimate shifted again Thursday, after he walked back his desire to potentially delay voting. Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is sending out "hundreds of millions of universal mail-in ballots" and also repeated a conspiracy theory about foreign countries counterfeiting ballots. (Parks, 7/31)

AP: Detroit Plans To Keep Poll Workers, Voters Safe From Virus
Elections officials in Detroit are preparing for the challenges that come with voting during a national health crisis that has killed more than 150,000 Americans.All of Detroit’s 503 voting precincts will be open and equipped with sanitizing stations and face masks to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus, City Clerk Janice Winfrey told reporters Thursday. “We know there are some people who don’t want to wear a mask,” she said. “If you don’t want to wear a mask, you don’t have to, and you can still vote a regular ballot.” (Williams, 7/30)

The Kansas City Star: Anti-Medicaid Ad Uses Baseless Claims About Immigrants To Warn Against Expansion
Missouri’s anti-Medicaid expansion committee has sent out mailers claiming baselessly that undocumented immigrants will crowd citizens out of Missouri hospitals if voters endorse a proposed constitutional amendment expanding the state’s Medicaid program. Undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in Medicaid — a fact the mailers neglect to address. (Kelly, 7/30)

KCUR: What's At Stake When You Vote On Medicaid Expansion In Missouri
Missouri voters will decide in the Aug.4 primary whether to expand eligibility in the state’s Medicaid program to include people with higher incomes who may be healthy. Health care advocates have been pushing for expansion for years, which states were given the option to do when the federal Affordable Care Act was approved in 2010. (Smith, 7/30)

NBC DFW: Gov. Abbott Extends Medicaid Flexibilities, Emergency Food Benefits Through August
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will extend Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) flexibilities through Oct. 23 during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Thursday. Abbott also announced the extension of the emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food benefits. HHSC will provide $185 million to more than 961,000 Texas households in August as a result of the extension, Abbott said. (7/30)

Marketplace: Will Telehealth Continue After The Pandemic Passes?
To allow that expansion, federal and state governments temporarily rolled back dozens of regulations around Medicare and Medicaid, prescription access and security. For example, they allowed telehealth to be provided over non-HIPAA-compliant platforms like Zoom. But now that so many people use telehealth, lawmakers don’t want to go back to the way it was before. (Beck, 7/30)

New York: The Unemployed Need Medicaid Expansion
Workers without health insurance have a few options of varying quality. They can shell out for COBRA, which can run families over $1,000 a month, or shop for a new plan on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace exchanges, or apply for Medicaid, an easier process in states that have expanded the program. According to a new poll, many physicians see that last option as a way to help people who are now desperate for health care. On the 55th anniversary of its creation, Medicaid is still a lifesaver. (Jones, 7/30)

In Medicare news —

AP: Medicare Coverage For Alzheimer Brain Scans In Question
A big study to help Medicare officials decide whether to start covering brain scans to check for Alzheimer’s disease missed its goals for curbing health care costs, calling into question whether the pricey tests are worth it. The results announced Thursday are from a $100 million study of more than 25,000 Medicare recipients. It’s been closely watched by private insurers too, as the elderly population grows and more develop this most common form of dementia, which currently has no cure. (Marchione, 7/30)

The Hill: FDA Chief: Hydroxychloroquine Use A Decision Between Doctor And Patient 
Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on Thursday declined to take a definitive stance on whether people should take hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the coronavirus, instead saying that decision should be made between a doctor and a patient. “We had data that when this drug was combined with others, there was some risk associated with that. But the question you’re asking me is a decision between a doctor and a patient,” Hahn said on NBC’s “Today” show. (Axelrod, 7/30)

CNN: Hydroxychloroquine: Researchers Publish Scathing Critique Of Henry Ford Study Touted By The White House 
Researchers on Wednesday published scathing critiques of a study President Trump repeatedly touted on Twitter. That study, published earlier this month in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, claimed to show that hydroxychloroquine saved lives. President Trump tweeted about it enthusiastically. (Cohen, 7/31)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Don’t Fall For This Video: Hydroxychloroquine Is Not A COVID-19 Cure 
Millions of people, including the president of the United States, have seen or shared a video in which a doctor falsely claims there is a cure for the coronavirus, and it’s a medley starring hydroxychloroquine. The video shows several doctors in white coats giving a press conference outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. It persists on social media despite bans from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and it was published by Breitbart, a conservative news site. (Funke, 7/31)

Also —

The Hill: Ohio Pharmacy Board Backtracks, Withdraws Rule Barring Use Of Hydroxychloroquine To Treat Coronavirus
The State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy on Thursday withdrew a rule that would have barred pharmacists, licensed distributors of drugs and medical institutions from prescribing the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus after Gov. Mike DeWine (R) voiced concerns. The state pharmacy board said in a memo on Wednesday that the rule would, in general, prohibit the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19... But the rule quickly met with pushback from DeWine (R), who urged the state board to reconsider the decision the day it went into effect. (Wise, 7/30)

Politico: Vaccine Distribution Will Be ‘Joint Venture’ Between CDC And Pentagon 
Nationwide distribution of any coronavirus vaccine will be a “joint venture” between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which typically oversees vaccine allocation, and the Department of Defense, a senior administration official said today. The Department of Defense “is handling all the logistics of getting the vaccines to the right place, at the right time, in the right condition,” the official said in a call with reporters, adding that CDC will remain in charge of tracking any side effects that emerge post-vaccination and “some of the communications through the state relationships [and] the state public health organizations.” (Owermohle, 7/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Race To Build Covid-19 Vaccine Supply Chains 
Pharmaceutical companies that are racing to develop vaccines for the coronavirus are already working behind the scenes to build the supply chains needed to deliver their drugs to billions of people as rapidly as possible. To serve global demand once a vaccine is approved, a complicated and high-stakes supply chain would kick into gear on a scale that the drug industry has rarely seen. The preparations involve lining up raw materials and factory capacity to manufacture a vaccine in large volumes, and the equipment needed to transport many millions of doses at once through distribution channels that will be subject to tight security and temperature controls. (Chen, 7/30)

