Roll Call: National Body Bag Shortage Exacerbates Funeral Homes’ Problems
A national shortage of body bags is disrupting the work of funeral directors across the country, raising difficult questions about how to maintain the dignity of the deceased and reduce workers’ concerns about potential exposure to the coronavirus. The shortage of body bags is a grim reminder of the pandemic’s mounting death toll.  (Kopp, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Global Coronavirus Deaths Pass 300,000 As U.S. States Further Ease Restrictions
The confirmed global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic passed 301,000 as tensions flared over reopenings in the U.S. and some Asian countries rolled out large-scale testing to contain resurgent clusters of infections. Cases world-wide topped 4.4 million, with 1.4 million in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. U.S. deaths stood at more than 85,000. Experts say the official numbers likely understate the extent of the pandemic. (Ansari and Calfas, 5/14)

NPR: Tracking The Pandemic: How Quickly Is The Coronavirus Spreading State By State?
Since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States on Jan. 21, over one million people in the U.S. have confirmed cases of COVID-19. On April 12, the U.S. became the nation with the most deaths globally, but there are early signs that the U.S. case and death counts may be leveling off, as the growth of new cases and deaths plateaus. The pattern isn't consistent across the country, as new hot spots emerge and others subside. (Renken and Wood, 5/14)

CIDRAP: Global COVID-19 Death Toll Exceeds 300,000 
The number of COVID-19 deaths today passed the 300,000 mark, as another city in China went on lockdown to prevent a resurgence and more countries in Europe learned that low numbers of people were exposed in their outbreaks, meaning many are vulnerable to a second wave. Deaths climbed to 301,160 today, with cases rising to 4,413,597, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 5/14)

The New York Times: ‘Lives Were Lost’ As Warnings Went Unheeded, Whistle-Blower Tells House
The whistle-blower who was ousted as the head of a federal medical research agency charged on Thursday that top Trump administration officials failed to heed his early warnings to stock up on masks and other supplies to combat the coronavirus, and that Americans died as a result. “Lives were endangered, and I believe lives were lost,” Dr. Rick Bright, who was removed in April as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, told a House subcommittee as he warned, “The window is closing to address this pandemic.” Over nearly four hours of testimony, Dr. Bright told lawmakers that the outbreak would “get worse and be prolonged” if the United States did not swiftly develop a national testing strategy. (Stolberg, 5/14)

Reuters: U.S. Faces 'Darkest Winter' If Pandemic Planning Falters: Whistleblower
Bright testified to the subcommittee on health that he would “never forget” an e-mail he got in January from a U.S. supplier of medical-grade face masks warning of a dire shortage. “He said ‘we are in deep shit. The world is. We need to act,’” Bright said. “And I pushed that forward to the highest level that I could of HHS and got no response.” Bright testified that the U.S. still lacked a comprehensive plan for ensuring a supply of basic supplies like swabs needed to administer coronavirus tests. (Wolfe and Brice, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Ousted Vaccine Chief Warns Window Is Closing To Address Pandemic, Says Federal Government Has No Coronavirus Plan
“My concern is if we rush too quickly, and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine,” he said. “So, it’s still going to take some time.” Bright’s testimony painted a bleak picture of a federal government that failed to adequately prepare for the pandemic and is still missing opportunities to obtain materials necessary for mass distribution of a vaccine and protecting health care workers ahead of a possible resurgence of cases in the fall. (Goodwin, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Whistleblower: US Still Lacks Virus Plan, Americans At Risk
“We need still a comprehensive plan, and everyone across the government and everyone in America needs to know what that plan is, and what role they play,” he told the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “There are critical steps that we need to do to prepare ... we do not still have enough personal protective equipment to manage our health care workers ... we still do not have the supply chains ramped up for the drugs and vaccines, and we still don’t have plans in place for how we distribute those drugs and vaccines. We still do not have a comprehensive testing strategy.” At the White House, President Donald Trump said Bright looked like an “angry, disgruntled employee,” and Bright’s boss, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, said, “Everything he is complaining about was achieved.” (Alonso-Zaldivar and Lardner, 5/15)

Stat: Republicans Across D.C. Take On Rick Bright — But Can’t Land A Punch
His tenure at BARDA more broadly was also not without controversy; drug companies complained about the agency’s work under Bright, and earlier this week, Politico reported that some staffers who worked under Bright had raised concerns about his leadership style, with one formal complaint even referring to “abuse.” Those factors could call into question Bright’s claims that he was ousted solely due to his whistleblowing over the Trump administration’s coronavirus response. The hearing, for the most part, focused on Bright’s account of the Trump administration’s delays and failures in the early days of the U.S. coronavirus response. His opening statement focused on his predictions that “without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history.” He reiterated his concerns, too, about the unproven Covid-19 treatment, hydroxychloroquine. (Florko, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Workers Endangered By Delays In Getting Masks, Whistleblower Says
A Trump administration official who formerly headed an agency involved in COVID-19 vaccine development testified before Congress on Thursday that the administration's delay in requiring companies to produce N95 masks may have endangered healthcare workers. (Cohrs, 5/14)

The Hill: Bright Says His Warnings On Supply Shortages Were Ignored 
During an exchange Thursday with Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Bright said he urged officials to ramp up production. "They indicated if we notice there is a shortage, that we will simply change the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines to better inform people who should not be wearing those masks, so that would save those masks for our healthcare workers," Bright said. (Weixel, 5/14)

PBS NewsHour: Key Moments From HHS Whistleblower Rick Bright’s Testimony On Coronavirus Response 
The U.S. missed “critical steps” to prepare for the pandemic earlier, Bright told the members of Congress. Throughout his testimony, Bright detailed multiple attempts he and other colleagues made to raise concerns with multiple officials about the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak. Instead, he said, his requests for resources in January were met with “surprise and puzzlement.” At one point, Bright refuted a claim that Trump had made in February about the virus being under control. (Norwood, 5/14)

Politico: How Rick Bright Grabbed The Spotlight And Angered The Trump Administration
Trump defenders were nowhere to be found in the House hearing room because they declined to send someone, giving Bright hours of air time and a news cycle’s worth of headlines. “I believe Americans need to be told the truth,” Bright testified in a hastily convened House subcommittee hearing — armed with a canister of Lysol wipes and seated next to an attorney. “And I believe that the best scientific advice and guidance was not being conveyed to the American public” in the early days of the pandemic. (Owermohle and Diamond, 5/14)

The Hill: Bright Says It Will Likely Take Longer Than 18 Months To Get Coronavirus Vaccine 
Former top federal vaccine official Rick Bright warned Thursday that projections of a coronavirus vaccine available in 12 to 18 months may be overly optimistic during testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. The frequently cited 12- to 18-month time frame, Bright said, involves a best-case scenario, and “we’ve never seen everything go perfectly.” “My concern is if we rush too quickly and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine,” he said. "I still think 12 to 18 months is an aggressive schedule and it’s going to take longer than that to do so.” (Budryk, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Ousted Vaccine Official Testifies Country Still Lacks Master Plan Amid Pandemic
In a statement, HHS questioned why Bright, who has been on medical leave with hypertension since his removal, “has not yet shown up for work” and is “using his taxpayer-funded medical leave to work with partisan attorneys.” Republicans picked up the line of questioning on Bright’s health, repeatedly asking if he was testifying as a federal employee on sick leave or as a private citizen. Bright said he had been on sick leave until this week, and under a doctor’s care for hypertension. He said he was using personal vacation time to testify. (Davis, Abutaleb, Sonmez and Wagner, 5/14)

Stat: Trump’s HHS Fires Back At Ousted Vaccine Expert Rick Bright
The attacks came less than two hours after a more direct jab from President Trump. “I don’t know the so-called Whistleblower Rick Bright, never met him or even heard of him, but to me he is a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government!” Trump tweeted. (Florko, 5/14)