The New York Times: Old Vaccines May Stop The Coronavirus, Study Hints. Scientists Are Skeptical. 
Billions of dollars are being invested in the development of vaccines against the coronavirus. Until one arrives, many scientists have turned to tried-and-true vaccines to see whether they may confer broad protection, and may reduce the risk of coronavirus infection, as well. Old standbys like the Bacille Calmette-Guerin tuberculosis vaccine and the polio vaccine appear to help train the immune system to respond to a broad variety of infections, including from bacteria, viruses and parasites, experts say. (Caryn Rabin, 7/29)

ABC News: Johnson & Johnson Sees Promising COVID-19 Vaccine Results After Testing On Monkeys 
The pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson took a step forward with its COVID-19 vaccine candidate Thursday, releasing promising data after testing on monkeys and at the same time announcing the start of clinical testing on humans. According to results published in the scientific journal Nature, scientists found that the vaccine appeared to protect a group of monkeys that were vaccinated, and then later deliberately exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19. The monkeys that were not vaccinated became sick with the infection. (Salzman, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Prominent Hospital Leader Resigns From Moderna Board
Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said Thursday she was resigning from Moderna’s board of directors after the Globe inquired about whether her role at the Cambridge biotech company was a conflict of interest with her hospital’s participation in a large study of Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine that just got underway. The hospital said in a statement Thursday that when Nabel joined Moderna’s board in 2015, Brigham and Women’s parent company put several guardrails in place to prevent a conflict of interest. More safeguards were imposed when the hospital was named one of 87 clinical sites for the late-stage trial trial that began Monday, it said. (Saltzman, 7/30)

Stat: The Drug Industry’s New Tactic In Washington: Calling Trump’s Bluff 
The pharmaceutical industry has sparred with President Trump for four years over drug pricing. Now it’s taking its biggest gamble yet: calling the president’s bluff. The most brazen move came this week: Unlike most CEOs, who jump at the chance to visit the White House, pharmaceutical executives — newly empowered by their high-profile efforts to respond to the coronavirus and fed up with President Trump’s repeated threats — responded to his latest invitation with open contempt. (Florko and Facher, 7/31)

Stat: Cerevel Therapeutics To Raise $445 Million To Develop Brain Drugs 
Cerevel Therapeutics, a Boston neuroscience company spun out from Pfizer in 2018 and led by the well-known CEO Tony Coles, is going public. The method of the public offering is somewhat unusual: Cerevel will raise roughly $445 million by merging with a public shell company launched by the hedge fund Perceptive Advisors in June — that shell company has already raised $130 million — and by raising a private investment from other investors to make up the rest of the amount. (Garde and Herper, 7/30)

In other health industry news —

Stat: Medical Nonprofits Forced To Scale Back As Pandemic Upends Fundraising
Medical charities have long relied on black-tie galas, golf tournaments, and bike-a-thons to fund their operations. But as with so many other in-person events, Covid-19 has cancelled those plans this year, leaving nonprofits with a funding shortfall that has forced them to cut staff, end grant funding, scale back activities, and in at least one case, shut down entirely. (Robbins, 7/31)

The New York Times: A Covid Patient Goes Home After A Rare Double Lung Transplant
The last thing that Mayra Ramirez remembers from the emergency room at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago is calling her family to say she had Covid, was about to be put on a ventilator and needed her mother to make medical decisions for her. Ms. Ramirez, 28, did not wake up for more than six weeks. And then she learned that on June 5, she had become the first Covid patient in the United States to receive a double-lung transplant. On Wednesday, she went home from the hospital. (Grady, 7/30)

AP: COVID Patient Didn't Recognize Body After Double Transplant
A Chicago woman who last month became the nation’s first COVID-19 patient to undergo a double lung transplant said Thursday that she woke up days later, unaware about the surgery and unable to “recognize my body.” Mayra Ramirez said that before she fell ill she was an independent, active person who moved from North Carolina to Chicago in 2014 to work as a paralegal. She said she had an autoimmune condition, but was otherwise healthy. She had gone on a three-mile run shortly before becoming ill and heading for the hospital. “I was told to hurry up (and) change,” she said. (7/31)

Chicago Tribune: ‘Everything Happened So Quickly’: COVID-19 Patients Who Were First In U.S. To Undergo Double Lung Transplants At Northwestern Share Their Stories 
In June, [Mayra] Ramirez became the first COVID-19 patient in the U.S. to undergo a double lung transplant after her lungs were severely damaged by the disease. Ramirez and Brian Kuhns — a Lake Zurich man who was the second COVID-19 patient to receive a double lung transplant — spoke publicly about their experiences for the first time at a news conference at Northwestern on Thursday. Such transplants aren’t right for every critically ill COVID-19 patient, but can be a lifeline for some, said Dr. Ankit Bharat, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director of the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program. (Schencker, 7/30)

In related news —

WJXT/WCWJ: UF Health Shands Has Successful Double-Lung Transplant On COVID-19 Survivor
A first-of-its-kind procedure in the Southeast — a double-lung transplant — by UF Health Shands Hospital has given a COVID-19 survivor a second chance at life. The patient, a man in his 50s from Texas, tested positive for COVID-19 in April and the virus significantly damaged his lungs. Once it became clear that the damage from the virus to the lungs was permanent, a double transplant option was put on the table. UF Health said it was the first successful surgery of its kind in the Southeast region on a patient who has survived COVID-19. (Barney, 7/30)

The Hill: Birx Says State And Local Leaders Should Issue Mask Mandates As Cases Rise 
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said governors in several states experiencing upticks in COVID-19 cases should mandate mask wearing in public. “We believe if the governors and mayors of every locality right now would mandate masks for their communities and every American would wear a mask and socially distance and not congregate in large settings where you can't socially distance or wear a mask, that we can really get control of this virus and drive down cases, as Arizona has done,” Birx said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday morning. (Hellmann, 7/30)