CNN: Rick Bright Plans To Start His New Job Working On Coronavirus Treatments And Vaccines Next Week 
Rick Bright will start his new job in a role inside the federal government's coronavirus response next week, his attorneys said Thursday. A Department of Health and Human Services source told CNN that Bright has been offered the job of second-in-command of the Accelerating Covid-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines partnership. The partnership has been granted about $1 billion from the HHS budget to help fight the pandemic. (Collins and Tapper, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Trump Says He'll Replenish Stockpile For Future Pandemics
President Donald Trump says he intends to prepare for future pandemics by replenishing the national stockpile and bringing manufacturing of critical supplies and equipment back to the U.S. His comments came the same day a whistleblower told Congress the Trump administration had failed to properly prepare for the current pandemic. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” Trump said Thursday during a visit to a Pennsylvania distributor of medical equipment. “My goal is to produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, including medicines.” (Colvin and Superville, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Plans To Expand Emergency Gear In National Stockpile
The president said his administration is launching what he termed a “groundbreaking initiative” to “replenish and modernize” the government’s stores of masks, ventilators and other essential pandemic-fighting medical equipment to create a 90-day reserve. In keeping with his “America first” mantra, Trump and his aides said the manufacturing would be carried out by U.S. companies, diminishing the reliance on foreign factories that have been the stockpile’s major sources. (Goldstein, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Details Plans To Overhaul Medical Stockpile
Senior administration officials have for weeks been discussing measures to encourage the manufacturing of crucial supplies in the U.S., while limiting reliance on other countries such as China. The effort is being championed internally by trade adviser Peter Navarro and has faced resistance from some of the president’s economic advisers, according to people familiar with the matter. Business groups have warned the White House that limiting or discouraging imports of key medical supplies could lead to further shortages. (Ballhaus and Levy, 5/14)

Politico: Trump Administration To Expand Strategic Stockpile For Pandemic Needs
The stockpile was designed for bioterror threats in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and not for a pandemic like the coronavirus. Retooling it toward pandemic needs could be an important step if a second wave of infections emerges this fall, as many public health experts predict. Trump also issued an executive order Thursday granting Adam Boehler, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, new authorities to issue targeted loans to support production of supplies to assist with the coronavirus response and recovery. (Lim, 5/14)

The Hill: Trump Goes Without Mask On Trip To Pennsylvania PPE Factory 
President Trump on Thursday went without a mask during a visit to a Pennsylvania medical equipment distribution center, even as other government officials in his party wore face coverings around the facility. The president toured and made remarks at Owens & Minor Inc. in Allentown to tout his administration's work in producing and distributing personal protective equipment amid the coronavirus pandemic. The distribution center has sent millions of N95 masks, surgical gowns and gloves to hospitals around the country. (Samuels, 5/14)

In other news —

Politico: Pentagon Fires Its Point Person For Defense Production Act
Jennifer Santos, the Pentagon’s industrial policy chief who oversees efforts to ramp up production of masks and other equipment to help fight Covid-19, was fired from her job this week and will move to a position in the Navy, according to two people familiar with the matter. Santos took over the job of deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial policy in June 2019 after her predecessor, Eric Chewning, was tapped to serve as chief of staff to then-acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan. (Seligman and Lippman, 5/14)

CNN: Mike Bowen: US Medical Mask Maker Says 'I've Been Ignored For So Long' 
An executive for a US mask producer bemoaned, in heated and emotional testimony Thursday to Congress, how his warnings of insufficient domestic medical mask production had been ignored by the federal government for years until the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Mike Bowen, the vice president of the Texas-based medical supply company Prestige Ameritech, said the US dependence on foreign masks has been a national security issue for years. (Kelly, Watts and Gloria, 5/14)

Politico: Trump: Coronavirus Testing May Be ‘Overrated’ And Reason For High U.S. Case Count
President Donald Trump on Thursday said testing for coronavirus might be “overrated,” revisiting his concern early in the outbreak that testing for the disease would raise the nation’s case count. ... “America has now conducted its 10 millionth test. That’s as of yesterday afternoon. Ten million tests we gave. Ten million,” Trump said from a stage at the warehouse event, which had the trappings of a campaign-style rally. “And CVS has just committed to establish up to 1,000 new coronavirus testing sites by the end of this month, and the 10 millionth will go up very, very rapidly.” (Ward, 5/14)

The Hill: Trump Says Testing May Be 'Frankly Overrated' 
The U.S. has more than 1.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases, by far the most of any country in the world. But Trump suggested the soaring infection numbers were merely a reflection of America’s testing capacity. "We have more cases than anybody in the world, but why? Because we do more testing,” Trump said. “When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don’t want to write that. It’s common sense. We test much more."(Samuels and Hellmann, 5/14)

Politico: A Metrics-Obsessed White House Struggles To Define Success On Coronavirus
By far the most sensitive subject is the awful reality of the growing death count. “I’m not going to play that game,” said one White House official when asked if there is a number of dead Americans beyond what the public would tolerate. “I think all these body count things are somewhat gross and the definitions are kind of fu--ed up and they’re not uniform across states and across countries.” But even beyond the death count, there’s a widespread reluctance to define what success means. “I’m not going to get into this game four or five months from now about what any particular metric needs to look like,” the official said. (Lizza and Lippman, 5/14)

ABC News: The Note: Public Not Seeing Pandemic Realities Trump Is Describing
"We have prevailed," President Donald Trump declared this week, in a comment he said was about COVID-19 testing. "I think you should absolutely open the schools," he said two days later, contradicting Dr. Anthony Fauci's warning that it may not be realistic to expect schools to be open this fall. Both statements contradict high-profile individuals inside Trump's administration, and fly in the face of basic science to at least some extent. Perhaps just as importantly, in a political context, they contradict how the public is experiencing this crisis. (Klein and Parks, 5/15)

The Hill: The Memo: Gulf Grows Between Trump And Scientists 
The distance between President Trump and the nation’s top scientists is growing wider by the day. On Thursday, Rick Bright, the whistleblower who says he was unjustly ousted from his position leading a biodefense unit within the Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress that “lives were lost” because of the administration’s failures. Bright also lamented what he sees as the lack of a comprehensive strategy to meet the once-in-a-lifetime threat. (Stanage, 5/14)

CNN: Top Health Officials Vanish From National TV Interviews As White House Refocuses Messaging 
The nation's top physicians have stopped appearing on national television for interviews as the White House exerts increased control over communications during the coronavirus pandemic and refocuses its message toward reopening the economy. The last national television appearance from a doctor on the coronavirus task force was a full week ago on May 7 when Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, appeared on CNN for a town hall. (Darcy, 5/14)

CNN: US Coronavirus Strategy Is Shifting To Reducing Risks, Doctor Says 
The US appears to be changing its strategy from trying to completely eliminate coronavirus to reducing infection risks as the nation reopens, a health expert says. With nearly all states easing social distancing, the nation has now shifted to harm reduction -- which focuses on ways to reduce the risk if it cannot be removed entirely, said Dr. Leana Wen, an ER physician and the former health commissioner for Baltimore. (Karimi, 5/15)

And in other news on the Trump administration's response —

Politico: White House: No Plans For A President Pelosi If Trump, Pence Are Incapacitated By Coronavirus
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany revealed Thursday there is no procedure in place to facilitate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s ascension to the presidency should President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence become incapacitated by the coronavirus. The disease penetrated the president’s inner circle last week after one of Trump’s personal valets and Katie Miller, Pence’s press secretary and the wife of White House adviser Stephen Miller, both tested positive for Covid-19. (Forgey, 5/14)

CNN: US Increases Military Pressure On China As Tensions Rise Over Pandemic 
The US is upping military pressure on China amid increased tensions over the South China Sea and accusing Beijing of seeking to leverage the coronavirus pandemic to extend its sphere of influence in the region. Over the last few weeks US Navy ships and Air Force B-1 bombers have undertaken missions aimed at sending a very public message that the US military intends to maintain a presence in the region and reassure allies. It's also a top priority for the Pentagon to get the virus-stricken aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt back out to sea in the region by as soon as the end of the month. (Starr and Browne, 5/15)

The Hill: Pelosi: Trump's Focus On China Is An 'Interesting Diversion' 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that President Trump's repeated attacks on China are designed merely to divert the public's attention from potential administration mistakes in the early stages of the coronavirus response. "What the president is saying about China is interesting — it's an interesting diversion," Pelosi told a small group of reporters in the Capitol. (Lillis, 5/14)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Issues Reopening Checklists For Schools And Businesses
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released six flow charts meant to help schools, restaurants, transit systems and other businesses decide when to reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, the agency’s first release of such guidance after a more comprehensive draft was rejected by the White House. The decision trees are mostly composed of basic tips that can serve as a checklist for businesses before they reopen. In the slide for restaurants and bars, the C.D.C. says the establishments should feel comfortable opening if they are not violating local laws, promote good hygiene, increase cleaning, encourage social distancing and institute lenient sick leave policies, among a few other suggestions. (Bogel-Burroughs, 5/15)

Reuters: U.S. CDC Issues Guidelines On How To Reopen Schools, Transit And Workplaces
“These six decision trees are to assist leaders of these entities in thinking through health considerations and making operational decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic,” a CDC spokesman said in an emailed statement. The tools stress working with state and local health officials. They are intended to help business owners develop policies for their employees. (Steenhuysen, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Officials Release Edited Coronavirus Reopening Guidance
Early versions of the documents included detailed information for churches wanting to restart in-person services, with suggestions including maintaining distance between parishioners and limiting the size of gatherings. The faith-related guidance was taken out after the White House raised concerns about the recommended restrictions, according to government emails obtained by The Associated Press and a person inside the agency who didn’t have permission to talk with reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity. (Stobbe and Dearen, 5/15)

Politico: CDC Releases Scaled-Back Guidance On Reopening After White House Blocked Earlier Release
The new guidance comes as dozens of governors, to varying degrees, have begun easing restrictions on businesses and social activities, and Trump urges them to move faster — even as his health officials warn against moving too quickly. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, on Tuesday warned that reopening the country too early could yield “really serious” consequences if states don’t have the capacity to respond to new infections. (Roubein, 5/14)

The Washington Post: CDC Offers Brief Checklists To Guide Businesses, Schools And Others On Reopening
A CDC spokesman said additional recommendations may still come from the agency. The six decision trees were ready for release, so the administration decided to put them out while other guidelines make their way through the review process. The documents released Thursday are aimed at helping facilities decide if they’re ready to open and inform how they do so, he said. “This was an effort on our part to make some decision trees we thought might be helpful to those moving forward with opening their establishment,” the spokesperson said. (Bernstein, Wan, Dawsey and Bailey, 5/14)

The Hill: READ: CDC Guidelines For US Reopening
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday evening released new guidelines for schools, workplaces and other venues throughout the United States to reopen safely as the country continues to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic. The CDC's guidelines come following uproar after The Associated Press reported that the White House blocked an earlier iteration of the guidelines, saying that they were too restrictive. Read a copy of the guidelines [here]. (5/14)

The Associated Press: FDA Probes Accuracy Issue With Abbott's Rapid Virus Test
Federal health officials are alerting doctors to a potential accuracy problem with a rapid test for COVID-19 used at thousands of hospitals, clinics and testing sites across the U.S., including the White House. The Food and Drug Administration said late Thursday it is investigating preliminary data suggesting Abbott Laboratories’ 15-minute test can miss COVID-19 cases, falsely clearing patients of infection. The test is used daily at the White House to test President Donald Trump and key members of his staff, including the coronavirus task force. (Perrone, 5/15)

NPR: FDA Cautions About Accuracy Of Widely Used Abbott Coronavirus Test
The Trump Administration has promoted the test as a key factor in controlling the epidemic in the U.S. and is used for the daily testing that is going on at the White House. As first reported on NPR, as many as 15 to 20 out of every 100 tests may produce falsely negative results. A subsequent study released this week indicated that the test could be missing as many as 48% of infections. (Neel and Hagemann, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Abbott Will Change Coronavirus Test Instructions For Second Time
Abbott Laboratories said Thursday that it would change the instructions for using its fast coronavirus test for a second time, days after a preliminary study by a major medical center found the device frequently gave negative results for patients who were infected with the virus. The change will tell users that negative results produced by Abbott’s ID Now device are “presumptive” and should be verified with an alternative test for patients with signs of the virus. That means sacrificing the device’s quick turnaround time for some patients as tests are repeated using methods that can take much longer. (Weaver, 5/14)

In other news on testing —

The New York Times: Coronavirus In Wuhan: Inside China's Plan To Test 11 Million People
Wuhan, the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began, has announced an ambitious plan to test all of its 11 million residents for the virus in the coming days, a campaign that will be closely watched by governments elsewhere. The testing drive, which is likely to require the mobilization of thousands of medical and other workers, shows the ruling Communist Party’s resolve to prevent a second wave of infections as it tries to restart China’s economy. The plan was announced this week after Wuhan reported six coronavirus cases, breaking a streak of more than a month without any new confirmed infections. (Wee and Wang, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: AMA Issues Guidance On Using Coronavirus Antibody Tests
The American Medical Association is warning doctors against using tests designed to identify people already exposed to the coronavirus to make healthcare decisions for individual patients. Antibody tests — also known as serological testing — are emerging for the novel coronavirus. The tests, which are being developed by private lab companies and regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, are being touted to determine the prevalence of COVID-19. (Castellucci, 5/14)

The New York Times: ‘Everybody Was Sick’: Inside An ICE Detention Center
Last month, Makalay Tarawally propped her 2-month-old in front of her phone so that his father could meet him for the first time, virtually. As a blood technician for a Covid-19 hospital unit, Ms. Tarawally knew how careful she needed to be. From her aunt’s house in Edison, N.J., she called a room at the Red Roof Inn. The father of her two children, Abdul Massaquoi, was isolating there because of possible exposure to the coronavirus. He waved through the phone screen. (La Gorce, 5/15)

San Francisco Chronicle: ‘Cry For Help’: ICE Detainees Beg Lawmakers To Act After Coronavirus Death
More than 40 immigrants held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center near San Diego are alleging that a recent detainee death of COVID-19 was caused by reckless and inhumane conditions, according to a letter begging the governor and other California lawmakers to intervene. “This is a cry for help,” said detainee Oscar Nevarez, one of 43 immigrants at Otay Mesa who supported the letter after detainee Carlos Escobar Mejia died May 6. “Please allow us to go home on humanitarian ground and fight our cases from our homes with our families where we are safe.” (Sanchez, 5/14)

The New York Times: In 3 Key States That Elected Trump, Bitter Divisions On Reopening
In Wisconsin, residents woke up to a state of confusion on Thursday after the conservative majority on the State Supreme Court sided with the Republican majority in the Legislature on Wednesday night, overturning a statewide stay-at-home order by Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat. In Michigan, hundreds of protesters, many of them armed, turned out at the State Capitol in a drenching rainstorm. The state closed the building in advance and canceled the legislative session, rather than risk a repeat of an April protest in which angry protesters carrying long guns crowded inside. (Nolan, Bosman and Robertson, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Divide: Reopening Debate Increasingly Partisan
Urged on by President Trump, Republican officials in several battleground states, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, are ramping up pressure on Democratic governors to move faster on reopening their economies, despite experts’ warnings of a surge in infections and deaths. The mounting pressure comes as the number of jobless Americans continues to grow across the nation. Nearly 3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, according to new figures released Thursday by the Labor Department, bringing the total number of claims to 36 million since the economic shutdowns in response to the coronavirus outbreak began. (Etehad, 5/14)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In Pennsylvania: G.O.P. Defiance Of Lockdown Has 2020 Implications
It was a stunning rebuke by a governor. As resistance to lockdown orders flares around the country, often with a partisan overtone, Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, reached for a military metaphor to accuse Republican officials of desertion in the battle against the pandemic. “To those politicians who decide to cave in to this coronavirus,” Mr. Wolf said on Monday, addressing county lawmakers who have defied his stay-at-home directives, “they need to understand the consequences of their cowardly act.” (Gabriel, 5/14)

Politico: 'They Are Angry': Pandemic And Economic Collapse Slam Trump Across Rust Belt
The Industrial Midwest was always going to be a battleground in November. The region is now becoming a new front line for Americans’ lives and livelihoods as coronavirus hot spots proliferate and jobless rates spiral. The confluence of a ferocious pandemic, deepening economic turmoil and rising political tensions is more pronounced here than anywhere else in the country. And it sets the stage for a combustible campaign season that is testing President Donald Trump’s efforts to move on and insulate himself from the crisis—and Joe Biden’s ability to blame him for the fallout. (Cadelago, Cassella and McCaskill, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Tensions Rise As Texas Governor Readies To Lift More Rules
Two weeks into the reopening of Texas, coronavirus cases are climbing. New outbreaks still crop up. And at Guero’s Taco Bar in Austin, which offers the occasional celebrity sighting, a log of every diner and where they sat is begrudgingly in the works. “It seems like a huge invasion of privacy,” said owner Cathy Lipincott, who is nonetheless trying to comply with Austin’s local public health guidelines by asking, but not requiring, customers to give their information. (Weber and Vertuno, 5/15)

Reuters: Hundreds Protest Michigan Stay-At-Home Order
Hundreds gathered to protest Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order on Thursday in Lansing, the third but smallest major demonstration at the state’s Capitol since businesses were shuttered in March due to the coronavirus. (Martina and Herald, 5/14)