AP: Wisconsin Governor Orders Masks Statewide Amid Virus Surge
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Thursday issued a statewide mask mandate amid a spike in coronavirus cases, setting up a conflict with Republican legislative leaders and some conservatives who oppose such a requirement and successfully sued to kill the governor’s “safer at home” order. Evers, a Democrat, declared a new public health emergency and ordered the wearing of masks for anyone age 5 and up starting on Saturday for all enclosed spaces except a person’s home. The new order also applies to outdoor bars and restaurants, except when people are eating or drinking. (Bauer, 7/30)

AP: North Dakota Reservation Orders Masks After COVID-19 Spike
Tribal leaders on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in northeastern North Dakota are requiring residents to wear masks to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, a rare move in a state where face coverings have not been mandated despite a steady increase in overall cases. The reservation is located primarily in Benson County, which according to The COVID Tracking Project has seen the state’s most new cases per capita in the last two weeks. Area public health workers are worried about the trend after seeing the number of positive tests jump from 16 to 70 since the middle of July. (Kolpack, 7/30)

In other news about mask-wearing —

Los Angeles Times: Men Are Dying Of Coronavirus At Higher Rates In L.A. County 
Men have a mask problem.That is the view of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and health officials, who are urging guys to cover their faces in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Men outside of institutional facilities are dying from COVID-19 at a higher rate than women in Los Angeles County, and recent polling has found that American men are less likely to always wear masks than women. (Money, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Security Guards, Not Retail Workers, Should Be Responsible For Enforcing Mask Rules, Union Leader Says 
As more major U.S. retailers require their customers to wear masks, a growing number of store employees are being confronted by unruly and sometimes violent customers who refuse to comply. Now, the head of the largest union representing retail workers said businesses have unfairly burdened their employees with enforcing mask-wearing policies, to the detriment of workers and customers alike. Employers bear the responsibility to provide a safe workplace, said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who called for companies to hire security staffers to enforce a store’s mask policies or task members of management with the role. (Bellware, 7/30)

ABC News: Few Medical Reasons For Not Wearing A Face Mask 
As coronavirus cases surge across the U.S., more than 30 states now require people to wear face masks in public. Several states even mandate masks while exercising outdoors. The orders have triggered a wave of backlash and bogus claims about legal and medical exemptions. But medical experts tell ABC News Live that people with concerns about masks should talk with their doctors because in nearly all cases -- even those with autism, PTSD or chronic lung disease -- wearing a face covering makes most medical sense and will not cause harm. (Dwyer, 7/30)

The Hill: Trump Says He Can't Assure School Safety Amid Pandemic: 'Can You Assure Anybody Of Anything?' 
President Trump, who has pressed for schools to open this fall despite the coronavirus pandemic, said Thursday that he couldn't offer assurances that holding in-person classes would be safe. “Can you assure anybody of anything?” Trump said in response to a question about how he could assure people that schools can safely be reopened. At the same time, Trump falsely claimed that young people are “almost immune” to the virus. (Hellmann, 7/30)

AP: Minnesota Schools Get Some Flexibility On Back-To-School
Minnesota state officials on Thursday unveiled a plan to reopen schools this fall that gives districts some flexibility to toggle between in-person and online learning, but reserves the right for the state to step in if the coronavirus gets out of control. Gov. Tim Walz acknowledged the importance of schools and the value of in-person learning, but said the state’s top priority is safety. Districts will work with the state Health and Education departments to determine whether to use in-person instruction, online learning or a hybrid model, and will have the ability to become more or less restrictive depending on the virus. (Ibrahim, 7/30)

Also —

The New York Times: The Pandemic’s Toll On Children With Special Needs And Their Parents 
Franscheska Eliza has a 9-year-old son with autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and sensory issues. Before the pandemic, he was in a program in the Bedford, Mass., public schools designed for children with autism. This meant her son, Rafael, was in a special classroom, but also was a member of the regular third-grade class, and could join them for morning meeting or some academic subjects. He had a dedicated aide who worked with him when he got anxious. This was his first year in the school, and the beginning of the year was tough, but by March, things were going well.Then came Covid-19. (Klass, 7/27)

The New York Times: Worried Your Kid Is Falling Behind? You’re Not Alone 
The other day my mother gave me a book called “What Your Second Grader Should Know.” A quick flip through it revealed that a few weeks from now, my son would need to label an insect’s thorax, know the names of a dozen Greek gods and discuss the role of Dolley Madison in the War of 1812. In the wake of some serious distance learning burnout, the most educational thing we’d done all summer had been a contact-free library pickup of the latest “Captain Underpants.” I suddenly wished we’d done a little more. If you’re concerned that remote learning may have set your child back academically, brace yourself: It probably has. (Burns, 7/30)

USA Today: COVID Online School Impacts Kids' Mental Health. What Can Teachers Do?
When her South Carolina high school went online this spring, Maya Green struggled through the same emotions as many of her fellow seniors: She missed her friends. Her online assignments were too easy. She struggled to stay focused. But Green, 18, also found herself working harder for the teachers who knew her well and cared about her. "My school doesn't do a ton of lessons on social and emotional learning," said Green, who just graduated from Charleston County School of the Arts, a magnet school, and is headed to Stanford University. (Richards, 7/31)

CNN: First Dog To Test Positive For Covid-19 In The US, Buddy The German Shepherd, Has Died 
Buddy, a 7-year-old German shepherd from Staten Island, New York, was the first dog to test positive for the coronavirus in the United States. He died on July 11 after a three-month illness, according to National Geographic. It's unclear whether Buddy died from complications of the coronavirus, which he most likely caught from his owner, Robert Mahoney, who tested positive this spring, or whether he died from lymphoma. (Lin Erdman, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Prison Housed COVID-Infected Inmate With Uninfected, He Says 
Midway through explaining how an inmate who’d tested positive for COVID-19 had been placed in his unit at Chuckawalla Valley State Prison, Gary Croom paused. “Here,” he told a reporter. “I’m going to give him the phone. ”Saddled with guilt, worried he might touch off a resurgence of the disease that swept through the prison on the eastern edge of Riverside County a month ago, Alejandro Cantu took the phone. (Ormseth, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Physical Distancing In COVID-19 Pandemic Varies Strongly By Income, Research Finds
A modeling study published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has revealed another burden for low-income communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic: less ability to limit virus exposure by staying home and physical distancing. Researchers at the University of California at Davis who analyzed mobile device location data from January to April of this year found that, in a complete reversal, wealthy communities went from being the most mobile before the coronavirus pandemic to the least, while residents of poorer neighborhoods went from least mobile to most mobile. (7/30)

CNN: San Diego Gym That Defied A Shutdown Order Linked To A Coronavirus Outbreak 
A San Diego gym that was shut down after operating in defiance of a county health order to close last week is now linked to an outbreak of coronavirus. It isn't clear how many cases have been linked to "The Gym" in California, but county health officials say an outbreak is considered three or more cases from different households stemming from a specific location. "The Gym" did not immediately respond to a CNN request for comment. (Holcombe and Selva, 7/31)

CNN: Why Some People Who Haven't Had Covid-19 Might Already Have Some Immunity 
The immune systems of some people who have not been exposed to the novel coronavirus could have some familiarity with the pathogen -- possibly helping to reduce the severity of illness if that person does get Covid-19, a new study suggests. The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that among a sample of 68 healthy adults in Germany who had not been exposed to the coronavirus, 35% had T cells in their blood that were reactive to the virus. (Howard, 7/30)

CIDRAP: Study Shows Higher COVID-19 Exposure Rates In Pregnant Black, Hispanic Women
Pregnant black and Hispanic women at two Philadelphia hospitals were five times more likely than their white and Asian peers to have been exposed to COVID-19, according to a study published yesterday in Science Immunology. Overall, 80 of 1,293 pregnant women (6.2%) who went into labor from Apr 4 to Jun 3 tested positive for coronavirus antibodies. But 9.7% of black women (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.3% to 12.5%) and 10.4% of Hispanic women (95% CI, 5.7% to 17.1%) tested positive, versus only 2.0% of white women (95% CI, 0.9% to 3.8%) and 0.9% of Asian women (95% CI, 0.0% to 5.1%). (7/30)

Also —

Stateline: Patients Fled Primary Care During COVID
The pandemic has wreaked havoc on all levels of medicine, not least of which are primary care doctors, arguably the front line in trying to keep Americans healthy and out of hospitals. While many practices, primary care and otherwise, have seen business pick up significantly since the lows of March and April, few have come close to full recovery, which is perilous for practices that operate with low margins in the best of times. The crisis has pushed many primary care practitioners, especially those in small, unaffiliated practices like Swegler’s, to the brink, threatening them with insolvency. (Ollove, 7/31)

Kaiser Health News: Avoiding Care During The Pandemic Could Mean Life Or Death
These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She’s a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she’s months late for a cancer follow-up. But Warren won’t go near a hospital, even though she says her wrist hurts every day. “If I go back to the hospital, I’ll get COVID. Hospitals are full of COVID people,” says Warren, a former film director and author of the book “How to Make Your Audience Fall in Love With You.” (Glionna, 7/31)

Reuters: Seasonal Flu Reports Hit Record Lows Amid Global Social Distancing
Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signalling that the measures are having an unprecedented impact on other communicable diseases. In China, where the earliest wide-scale lockdown measures began, new reports of diseases including mumps, measles and some sexually transmitted diseases, have declined significantly, though influenza cases have seen the sharpest drop off. (Cadell, 7/31)

The Wall Street Journal: In Lawsuit, More Than 50 Former University Of Michigan Students Say Doctor Sexually Abused Them 
Former University of Michigan students, including more than two dozen football players, filed a lawsuit against the school on Thursday, alleging a prominent team doctor sexually abused them during physical exams while coaches and administrators turned a blind eye. The 53 plaintiffs allege that Dr. Robert Anderson, who worked at the school for nearly 40 years until 2003, molested them and that the behavior was reported to famed football coach Bo Schembechler and athletic director Don Canham, among others. (Belkin, 7/30)

The New York Times: Aboard The Diamond Princess, A Case Study In Aerosol Transmission 
In a year of endless viral outbreaks, the details of the Diamond Princess tragedy seem like ancient history. On Jan. 20, one infected passenger boarded the cruise ship; a month later, more than 700 of the 3,711 passengers and crew members had tested positive, with many falling seriously ill. The invader moved as swiftly and invisibly as the perpetrators on Agatha Christie’s Orient Express, leaving doctors and health officials with only fragmentary evidence to sift through. Ever since, scientists have tried to pin down exactly how the coronavirus spread throughout the ship. And for good reason: The Diamond Princess’ outbreak remains perhaps the most valuable case study available of coronavirus transmission — an experiment-in-a-bottle, rich in data, as well as a dark warning for what was to come in much of the world. (Carey and Glanz, 7/30)

ABC News: Ventilation Systems Can Change Spread Of Potential Viral Particles Indoors: Study 
A new study at the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering showed ventilation systems can change the spread of aerosolized and potentially virus-containing particles in common indoor areas. The study looked at results in an elevator, a supermarket and a classroom. (Carrington and Salzman, 7/30)

ABC News: As Temperatures Rise With Coronavirus Cases, Experts Eye Impact Of Air Conditioning 
As the summer heat and new cases of the novel coronavirus continue to surge in much of the country, scientists are warily watching what potential impact retreating into air conditioned spaces may be having on the further spread of the virus. Under normal circumstances, health care professionals encourage the public to seek refuge from high temperatures in the comfort of an air-conditioned space. But these are hardly normal circumstances. (Bhatt and Bruggeman, 7/31)