The New York Times: De Blasio Relies On Aide Who Saw ‘No Proof’ Closures Curb Coronavirus
As Mayor Bill de Blasio was resisting calls in March to cancel large gatherings and slow the spread of the coronavirus in New York City, he found behind-the-scenes support from a trusted voice: the head of his public hospital system, Dr. Mitchell Katz. There was “no proof that closures will help stop the spread,” Dr. Katz wrote in an email to the mayor’s closest aides. He believed that banning large events would hurt the economy and sow fear. “If it is not safe to go to a conference, why is it safe to go to the hospital or ride in the subway?” he wrote. And, he said, many New Yorkers were going to get infected anyway. (Rashbaum, Goodman, Mays and Goldstein, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Orlando Is Reopening. Persuading Tourists To Come Back Is Harder.
Florida has begun reopening for business, but this tourist mecca faces a grinding road to recovery. The coronavirus pandemic has pummeled the economy of the Orlando metro area, where legions of theme-park attendants, waiters, maids and bellhops rely on the 75 million visitors a year who produce $75 billion in revenue. The tourists are gone, and the prospect of their return uncertain. (Leary and Campo-Flores, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Surf’s Up And So Are New Beach Rules To Prevent Virus Spread
They arrived at the beach by car, skateboard and on bare feet. They carried Frisbees, cameras and surfboards. They wore running shorts, yoga pants and wetsuits. Many wore masks. That was the starkest difference this week apart from a moment in time in March that seems hard to conjure now — before beaches closed and face masks seemed like an extreme and maybe even ineffective protection from coronavirus. (Melley, 5/15)

Politico: Demand For Covid Screening Was Falling As New Jersey Rolled Out Testing, Tracing Plans
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy this week said the state was on track to test around 20,000 people a day for coronavirus by the end of May, roughly double the number it was testing at the end of April. Data presented to state health officials, however, showed the numbers going in the opposite direction. (Sutton, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Rural Florida County Worries About Reopening As Coronavirus Cases Spike At Nursing Home
The annual Blueberry Festival is the high point of the year here. Thousands of people visit the grounds of the Wellborn Baptist Church on the first Saturday in June, where they can get blueberry pancakes, blueberry muffins, blueberry preserves, and cartons of freshly picked blueberries from nearby farms. For nearly 30 years, the festival has ushered in the warm season and showcased a major industry in this rural county 40 miles south of the Georgia state line. (Rozsa, 5/14)

Reuters: Why The United States Might Not Open Up To International Travelers Any Time Soon
The U.S. government largely shut down international travel to the United States in March with a series of rapid-fire moves, but restarting it will likely be a longer, more piecemeal process that could be complicated by rising tensions with China. (Hesson, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Auto Workers' Tenuous Return A Ray Of Hope In Jobs Crisis
Defying a wave of layoffs that has sent the U.S. job market into its worst catastrophe on record, at least one major industry is making a comeback: Tens of thousands of auto workers are returning to factories that have been shuttered since mid-March due to fears of spreading the coronavirus. Until now, it was mostly hair salons, restaurants, tattoo parlors and other small businesses reopening in some parts of the country. But the auto industry is among the first major sectors of the economy to restart its engine. (Krisher, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Wisconsin Governor Warns Of 'Massive Confusion' After Ruling
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers warned Thursday of “massive confusion” after the state Supreme Court tossed out the Democrat’s stay-at-home order and Republicans said they may leave it up to local governments to enact their own rules for combating the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s order threw communities into chaos, with some bars opening immediately while local leaders in other areas moved to keep strict restrictions in place to prevent further spread of the virus. (Bauer and Richmond, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Calls His State ‘The Wild West’ After Bars Reopen Immediately Following Supreme Court Ruling
With Evers’s statewide orders kaput, local health authorities scrambled to issue or extend citywide or countywide stay-at-home orders, creating a hodgepodge of rules and regulations all across the state that are bound to cause confusion, not to mention some traffic across county lines. It’s a situation unlike any in the United States as the pandemic rages on. But most of all, Evers feared that the court’s order would cause the one thing he was trying to prevent: more death. (Flynn, 5/14)

Reuters: 'Wild, Wild West': Wisconsin Reopens For Business 
The court sided with a legal challenge from Republican lawmakers who argued the state’s top public health official, Andrea Palm, exceeded her authority by imposing a stay-at-home order through May 26. Not long after the ruling was announced, some beer-loving Wisconsinites rushed to bars for their first taste of freedom in nearly two months, and pictures appeared on social media of maskless crowds of revelers nowhere near 6 feet apart. (O'Brien, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Wisconsin Governor Urges Social Distancing After Court Blocks Statewide Lockdown
State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, the Republican legislators who led the suit against the administration, encouraged residents to continue social-distancing and take other safety measures. “This order does not promote people to act in a way that they believe endangers their health,” the lawmakers said in a joint statement. In Wisconsin, 11,275 people have been infected with the virus and 434 have died, according to the state’s Department of Health Services. (Calfas and Gershman, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Outbreak Hits Michigan Teens In Welfare Facility
One of Michigan’s largest child-welfare agencies reported a Covid-19 outbreak at a facility in Vassar, where 25 teenage girls and four staff members tested positive for the illness. The agency, Wolverine Human Services, said the positive results come after a six-week-long struggle to get testing for its young clients and staff as those with more urgent symptoms or at higher risk levels were prioritized. (Ailworth, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Rejects Inmates’ Request For Texas Prison To Reinstate Coronavirus Measures
The U.S. Supreme Court Thursday rejected an inmate request to reinstate special precautions against the coronavirus a federal judge had ordered for a Texas prison, siding with state officials who argued they had taken adequate measures. The court’s unsigned order noted no dissents. But Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, issued a seven-page statement that described conditions at the Wallace Pack Unit prison in Navasota, Texas, and urged lower courts to keep a close eye on risks for inmates. (Bravin, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Metro To Require All Passengers To Wear Masks Beginning Monday 
Beginning Monday, all Metro and Metrobus riders will be required to wear masks or face coverings to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the agency’s chief safety officer said Thursday. The requirement, announced to the transit agency’s board, follows rules set by leaders in the District and Maryland. Until now, the agency had only recommended that riders wear face coverings. (George, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Response Exposes Friction Between Top New York City Officials
A spat over protective masks for police officers has exposed simmering tensions between top New York City officials over the handling of the coronavirus crisis. In March, as hospitals were struggling to provide personal protective equipment for health-care workers, the city’s health commissioner, Oxiris Barbot, and New York Police Department Chief of Department Terence Monahan had a tense exchange over acquiring PPE for officers, according to officials. (West and Chapman, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: Another Coronavirus Casualty: California’s Budget
The coronavirus has claimed another victim: California’s finances. Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his revised 2020-21 state budget plan Thursday at a somber briefing punctuated by bleak talk of deficits, program cuts and record unemployment. His $203 billion spending proposal — nearly $19 billion less than his ambitious January budget blueprint — includes a slight increase in public health funding to help California in its fight against COVID-19, but falls far short of the amount public health leaders say is needed to respond immediately and prepare for future threats. (Hart, Young and Bluth, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: In Reversal, Kansas Will Count All Positive COVID Cases, Even Asymptomatic Ones
Kansas leaders will include asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in their assessments of virus trends as they evaluate when to take further steps to ease stay-at-home orders and other social distancing measures. The move represents a reversal after NPR station KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri, reported last week that the state was omitting these cases from its data, painting an overly optimistic picture of the outbreak. Kansas had instead looked at “symptom onset” data — a metric that by definition excludes people who test positive for the coronavirus but don’t develop symptoms. (Smith, 5/14)

Bangor Daily News: Group Homes For People With Disabilities Are The Latest Site Of Coronavirus Outbreaks 
As the coronavirus begins to crop up in group homes for the people with intellectual disabilities and autism, the providers who run them say they are encountering more financial trouble than usual and having trouble securing protective gear to keep staff and residents from becoming infected. (Andrews, 5/15)

Boston Globe: Maine Reports 3 Deaths And 50 New Coronavirus Cases, Loosens Statewide Lodging Requirements
Three deaths and 50 new coronavirus cases were reported in Maine Thursday afternoon, bringing the state’s death toll to 69 and case count to 1,565, as state lodging restrictions were loosened to allow earlier reservations for vacations this summer, officials said. One of the victims, a man in his 60s, was the first coronavirus-related death reported in Penobscot County, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control. The other two victims, a man in his 80s and a woman in her 90s, were reported in Cumberland County. (Berg, 5/14)