AP: MLB Postpones Blue Jays-Phillies Series After More Positives
Major League Baseball has postponed this weekend’s scheduled series between Toronto and Philadelphia because of concerns about the coronavirus after two Phillies staffers tested positive. “Major League Baseball will coordinate with health experts and the Major League Baseball Players Association in planning for the Phillies’ resumption of play, and will provide further scheduling updates as necessary,” the league said in a statement Thursday. (Seiner, 7/30)

GMA: Baby In NICU Sees Parents' Faces For 1st Time Thanks To Innovative Masks 
When Aria Mason first laid eyes on her baby girl three days after giving birth prematurely, she couldn't help breaking out in song. "I was wondering if she'd know I was her mom, we didn't have that moment at delivery," Mason explained. "She took my hand once I started and her pulse evened out, other vital signs came up instantly. That meant the world to me." (Brooksbank, 7/31)

The Washington Post: An Infant Died After Her Mother Drank Beer And They Shared A Bed. Maryland’s Highest Court Said It Wasn’t A Crime. 
The Maryland woman had just wrapped up a virtual happy hour on Facebook, drinking a couple of beers on the porch while her infant daughter and 4-year-old slept. She changed the baby’s diaper, pumped breastmilk, took out the trash and locked the doors before climbing into bed next to her baby girl. By morning, Muriel Morrison’s daughter was listless, her lips blue. Morrison was charged and convicted by a jury in the co-sleeping death of her infant, who suffocated while she slept beside her mother.Maryland’s highest court this week threw out Morrison’s 2013 conviction and 20-year sentence. ... The judges were not prepared to criminalize co-sleeping in the same bed as an infant. (Marimow, 7/30)

In news on the West Nile virus —

The Hill: Austin Identifies Area's First 'Probable Human Case' Of West Nile In Two Years 
Health officials in Austin, Texas, on Thursday identified the area's first "probable human case" of West Nile virus since 2018. The Texas Department of State Health Services had last week announced the state's first human West Nile case, in Travis County.Austin Public Health (APH) said in a press release that it's the first time in two years the department has found mosquitoes carrying the virus in Travis County. (Deese, 7/30)

AP: Oregon Reports Decline In Weekly COVID-19 Cases, 5 Deaths
Oregon officials reported on Thursday the state’s first decline in weekly coronavirus cases since early May. During the week of July 20 through July 26, the number of cases in the state decreased by 7% from the previous week, the Oregon Health Authority said. (Cline, 7/30)

The Hill: Hawaii Registers A Record 124 New Coronavirus Cases In A Single Day 
Hawaii posted on Thursday its highest-yet number of new COVID-19 cases as the rate of infections continues to surge. Hawaii News Now reports that the state saw 124 new cases on Thursday, a jump from 108 on Wednesday. That brought the state's seven-day average of new cases up to 71, a jump from where it sat at 61 on Wednesday. (Bowden, 7/30)

AP: New Mexico Extends Stay-At-Home Order As Coronavirus Surges
New Mexico has extended its stay-at-home health order with minor revisions through the end of August in response to a surge in coronavirus cases, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday. The governor credited the surge for scuttling plans to roll back restrictions on everything from visiting loved ones in special care facilities to reopening in-person classes in public schools. (Attanasio, 7/31)

AP: Oklahoma Coronavirus Cases Rise By 1,117, Deaths Up By 13
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday said he is allocating $10 million dollars from federal funding the state received to address the coronavirus to provide personal protective equipment to schools as he encourages them to reopen for in-person classes. “We will be providing 1.7 million resuable masks, that’s two per teacher and two per student, 42,000 clear face shields, 1.2 million pairs of disposable gloves and 1.2 million disposable gowns,” to public schools statewide by Aug. 14, Stitt said. (Miller, 7/30)

AP: Indiana Reports 13 More COVID-19 Deaths, 970 More Cases
Thirteen more people have died from COVID-19 in Indiana and 970 more cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in the state, health officials said Thursday. The new COVID-19 fatalities occurred since Monday and pushed Indiana’s total to 2,946, including confirmed and presumed cases, since the state’s first death was recorded in mid-March, the Indiana State Department of Health said. (7/30)

CIDRAP: Study: Travel To 3 Countries May Have Seeded COVID-19 Pandemic
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers who conducted web-based infection surveillance during the first 11 weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic have found that nearly two-thirds of the first confirmed cases in each affected country outside of mainland China had a history of travel to Italy, China, or Iran. Findings of the study, published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, show that from Dec 31, 2019, to Mar 10, 2020, 32,459 cases were identified in 99 countries outside of mainland China. Seventy-five of the 99 countries reported their first cases in people with a travel link to another country, with 27% of those cases originating in Italy, 22% in China, and 11% in Iran. (Van Beusekom, 7/30)

The Washington Post: Excess Deaths During Europe’s Coronavirus Outbreak Were Highest In England, According To U.K. Analysis 
England topped Europe's grim league table for highest levels of excess deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new analysis published Thursday by Britain's Office for National Statistics. The analysis of more than 20 European countries — including the four nations of the United Kingdom — found that England’s death rate was 7.55 percent higher this year through the end of May, compared with its five-year average. Spain was next, with a 6.65 percent increase over its average. Scotland was 5.11 percent above its average and Belgium 3.89 percent. (Adam, 7/30)

AP: UK Scientists To Immunize Hundreds With Coronavirus Vaccine
Scientists at Imperial College London say they are immunizing hundreds of people with an experimental coronavirus vaccine in an early trial after seeing no worrying safety problems in a small number vaccinated so far. Dr. Robin Shattock, a professor at the college, told The Associated Press that he and colleagues had just finished a very slow and arduous process of testing the vaccine at a low dose in the initial participants and would now expand the trial to about 300 people, including some over age 75. (7/30)

The Washington Post: With Virus Rule Flip-Flops, Hong Kong People Ponder Whether Their Leaders Are Out To Lunch 
As a ban on dine-in eating took effect here Wednesday, a construction union asked members on Facebook where they were having their lunch. One said he was "having a side of sawdust" and posted a photo of his takeout box at his building site. Another wrote that his bread got wet after a sudden downpour, so he abandoned his meal. Several shared photos of workers huddled under walkways or on sidewalks, eating on the ground as people passed by. (Mahtani, Liang and Ho Kilpatrick, 7/30)

CNN: Bolsonaro: Brazilian President Says He Has 'Mold' In His Lungs After Covid-19 Infection
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday he felt weak and might have "mold in the lung" having spent weeks in isolation after catching Covid-19. In his first Facebook live video since recovering from Covid-19, Bolsonaro said: "I've just taken a blood exam. I was a bit weak yesterday. They have also found a bit of an infection. I'm taking antibiotics now. It must have been those 20 days inside the house, we catch other things. I've caught mold, mold in my lungs. It must be that." (Pedroso and Woodyatt, 7/31)

And updates on the number of COVID-19 cases across the globe —

Reuters: Poland Reports Record High Virus Cases For Second Day 
Poland reported its highest number of new daily coronavirus cases since the global pandemic started for the second day in a row on Friday, with 657 new cases, according to the Health Ministry. The ministry reported seven new deaths, with a total of 45,688 reported coronavirus cases and 1,716 deaths. (7/31)

Reuters: Russia's Coronavirus Case Tally Nears 840,000 
Russia reported 5,482 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Friday, pushing its national tally to 839,981, the world’s fourth largest caseload. Officials said 161 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 13,963. (7/31)

Reuters: Philippines Records 4,063 New Coronavirus Cases, Southeast Asia's Highest Jump For Second Day
The Philippine health ministry on Friday confirmed 4,063 novel coronavirus infections, reporting the highest daily case increase in Southeast Asia for a second straight day. In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed infections have risen to 93,354, while deaths increased by 40 to 2,023. (7/31)

Politico: Can America Benefit From Covid? Ask 14th-Century Florence
The Covid pandemic has wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy. Around 33 million unemployment claims have been made, and hunger stalks millions more Americans—and that’s aside from the ravages from the disease itself.Yet big disruptions can bring big opportunities. Thinkers have already been considering how the world could emerge better, or smarter, from the Covid plague. And there’s real historical precedent for this: The Italian Renaissance may have begun before the 14th-century plague known as the Black Death, but there’s a strong case the disease—in both its ravages and the social changes it enabled—helped accelerate its progress, especially in the city of Florence. For a time, Florence’s economy bounced back with remarkable social mobility, and it became Europe’s premier center of artistic, cultural and scientific creativity. (Soll, 7/25)

Politico: How Covid-19 Could Give Kim Jong Un A Doomsday Weapon 
North Korea recently surprised the world by announcing it is developing a Covid-19 vaccine, joining a high-stakes race to show off its scientific chops. But experts increasingly believe the famously secretive Kim Jong Un could also have a more nefarious goal in mind: Using the humanitarian crisis to beef up his biological weapons arsenal. North Korea “could use this legitimate vaccine aspiration as a way to enhance their biotechnology capability,” says Andrew Weber, who was assistant secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs during the Obama administration. ”They could buy equipment from Western or Chinese sources that would be necessary for their vaccine effort, and then next year they could turn around and use it to produce biological weapons.” (Ralph, 7/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Foods That Battle Stress During The Coronavirus Pandemic 
Are you anxious? Angry? Feeling depressed?Consider what you eat. For more than a decade, studies have shown that a healthy diet—high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and other lean protein—can help fight depression. Now, emerging research in the nascent field of nutritional psychiatry suggests that certain foods can help manage a broader range of emotional challenges, such as anxiety, anger and insomnia. And while the most established treatments for mental-health conditions such as depression remain antidepressants and talk therapy, researchers say food can also be a very useful tool. (Bernstein, 7/27)

The Washington Post: Covid-19 Lockdown Nostalgia: It Was A Scary Time, But I Will Miss Our Enforced Family Togetherness.
I sent a text to an old college friend in April, inquiring how she was faring under the covid-19 stay-at-home order then in place, and I confided in her that I’d be sad to see it end. I liked that everything had slowed down, that for a brief time, I’d stepped off the conveyor belt I’d been on that made my life feel less meaningful. My friend, a 57-year-old writer in New York, wrote back immediately: “Wow. Will not be sad when it’s over. It’s a dark cloud hanging over life, and I feel panicked and dread for people in the restaurant industry, tourism, etc., and the domino effect that will have on us all." (Chesler, 7/26)

The New York Times: I Was A Screen Time Expert. Then The Coronavirus Happened. 
Before the pandemic, I was a parenting expert. It was a cushy gig. In 2019, I boarded 34 flights. I checked into nice hotels, put on makeup and fitted jewel-toned dresses, strode onto stages large and dinky, and tried to project authoritative calm. I told worried parents about the nine signs of tech overuse, like ditching sleep for screens. I advised them to write a “family media contract” and trust, but verify, their tweens’ doings online. While I was on the road, my two daughters were enjoying modest, cute little doses of Peppa Pig and Roblox, in between happily attending school, preschool, after-school activities and play dates, safe in the care of their father, grandmother and our full-time nanny. Now, like Socrates, I know better. I know that I know nothing. (Kamenetz, 7/27)

And other good reads —

The New York Times: With Eating Disorders, Looks Can Be Deceiving 
Appearances, as I’m sure you know, can be deceiving. In one all-too-common example, adolescents and young adults with disordered eating habits or outright eating disorders often go unrecognized by both parents and physicians because their appearance defies common beliefs: they don’t look like they have an eating problem. One such belief is that people with anorexia always look scrawny and malnourished when in fact they may be of normal weight or even overweight, according to recent research at the University of California, San Francisco. (Brody, 7/27)

The New York Times: Me, My Relationship And PTSD 
Sam and I began the conversation partly in jest. His co-worker had just eloped in Hawaii, and as we scrolled through their photos I gave him an elbow to the ribs and said in a singsong voice, “Well, maybe we should go to Hawaii, too!” Later we spoke about it in more thoughtful tones, and as it turned out, neither of us had ever been and we both had always wanted to go to Hawaii. I raised my eyebrows and widened my grin. “I think we should do it.” “Not because it’s time to get married,” I added, loudly. “But because we have the perfect opportunity to do it.” (Conner, 7/25)