State House News Service: Coalition Lobbies Baker On Sick Time Expansion 
Extra paid sick time for Massachusetts workers should be a key part of plans to reopen the state's economy, members of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition said in a letter Thursday to Gov. Charlie Baker. Raise Up says the 40 hours of annual paid sick time guaranteed under a 2014 law "isn't enough to meet the scale and impact" of the COVID-19 crisis. (Lannan, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Baker Says Mass. Will Significantly Bolster Coronavirus Testing As Death Toll Continues To Rise
Facing an economy gut-punched by the pandemic and a death toll that continues to rise, Governor Charlie Baker said Thursday that the state plans to significantly bolster testing for COVID-19 in coming months to the point where Massachusetts would have the highest testing rate for the disease in the world. The announcement came as authorities said more than 1 million unemployment claims have been filed since March 15, an astonishing figure in a state with a labor force of 3.7 million. (McDonald and Reiss, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Mass. May Have Met One Reopening Milestone Outlined In Federal Guidance 
With a much-anticipated report set to be released Monday that will outline the ground rules for a four-phase reopening of Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker says he’s looking at a number of public health statistics to guide him going forward. Depending on how you look at the data, the state may have met some of the thresholds laid out in mid-April in the White House guidelines for “Opening Up America Again." (Finucane and McGrane, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Public Health Officials Order Mass. Hospitals To Report Cases Of New Coronavirus-Linked Disease In Children
State officials issued a clinical advisory Thursday morning, requiring hospitals to report confirmed and suspected cases of pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome, or PMIS, to the public health agency. By late afternoon Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had sent out a nationwide health alert on the new syndrome, criteria for its diagnosis, and instructions for health care providers to report cases to their local, state, or territorial health department. (Pan, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Many Police Departments Are Giving Out Masks Instead Of Fines For Scofflaws Amid Coronavirus
Roughly one week after Governor Charlie Baker’s statewide order requiring people to wear face coverings in public when they can’t socially distance to combat the spread of COVID-19, many police departments are reluctant to fine violators, preferring instead to distribute masks and educate the public on the need to wear them. Boston Police Sergeant Detective John Boyle, a department spokesman, said Thursday that Hub police haven’t issued any fines or citations. (Sweeney and Andersen, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Cambridge Man Says He Was Turned Away From Grocery Store Without A Mask — Even Though He Is Exempt 
The mandate signed by Governor Charlie Baker, which went into effect on May 6, requires anyone above the age of 2 to wear a face covering when they’re in public and cannot maintain a distance of at least six feet from other people. (Gans, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Technology Helps Keep Formerly Homeless Veterans In Somerville Monitored During Pandemic 
A Somerville facility that houses formerly homeless veterans is now getting some help in keeping its residents safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cherish Health, a new Cambridge-based medical technology firm, is teaming with the nonprofit Health eVillages to offer residents of the Massachusetts Bay Veterans Center specialized sensor patches to monitor their respiration, oxygen levels, temperature, heart rate, and other vital functions. (Laidler, 5/14)

Modern Healthcare: Advocate Aurora Execs Respond To Report Of Bar-Going Nurse In Wisconsin
Advocate Aurora Health officials are being asked about a report that one of their nurses was at a bar without a mask, following Wednesday's Wisconsin State Supreme Court ruling that the state's stay-at-home order was invalid. A woman who identified herself as a nurse was interviewed in a West Allis, Wis. bar by WTMJ-TV and filmed in close proximity to other bar goers. She was later identified on social media as an Aurora hospital employee, and Advocate Aurora Health leaders were asked about the report during a Facebook Live Town Hall meeting Thursday. (Asplund, 5/14)

Stat: Under Trump, Will The U.S. Corner The Market On Covid-19 Vaccine?
The United States is sprinting headlong toward the development and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. But under an “America First” president, public health experts worry, the United States could seek to gobble up early supplies — and set the stage for prolonged devastation in the rest of the world. (Branswell, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Sanofi Coronavirus Vaccine Shouldn't Go To U.S. First, France Says
It would be "unacceptable" for French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi to give the United States first access to a potential coronavirus vaccine, French government officials said Thursday. The pushback came after comments by Sanofi chief executive Paul Hudson. “The U.S. government has the right to the largest preorder because it’s invested in taking the risk,” Hudson told Bloomberg News in a story published Wednesday. The United States, Hudson said, expanded its investment in the company’s vaccine research in February and thus expects that “if we’ve helped you manufacture the doses at risk, we expect to get the doses first.” (McAuley, 5/14)

CBS News: Trump Says He Would Mobilize Military To Distribute Coronavirus Vaccine When It's Ready
President Trump says he would "rapidly" mobilize the U.S. military to distribute a coronavirus vaccine once it's ready, focusing first on nursing homes and the elderly most vulnerable to deadly complications from the virus. Mr. Trump made the comments during an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. "We're mobilizing our military and other forces but we're mobilizing our military on the basis that we do have a vaccine. You know, it's a massive job to give this vaccine. Our military is now being mobilized so at the end of the year we're going to be able to give it to a lot of people very, very rapidly," the president said. (Watson, 5/14)

Reuters: Novartis CEO Says Any New Coronavirus Vaccine Will Take Two Years: Newspaper
Any vaccine to fight the new coronavirus will not be ready for use for at least two years, the chief executive of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which no longer makes vaccines itself, told a German newspaper. Novartis sold its vaccine business in 2015 to GlaxoSmithKline, one of many companies around the world now racing to make a drug. Some companies are already testing vaccine candidates on humans. (5/15)

Stat: A Movie Ticket Or ‘Impossible To Overpay’? Experts Offer Price For Remdesivir
Two weeks ago, the world learned that remdesivir, a treatment from Gilead Sciences, has a moderate but much-needed benefit for patients with Covid-19. In the days since, public health experts, economists, and industry watchdogs have been mulling the next big question: How much should it cost? (Garde and Silverman, 5/15)

WBUR: Remdesivir Distribution Causes Confusion, Leaves Some Hospitals Empty-Handed 
States are beginning to receive cases of an experimental COVID-19 drug that the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use on May 1. But the distribution process so far has puzzled some hospitals and states about why they've been left empty-handed. (Lupkin, 5/14)

The Hill: Trump Administration Preparing To Require That Some Essential Drugs Be Made In US: Report 
The White House is preparing to require that some essential drugs be made in the U.S. as the Trump administration tries to limit dependency on China for medical supplies, sources told CNBC. White House trade advisor Peter Navarro previously proposed a similar executive order earlier in the year. Navarro's order, proposed in mid-March, would streamline regulatory approvals for “American-made” drugs and impose similar Food and Drug Administration (FDA) restrictions on U.S. production facilities as those abroad. It will also encourage government agencies to only buy American-made medical products. (Moreno, 5/14)

Boston Globe: Scientists Say The Best Treatment For COVID-19 May Be A Cocktail Of Medicines
More than a dozen drug firms in Massachusetts are urgently searching for a medicine to treat COVID-19, but the most potent therapy may not end up being a single medication. Instead, medical experts say, the most effective way to battle the disease will likely be a combination of drugs taken together. (Saltzman, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: Chasing The Elusive Dream Of A COVID Cure 
Although scientists and stock markets have celebrated the approval for emergency use of remdesivir to treat COVID-19, a cure for the disease that has killed nearly 260,000 people remains a long way off — and might never arrive. Hundreds of drugs are being studied around the world, but “I don’t see a lot of home runs right now,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, a professor of infectious diseases at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. “I see a lot of strikeouts.” (Szabo, 5/15)

Reuters: Factbox: The Race To Deploy COVID-19 Contact Tracing Apps
Technologists and health officials around the world are racing to develop smartphone apps to trace who has been in contact with carriers of the novel coronavirus. Contact-tracing, a disease control tactic that traditionally relies on patients’ memories of their movements, identifies people they might have infected so they too can be isolated. (5/14)

Politico: How Tech Giants Outflanked Governments In Virus Tracking Race
In the digital fight against COVID-19, Big Tech squared off against governments — and won. As policymakers around Europe pushed to develop smartphone apps to track the spread of the coronavirus, Apple and Google flexed their muscles by laying out conditions for building the tools, which are now set to be rolled out across the bloc and beyond by early June. (Scott, Braun, Delcker and Manancourt, 5/14)

ABC News: Coronavirus Contact Tracers' Nemeses: People Who Don't Answer Their Phones 
Massachusetts, praised by public health officials for being one of the first states to set up a coronavirus contact tracing program, is running into a problem: people aren’t picking up their phones. When investigators reach out to infected residents and those with whom they came into close contact, more than half of their calls are being ignored, health officials revealed in recent a press briefing with Gov. Charlie Baker. (Siegel, Abdelmalek and Bhatt, 5/15)

CIDRAP: Facebook Studies Reveal Science Mistrust Winning On Vaccine Messaging
Facebook groups that fuel mistrust of health guidance, such as those that air anti-vaccine views, have gained the upper hand over groups with reliable information from health agencies, a team led by George Washington University reported yesterday in Nature. Meanwhile, a separate study showed that Facebook posts about the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine were largely negative. (Schnirring, 5/14)