The New York Times: The Way We Used To Play 
As kids, my seven siblings and I would run around outside under the night sky, the summer-hard soles of our bare feet the only shoes we needed, playing a game we made up called “War”. I grew up as one of a legion of kids living in Cedar Hills, Texas. We were also home schooled, so we were weird, and my world was made up of home and church. But in the evening we would play with the neighborhood kids, the ones with backpacks and clean shoes who waved to us on their way to and from school every day. (Lenz, 7/21)

The Atlantic: The Teaching That Works for Traumatized Students
When Ben started flipping desks in the classroom, his teacher Heather Boyle ushered the rest of her first-grade class into the hallway for safety. Things had begun to unravel a few moments earlier, when Ben—whose real name isn’t being used, to protect his privacy—struggled with a math lesson. He crawled under desks, bumping into other children’s legs. When his classmates complained, Boyle asked him to come out. “I don’t know how to do this stupid math,” he screamed. (McKenna, 7/28)

Arizona Republic: The Navajo Nation’s Wait For Water Persists With Few Answers
The line forms at the water spigot before dawn. In Chevrolets, Fords and Toyotas, men and women of all ages pull up, the beds of their pickups holding plastic tanks and barrels. Each day, all day long, people wait to take the white hose and let the water run into their tanks. It’s the only reliable source of clean drinking water they can count on in this part of the Navajo Nation, and they come from miles around to fill up. (James, 7/28)

The New York Times: Why Some Mosquitoes Prefer Humans
Mosquitoes have been called the deadliest animal in the world: tiny creatures so dangerous that genetic engineering may be necessary to win the battle against them. But not all mosquitoes are equally responsible for devastating the human population by spreading disease. Out of thousands of species, only a few like to bite humans — and even within the same species, mosquitoes from different places can have different preferences. Why do some find us irresistible, while others remain unimpressed? To answer that question, a team of Princeton researchers, working with a large network of local collaborators, spent three years driving around sub-Saharan Africa collecting the eggs of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are responsible for Zika, yellow fever and dengue. (Chen, 7/23)

Stat: The Curious Link Between Kids' Birthdays And Getting The Flu Vaccine 
Getting the influenza vaccine will be even more important for adults and children this fall because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Flu experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that “it’s likely that flu viruses and the virus that causes Covid-19 will both be spreading. In this context, getting a flu vaccine will be more important than ever.” That’s because hospitalizations for influenza can stress hospital capacity even without a pandemic. (Christopher M. Worsham and Anupam B. Jena, 7/31)

CNN: Why It's Vital To Get Your Flu Shot This Year
As Americans grapple with the surge of coronavirus infections around the country, the public must prepare now to guard against the upcoming influenza season this fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield recently predicted the fall and winter seasons to be "probably one of the most difficult times that we've experienced in American public health." (Webby, 7/30)

The New York Times: Scared That Covid-19 Immunity Won’t Last? Don’t Be 
Within the last couple of months, several scientific studies have come out — some peer-reviewed, others not — indicating that the antibody response of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 dropped significantly within two months. The news has sparked fears that the very immunity of patients with Covid-19 may be waning fast — dampening hopes for the development of an effective and durable vaccine. But these concerns are confused and mistaken. Both our bodies’ natural immunity and immunity acquired through vaccination serve the same function, which is to inhibit a virus and prevent it from causing a disease. But they don’t always work quite the same way.And so a finding that naturally occurring antibodies in some Covid-19 patients are fading doesn’t actually mean very much for the likely efficacy of vaccines under development. Science, in this case, can be more effective than nature. (Akiko Iwasaki and Ruslan Medzhitov, 7/31)

Stat: A Covid-19 Vaccine, Amazingly, Is Close. Why Am I So Worried? 
A mere six months after identifying the SARS-CoV-2 virus as the cause of Covid-19, scientists are on the precipice of a having a vaccine to fight it. Moderna and the National Institutes of Health recently announced the start of a Phase 3 clinical trial, joining several others in a constructive rivalry that could save millions of lives... I’m optimistic. And yet, as someone who studies drug development, I want to temper expectations with a dose of realism and perhaps a bit of angst. (Michael S. Kinch, 7/31)

Fox News: Pro-Sports And COVID-19 — As A Fan, I Think We Should Shut Down This Charade Of A Season
The Major League Baseball season has gotten off to a wild start. But enough about Dr. Fauci’s first pitch. The good doctor's opening night appearance did not prove to be a good omen for the league he loves and sadly, 18 members of the Florida Marlins have tested positive for coronavirus in the past week, causing the team to cancel all of its games through Sunday. The COVID Chaos raises fresh concerns about the sustainability of the baseball season and presents larger logistical hurdles for other team sports, which is why we should shut them all down now. If we can’t keep a socially distant game like baseball infection-free, what hope is there for the close proximity worlds of NFL Football, NHL Hockey, or even NBA basketball, where everyone plays super tight defense except the Knicks? (Jimmy Failla, 7/30)

Stat: The Nursing Science Behind Nurses As Coronavirus Hospital Heroes 
The coronavirus pandemic has given nurses a rare moment in the media spotlight. They are being heralded as lifesaving heroes on the front lines of the pandemic. The Covid-19 fight is a team effort, but nurses have a unique role. In intensive care units, 86% of patient care time comes from nurses, while only 13% comes from physicians. Nurses have always enjoyed public respect and are routinely rated the No. 1 most honest and ethical profession in the United States. But this moment in the media spotlight highlights how little most people truly understand about nursing. (Kristen Choi and Anna Dermenchyan, 7/30)