Stateline: Did That Drone Just Tell Us To Stay 6 Feet Apart?
The plan for a pandemic drone didn’t last long in Westport, Connecticut. Within days in late April, the police department of the coastal town outside New York City reversed course on using drone-mounted cameras to scan crowds for fevers and coughs. The department had said it would use the technology at beaches, train stations, recreation areas and shopping centers. Biometric readings would help the department understand population patterns and respond to potential health threats. (Van Ness, 5/15)

NPR: Your Boss Is Watching You: Work-From-Home Boom Leads To More Surveillance
After two weeks of working from her Brooklyn apartment, a 25-year-old e-commerce worker received a staffwide email from her company: Employees were to install software called Hubstaff immediately on their personal computers so it could track their mouse movements and keyboard strokes, and record the webpages they visited. They also had to download an app called TSheets to their phones to keep tabs on their whereabouts during work hours. (Allyn, 5/13)

Politico: Pelosi Moving Swiftly On $3 Trillion Relief Plan Despite Dem Gripes
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is projecting confidence that the House will pass Democrats’ massive coronavirus relief bill Friday, even as she and her leadership team are still working to secure the votes. Both liberals and centrists in the caucus are grumbling about the roughly $3 trillion measure. House Republicans have overwhelmingly said they oppose the bill, and some Democrats are unable to travel to the Capitol to vote amid the pandemic, leaving Pelosi and her whip operation with tight margins to clear the bill. (Ferris and Caygle, 5/14)

CNN: House To Vote On $3 Trillion Covid Aid Package And Historic Rules Change To Allow Remote Voting 
Democrats have argued that the sweeping aid package, which allocates funding for state and local governments, coronavirus testing and a new round of direct payments to Americans, is urgently needed to address the unfolding crisis. The legislation, which reflects Democratic priorities and was not a product of bipartisan negotiations, would stand as the largest relief package in US history. (Foran, Byrd and Raju, 5/15)

ABC News: House To Vote On $3T Relief Package That Is 'DOA' In Senate 
The proposed legislation includes a second round of direct cash payments to Americans, $1 trillion in aid for local, state and tribal governments drowning under the strain of the novel coronavirus, assistance for essential front-line workers, an extension of unemployment benefits and various other Democratic measures. The proposal, if it clears both chambers, would become the largest, most expensive spending package in U.S. history — surpassing the $2.2 trillion measure Congress passed in March. (Khan, 5/14)

The New York Times: With Go-Slow Approach, Republicans Risk Political Blowback On Pandemic Aid
More than eight weeks and almost $2.8 trillion federal dollars into an urgent response to the coronavirus pandemic, congressional Republicans and the Trump administration have made it clear that they have little interest in engaging with Democrats on another round of costly relief measures. But their resistance — born of spending fatigue and policy divisions — is proving increasingly unsustainable, given tens of millions of anxious Americans out of work, businesses and schools shuttered and an election looming. (Hulse, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Pelosi, GOP Exchange Barbs Over New Economic Relief Package
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out Thursday at Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans seeking to slow work on a fresh round of coronavirus relief. The White House responded minutes later with a threat that President Donald Trump would veto the $3 trillion economic package Democrats have proposed. The bill already had zero chance of passing the GOP-controlled Senate and reaching Trump, making the veto threat a symbolic gesture. Along with caustic criticism by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the exchange underscored the deep election-year gulch over what Congress’ next response to the crisis should be. (Fram, 5/15)

ABC News: Pandemic Political Divide: Bipartisan Response Turns Bitter Over Relief Spending, Reopening 
What started just weeks ago as a unified, emergency effort by Congress to get trillions of dollars to ordinary Americans and businesses in record time has now turned increasingly partisan -- as Democrats and Republicans fight over spending more pandemic relief money and how fast to reopen the economy. “We cannot borrow enough money to prop this economy up forever,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said during a digital appearance for the Trump campaign on Monday. He said lawmakers need to “begin to encourage the governors around the country, who have the decision-making ability, to open up the economy. (Pecorin, 5/14)

The Hill: McConnell: 'High Likelihood' That Congress Will Need To Pass Fifth Coronavirus Bill 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that Congress would likely need to pass a fifth coronavirus relief bill, but declined to give a timeline for additional legislation. McConnell, during a Fox News interview, said he did "anticipate" that Congress will need to "act again at some point" but that Republicans first wanted to review the roughly $2.8 trillion already appropriated by Congress. (Carney, 5/14)

The New York Times: Economists Want To Put Stimulus On Autopilot. Congress Has Other Ideas.
When there is an economic crisis, you want a government response that is scaled accordingly. But you don’t know in advance just how long a crisis will last or how severe it will be. Economists have a crisp-sounding solution: Calibrate government help, such as unemployment insurance and aid to state governments, so that it rises automatically when the economy is weak and falls as the economy returns to health. The unemployment rate or other economic indicators can serve as triggers. The concept of automatic stabilizers is embraced by many centrist and left-of-center technocrats, including the last two leaders of the Federal Reserve. (Irwin, 5/15)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: What’s In The Next Round Of COVID-19 Relief?
House Democrats are moving ahead with another round of COVID-19 relief, including additional funding for state Medicaid programs, an open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace plans, and money to pay premiums for newly unemployed Americans to continue on their employer health coverage. Republicans, however, say the Democrats’ bill goes too far. Meanwhile, the outbreak of the virus in the White House complex — including a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence ― has complicated the Trump administration’s efforts to press for a broader opening of the economy even while the illness continues to spread. (5/14)

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) walks backs accusations about the Obama administration —

Politico: McConnell Says He Was Wrong On Obama Pandemic Playbook
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he was mistaken in claiming that the Obama administration had failed to leave a pandemic playbook for the Trump White House. “I was wrong,” McConnell said in an evening interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier. “They did leave behind a plan. So, I clearly made a mistake in that regard.” (Choi, 5/14)

CNN: McConnell Admits He Was Wrong To Say Obama Administration Failed To Leave A Pandemic Playbook 
The concession comes days after he falsely accused the Obama administration of failing to leave the Trump administration "any kind of game plan" for something like the coronavirus pandemic during a Trump campaign online chat with Lara Trump, the President's daughter-in-law. "They claim pandemics only happen once every hundred years but what if that's no longer true? We want to be early, ready for the next one, because clearly the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this," McConnell had said Monday. (LeBlanc, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Evidence Shows Obama Team Left A Pandemic ‘Game Plan’ For Trump Administration
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell alleged that the Obama administration did not provide the Trump administration with any information about the threat of a possible pandemic during a May 11 Team Trump Facebook Live discussion with Lara Trump. “They claim pandemics only happen once every 100 years, but what if that is no longer true? We want to be ready, early, for the next one. Because clearly, the Obama administration did not leave any kind of game plan for something like this,” said McConnell. (Knight, 5/15)

The New York Times: Richard Burr Steps Back From Senate Panel As Phone Is Seized In Stock Sales Inquiry
Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina temporarily stepped down on Thursday as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a day after F.B.I. agents seized his cellphone as part of an investigation into whether he sold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stocks using nonpublic information about the coronavirus. The seizure and an accompanying search for his electronic storage accounts, confirmed by an investigator briefed on the case, represented a significant escalation of the inquiry by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Benner and Fandos, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Burr Steps Aside As Senate Intelligence Chair Amid FBI Probe
Hours later, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina stepped aside Thursday as chairman of the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, calling it the “best thing to do.” Burr has denied wrongdoing. “This is a distraction to the hard work of the committee and the members, and I think that the security of the country is too important to have a distraction,” Burr said. He said he would serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in 2023. He is not running for reelection. (Tucker, Balsamo and Jalonick, 5/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Sen. Burr To Step Aside As Intelligence Panel Chairman While Facing Stock-Trade Probe
The decision to execute a search warrant on a sitting member of Congress was approved at the highest levels of the Justice Department, a senior department official said. Such a move also requires federal prosecutors and agents to persuade a judge there is probable cause to believe a crime has been committed. Mr. Burr, who has denied wrongdoing, told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday he will continue to cooperate with the intensifying investigation. “This has become a distraction to the work on a committee that’s really, really important to the national security and a distraction to its members, and I thought this was the best thing to do,” Mr. Burr told reporters. (Gurman and Duehren, 5/14)

NPR: Richard Burr To Step Down As Intelligence Panel Chairman Temporarily
At issue are stock trades Burr made before the market crash caused by the coronavirus pandemic. ProPublica reported that he dumped up to $1.7 million in stocks while assuring the public that the U.S. was well-positioned to withstand the outbreak. Burr and fellow Senate Republican Kelly Loeffler of Georgia faced scrutiny for dumping millions of dollars in stocks ahead of the economic downturn. Both have denied any wrongdoing. (Wise and Grisales, 5/14)

ProPublica: Richard Burr Steps Down From Chairmanship Of Senate Intelligence Committee
Burr came under scrutiny after ProPublica reported in March that he sold off a significant percentage of his stocks shortly before the market declined, unloading between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions. As chairman of the intelligence committee and a member of the health committee, Burr had access to the government’s most highly classified information about threats to America’s security and public health concerns. On the same day, Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, a member of the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn. A person who picked up Fauth’s phone previously declined to comment. (Faturechi and Willis, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Sen. Richard Burr Stepping Aside As Intelligence Committee Chair Amid FBI Investigation Of Senators’ Stock Sales
Also Thursday, aides to Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) acknowledged that the senators had been in contact with federal law enforcement. Feinstein had been questioned by FBI agents about stock sales, which she has said were done by her husband and without her knowledge, a spokesperson said. Loeffler’s office acknowledged she had turned over documents related to stock sales she says she did not actively participate in. (Barrett, Kim, Hsu and Sheperd, 5/14)

Politico: Don't Expect Trump World To Rescue Richard Burr
Donald Trump’s allies don't much like Richard Burr. But they'd prefer the president keep out of the criminal investigation of the senator. The revelation that Burr was under FBI investigation for potential insider trading rocked Capitol Hill on Thursday. But Trump, who often relishes commenting on the news of the day, was restrained when asked about the situation. And, if anything, his broader circle of family and friends was sharply critical of North Carolina Republican. (Kumar, 5/14)

The New York Times: Hospitals Knew How To Make Money. Then Coronavirus Happened.
When the top-ranked Mayo Clinic stopped all nonemergency medical care in late March, it began to lose millions of dollars a day. The clinic, a Minnesota-based hospital system accustomed to treating American presidents and foreign dignitaries, saw revenue plummet as it postponed lucrative surgeries to make way for coronavirus victims. The hospital network produced $1 billion in net operating revenue last year, but now expects to lose $900 million in 2020 even after furloughing workers, cutting doctors’ pay and halting new construction projects. (Kliff, 5/15)

PBS NewsHour: These 3 Charts Show How Rural Health Care Was Weakened Even Before COVID-19 
It is too soon to know the full extent of the ways the pandemic will reshape health care in the United States, but if history serves as a guide, its rural areas, home to one out of five Americans, will be shaken. Even before the emergence of COVID-19, roughly 450 out of nearly 2,200 hospitals that serve these areas were sitting on the verge of closure, and vital services like obstetrics, chemotherapy and orthopedics were drying up. As states relax social distancing measures and communities attempt to resume normal life without COVID-19 being contained, those endangered modes of care could actually be taxed further if people had postponed non-emergency health visits. (Santhanam, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: As Congress Weighs COVID Liability Protections, States Shield Health Providers
Coronavirus patients and their families who believe a doctor, nurse, hospital or other provider made serious mistakes during their care may face a new hurdle if they try to file medical malpractice lawsuits. Under pressure from health provider organizations, governors in Connecticut, Maryland, Illinois and several other states have ordered that most providers be shielded from civil ― and, in some cases, criminal — lawsuits over medical treatment during the COVID-19 health emergency. (Jaffe, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: APM Providers More Likely To Manage Population Health During COVID-19
Providers that take part in alternative payment models are more likely to use population health strategies to address the COVID-19 pandemic than non-participants, according to a survey by consultancy and group purchasing organization Premier Inc. on Wednesday. More than 80% of APM participants use care management support to deal with COVID-19 patients compared to just half of providers that aren't in APMs. And about half of providers in APMs use triage call centers and remote monitoring, while less than a third of non-participants do. (Brady, 5/13)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Sent Recovering Coronavirus Patients To Nursing Homes: ‘It Was A Fatal Error’
In late March, Dottie Hickey got a call from Luxor Nursing & Rehabilitation at Mills Pond, the nursing home where her sister lived. The 79-year-old was being moved to make space for incoming hospital patients recovering from coronavirus. Ms. Hickey was told the St. James, N.Y., facility had no choice but to take in these patients under a new state policy. Ms. Hickey said that after a few days she struggled to reach staff for updates on her sister, and after repeated calls, one employee told her why. The nursing home was overwhelmed with cases of Covid-19, the illness caused by the virus. Luxor Nursing & Rehabilitation had no confirmed coronavirus cases before the patients moved in, and can’t say if any arrived while still infectious, a spokesman said. But he added: Luxor “would not have accepted [the patients] without this directive.” (Wilde Mathews, 5/14)

Reuters: U.S. Issues First Coronavirus Workplace Guidance To Nursing Homes
The U.S. Department of Labor issued its first workplace guidance to nursing homes on Thursday since the COVID-19 pandemic swept the country and ravaged care facilities, saying residents, staff and visitors should keep 6 feet (1.83 meters) apart. (Hals, 5/14)

The New York Times: ‘We’re Just Horrified’: Why A Springsteen Sideman Took On Nursing Homes
When the coronavirus outbreak was only manifesting itself in horrifying headlines from Italy and China, Nils Lofgren, the guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, and his wife, Amy, moved her mother into Brookdale Senior Living, a well-regarded long term care facility in Florham Park, N.J. Almost immediately, Patricia J. Landers, Mrs. Lofgren’s mother, began complaining about missing medications and lapses in supervision. The family began to notice a pattern of neglect, particularly in treating her dementia. (Corasaniti, 5/15)

ProPublica/The Public's Radio: She Fought To Keep COVID-19 Out Of Her Nursing Home. Then, She Got Sick.
From her bed in the intensive care unit at Rhode Island Hospital, Lakesha Lopez wanted to send a message to her staff at the nursing home. The 40-year-old director of nursing at Bannister Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care, in Providence, had been diagnosed with COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. She had pneumonia in both lungs. (Arditi, 5/15)

Boston Globe: A Plea For Video Calls, A Lifeline To Those Living And Dying In Nursing Homes
With families pleading to connect with their loved ones, nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the state are scrambling to arrange virtual visits through the chaos of an unprecedented crisis. Southwood’s administrator, Lindsey Starr, said she arranged the last call between MacDonald and her family minutes after she learned Foster had requested it. (Murphy, 5/14)

NPR: Voter Fraud Claims Make It Hard For GOP To Expand Voting By Mail
Republican state officials who want to expand absentee and mail-in voting during the pandemic have found themselves in an uncomfortable position due to their party's rhetoric. President Trump has claimed repeatedly, without providing evidence, that mail-in voting is ripe for fraud and bad for the GOP. He and other Republicans have charged that Democrats might use it to "steal" the election. (Fessler, 5/15)

NPR: Democrats Weigh Options For Summer Convention
Four years ago, Joe Biden took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia to the Rocky theme, looking out over a crowd of delegates waving red and white signs that bore his name. He encouraged fellow Democrats to unite and rally around Hillary Clinton. Now, as Democrats plan to hold the convention that will nominate Biden, the chances that he'll bask in the same kind of scene this year seem ever more distant, as the Democratic Party faces the possibility of a limited in-person presence or virtual gathering. (Summers, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Biden Vs. Trump: The Ad Battle Over China And The Coronavirus
As the coronavirus pandemic has spread around the globe, the ad battle for the U.S. presidency has increasingly centered on one issue: Who is a bigger toady for China? To a striking degree, the campaigns of President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden — and groups that support or oppose them — increasingly are attacking each other with common themes. Both sides pin a lot of blame on China for failing to act quickly to stem the virus — or failing to communicate with the rest of the world more clearly. But then they argue that their opponent cannot be trusted to deal with China. (Kessler, 5/15)

The New York Times: Trump, Biden And The Myth Of ‘But 2016’
At first glance, there seems little in common between red-hat-wearing admirers of President Trump and Democratic activists still nursing PTSD from Hillary Clinton’s loss. Yet these political opposites share an overriding conviction, one they are apt to invoke any time the president’s re-election prospects are questioned: But 2016! Mr. Trump’s surprise win in the Electoral College is their Exhibit A, cited repeatedly online or in real life, to counter any polls or election results or momentary events that cast doubt on the president’s electability in 2020. (Martin, 5/15)

Roll Call: K Street, PACs Not Eager To Attend In-Person Fundraisers Yet
After a monthslong hiatus, some lawmakers have begun inviting lobbyists and D.C. insiders to in-person fundraisers as soon as next month, and that isn’t going over so well on K Street. Many lobbyists and corporate executives, cloistered in their home offices during the coronavirus pandemic, said they were unlikely to sign up for in-person political events in the coming weeks — and some were downright dismayed that lawmakers would even send invites for so near in the future. (Ackley, 5/14)