Boston Globe: Lessons From UMass Medical School On How To Bring Students Back 
Colleges and universities are crafting plans to bring their students back to campus for the fall semester. Well-developed protocols for mask-wearing, social distancing, symptom reporting, handwashing, and quarantines upon arrival for students from coronavirus hot spots are critical for a safe reopening. However, the most essential element for a safe reopening must be frequent testing for the presence of COVID-19 infection. At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, beginning in mid-May, we brought back more than 2,000 students, faculty, and staff in three discrete cohorts, most of whom were involved in our vigorous biomedical research enterprise. Before the return to campus, each was tested via a health-care-provider-administered nasopharyngeal swab. The swabs were sent to a commercial lab at a cost of more than $100 each and results were reported back within 48 hours. (Michael F. Collins, 7/30)

CNN: Teachers And Students Shouldn't Be Covid-19 Experiments In The Fall
I'm watching my third grader ride her bike out the living room window while I work. I'm equal parts enchanted by her imagination and saddened by it. It didn't used to be that way. Back when school and friends took up a majority of her days, this independent, imaginative play was a balanced cacophony -- social butterfly during weekdays, solo enchantress on weeknights and weekends. (Kathi Valeii, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: Stop Letting Coronavirus Ravage California Essential Workers
One of California’s worst failures in the pandemic has been the woeful effort to protect the essential workers who are bearing the brunt of COVID-19. The state cannot slow the spread of the coronavirus and return to some sense of normalcy without keeping workers safe. Yet too often essential workers have been treated as an afterthought. Or expendable. That has to change.California leaders knew months ago that essential workers — the ones in healthcare, food production and other indispensible industries who were required to show up as the pandemic raged — were at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 than workers who could do their jobs from home. (7/31)

The Wall Street Journal: The Lockdown’s Destruction
Democrats and their media allies have trapped themselves in a contradiction. They are deploring Thursday’s grim second-quarter GDP report even as they demand a repeat of the lockdown that caused the economic catastrophe. What do they expect when government orders Americans to sit in their homes for weeks? That’s the main message from the 32.9% decline in GDP, the worst ever recorded. The damage extended across the private economy—from business investment to manufacturing and housing. But the greatest harm was from the collapse of consumer spending as the shutdown crushed the service economy. (7/30)

Bloomberg: A Smart U.S. Coronavirus Plan Can Avoid A Second Shutdown 
Rising Covid-19 case counts across the U.S. have made a second lockdown seem almost inevitable. It is likely to be months before a vaccine could end the coronavirus pandemic, and the U.S. is also months away from using the testing-and-tracing strategy other countries have used to keep new outbreaks from expanding. But Americans can’t be expected to stay in their homes for months on end. The rational, fair, humane way forward is for society to balance pandemic safety against other vital needs — the need to make a living, the need for education and the need for social interaction. (Faye Flam, 7/30)

The Washington Post: 50,000 More People Are Dead, And There’s No End In Sight. It Didn’t Have To Be This Way. 
On May 27, the United States reached a grim milestone. Four months after the country’s first confirmed case of covid-19, the death toll of the novel coronavirus reached 100,047 as of 6 p.m. Eastern Time, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The number — far higher than any other nation’s — exceeded the number of U.S. lives lost to the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks combined. We hoped the alarming loss of so many lives in so short a period of time would galvanize a concerted national effort to contain the virus. Instead, two months later, 50,000 more people are dead, and there is no end in sight to the casualties. (7/30)

The Washington Post: With Dr. Stella Immanuel's Viral Video, This Was The Week America Lost The War On Misinformation
You may have heard about the viral video featuring a group of fringe doctors spouting dangerous falsehoods about hydroxychloroquine as a covid-19 wonder cure. In fact, it’s very possible you saw the video since it was shared on social media tens of millions of times — partly thanks to President Trump who retweeted it more than once, and who described the group’s Stella Immanuel, also known for promoting wacky notions about demon sperm and alien DNA, as “very impressive” and even “spectacular.” Given this and a few other hideous developments, it’s time to acknowledge the painfully obvious: America has waved the white flag and surrendered. With nearly 150,000 dead from covid-19, we’ve not only lost the public-health war, we’ve lost the war for truth. Misinformation and lies have captured the castle. (Margaret Sullivan, 7/30)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Trump’s Promotion Of ‘Demon Sperm’ Doctor Bodes Ill For Any Second Term
When the leader of the “free world” promotes a quack who states that gynecological problems are caused by sex with demons, you know the free world is in big, big trouble. What else can you say when President Trump touts Dr. Stella Immanuel, who claims “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives” visit humans in their dreams, and cause fibroids and impotence? Trump retweeted a video in which Immanuel insists that hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for COVID-19 and says masks are not needed. Never mind that this dangerous fakery has been repeatedly rebuffed by medical studies and Trump’s own advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci; he found the good doctor “very impressive.” (Trudy Rubin, 7/30)

Los Angeles Times: At Least Louie Gohmert Is Consistent With His Idiocy 
There are no intelligent grounds for rejecting masks. They’re simple and cheap, and they protect humans against a vicious disease that has caused more than 660,000 deaths across the world. Refusing to wear a mask is like supporting the fire against the fire department. It’s like openly sneezing into a packed elevator. It’s stupid. It’s also kind of disgusting. But that didn’t stop Herman Cain — the accomplished businessman and onetime presidential hopeful, who died of COVID-19 on Wednesday — from rejecting masks. Before he headed to President Trump’s June rally in Tulsa, Okla., he tweeted jubilantly that “masks will not be mandatory for the event” because “PEOPLE ARE FED UP!” (Virginia Heffernan, 7/31)

Bloomberg: Why India, The U.S. And Brazil Are Faring Worst In Covid-19 Cases
India is now the epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic. It ranks just behind the U.S. and Brazil in confirmed cases and is growing faster than either. The total rose 20% in just the last week, despite the fact that India is testing less than most of its peers. It’s looking increasingly likely that India will wind up being the country with the most cases in the world. This is not just a function of its massive population; China, too, has over 1 billion people. It is a reflection of the fact that big, diverse countries are at a disadvantage in dealing with pandemics. (Mihir Sharma, 7/30)