The New York Times: Coronavirus May Pose A New Risk To Younger Patients: Strokes
Ravi Sharma was doubled over on his bed when his father found him. He’d had a bad cough for a week and had self-quarantined in his bedroom. As an emergency medical technician, he knew he was probably infected with the coronavirus. Now, Mr. Sharma, 27, could not move the right side of his body, and could only grunt in his father’s direction. His sister, Bina Yamin, on the phone from her home in Fort Wayne, Ind., could hear the sounds. “Call 911,” she told her father. “I think Ravi’s having a stroke.” She was right. (Rabin, 5/14)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Infections: Talking Can Generate Droplets That Linger Up To 14 Minutes
Coughs or sneezes may not be the only way people transmit infectious pathogens like the novel coronavirus to one another. Talking can also launch thousands of droplets so small they can remain suspended in the air for eight to 14 minutes, according to a new study. The research, published Wednesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help explain how people with mild or no symptoms may infect others in close quarters such as offices, nursing homes, cruise ships and other confined spaces. (Sheikh, 5/14)

Roll Call: Plasma Donation Emerges As Recovery Ritual For Lawmakers With COVID-19
Mike Kelly was back home in his district at the end of St. Patrick’s Day week when he started to experience “flu-like” symptoms that included headache, upset stomach and chills. “My wife said, ‘You know what? I don’t like the way things are going here.’” His doctor recommended a drive-thru coronavirus test, a six-inch cotton swab shoved up his nose for 30 seconds. It was “uncomfortable,” says the Pennsylvania Republican, euphemistically. “They go way past anything I ever thought they could do. I thought honestly it was going right up into my sinuses.” (McGrady, 5/14)

The Hill: CDC Issues Advisory About Severe Coronavirus-Related Illness In Children 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an emergency advisory about a mysterious inflammatory illness believed to be connected to the coronavirus in children. The CDC asked that health care providers report instances of pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a condition health officials say is similar to Kawasaki Disease — a rare illness that causes inflamed blood vessels, typically in young children. Patients who have MIS-C exhibit fever, laboratory evidence of inflammation, and evidence of current or past COVID-19 infection, among other attributes, according to the case definition laid out by the CDC in the advisory. (Moreno, 5/14)

CIDRAP: Kawasaki-Like COVID-19 Complication Found In Italian Kids
Doctors in Bergamo, Italy, have described a series of 10 young children hospitalized with symptoms similar to those of the rare inflammatory Kawasaki-like disease emerging amid the COVID-19 pandemic, adding to reports of similar cases in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and the United Kingdom. According to the observational cohort study, published yesterday in The Lancet, 8 of the 10 children diagnosed as developing symptoms of Kawasaki-like disease from Mar 17 to Apr 14 at the Hospital Papa Giovanni XXIII also tested positive for COVID-19. In contrast, the study included 19 children who had been diagnosed as having Kawasaki disease in the previous 5 years (on average, 1 every 3 months). This represents a 30-fold increase. (Van Veusekom, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: The Numerical Language Of Covid-19: A Primer
As Covid-19 has swept the globe, a confusing array of numbers has been unleashed along with the virus. The figures are related, but differ in meaning and magnitude. R0 isn’t the same as R. Herd immunity differs from final epidemic size. And not all death rates are created equal. Understanding the difference helps policy makers appreciate how to calculate risk and allocate resources as a pandemic unfolds. Mixing them up distorts reality. (McGinty, 5/15)

NPR: What We Can Learn From The 1918 Flu Pandemic
Just over a century ago, a virulent flu outbreak was wreaking havoc on the world. We know it now as the 1918 influenza pandemic, and its tremors were felt far-and-wide. By the end of its spread, tens of millions were dead. The field of public health has taken a giant leap from the days of 1918, when virology was still in its infancy. Today, information is instantaneous and vaccines are in widespread use. (Baskar and Kwong, 5/15)

New England Journal of Medicine: Finding Reliable Information About Covid-19
The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus that emerged in late 2019, and the resulting Covid-19 disease has been labeled a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the World Health Organization. What physicians need to know about transmission, diagnosis, and treatment is the subject of ongoing updates from infectious disease experts at the Journal. In this audio interview conducted on May 13, 2020, the editors discuss trustworthy sources of Covid-19 information and the role of medical journals. (Eric J. Rubin, Lindsey R. Baden, and Stephen Morrissey, 5/14)

The New York Times: Domestic Violence Calls Mount As Restrictions Linger: ‘No One Can Leave’
The woman dialed the hotline from her car. Her partner was laid off from his job after the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States, she told the counselor, who listened from a basement call center in Chicago. He had become more tense and violent than ever. Please help. Americans have been cooped up at home for months to slow the spread of the coronavirus, many of them living in small spaces, reeling from sudden job losses and financial worries. Children are home from school in every state in the country. (Bosman, 5/15)

WBUR: Why Antibiotic Resistance Is More Worrisome Than Ever 
A health crisis is rapidly unfolding worldwide. It causes suffering and death, costs billions and threatens to overwhelm health-care systems, patients and their families. No, it's not the coronavirus pandemic. It's that other disastrous health crisis: drug resistance. Bacteria and other microbes that cleverly change and evolve are outsmarting the antimicrobials once hailed as miraculous cures. Worldwide, 700,000 people die each year due to drug-resistant diseases, according to the World Health Organization. (Brink, 5/14)

Roll Call: COVID-19 Amplifies Racial Disparities In Maternal Health
Days before her death, Amber Isaac tweeted about her negative experiences receiving pregnancy care at her local hospital in the Bronx. Isaac, a 26-year-old black woman pregnant with her first child, raised concerns about "incompetent doctors." She worried about her low platelet count and felt her concerns were not being heard at Montefiore Medical Center, where her mother Renita Isaac has worked for 25 years, her partner Bruce McIntyre told CQ Roll Call. (Raman, 5/14)

KQED: Catching Babies With A Go-To Doula For Black Parents 
Sumayyah Monét Franklin is a birth rights activist, doula and owner of Sumi’s Touch. She gives advice to potential parents on conception, coaches new parents through postpartum and is with parents during the birthing process-- she's attended over 500 births and counting. As of late, caution around potentially being exposed to COVID-19 has made many people wary about going to traditional healthcare facilities. (Harshaw, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Dining With Dummies? Renowned Restaurant Adds Mannequins
One of the country’s most renowned restaurants says mannequins will add a touch of whimsy and help with social distancing when customers return to its grand dining room later this month. Mannequins dressed in fine 1940′s-style attire were already theatrically staged Thursday at The Inn at Little Washington, tucked in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains about 90 minutes west of Washington, D.C. (5/15)

The New York Times: The Extra Burden For Parents Of Children With Special Needs
As a developmental pediatrician, I have worked throughout this coronavirus crisis with parents strained by fears about their child’s learning, stresses around anxiety and behavior, and the disruption of school services. For parents of children with special needs, who often carry an extra heavy load managing academics in the best of times, the burden while on home quarantine is magnified. (Bertin, 5/13)

The Hill: Airports Test Thermal Cameras, Sanitation Booths And Other Technologies To Mitigate Coronavirus 
Airports across the United States and around the world are testing technology like thermal cameras and sanitation booths in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus among travelers and airport screeners, the Los Angeles Times reported. The number of people traveling by plane has dropped by approximately 96 percent amid the ongoing pandemic, according to multiple reports, leading airlines into an economic downfall. (Pitofsky, 5/14)

ABC News: Dramatic Drop In Cancer Diagnoses Amid COVID Pandemic Is Cause For Concern, Doctors Say
At the onset of the novel coronavirus, American healthcare providers sought to limit non-essential in-person visits, opting instead to put off routine examinations – including annual cancer screenings – as part of an effort to curb risky face-to-face interactions. This precautionary approach was endorsed by the American Cancer Society, among others, and widely accepted as a necessary preventative measure. But as weeks have now turned to months, doctors are registering a troubling trend: a precipitous drop in cancer diagnoses. Some experts fear that with each passing day, the prognosis for some of those undiagnosed cases may be getting worse as potential patients huddle at home. (Abdelmalek and Bruggeman, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: How Covid-19 Is Changing The Language In Emails
When Benjamin Schmerler sends an email, his words speak volumes about the current state of the world. Gone are the exclamation points or occasional emojis. The public-relations firm owner replaces his usual “hope you’re well” with something more heartfelt. And when he signs off, his new go-to is: “I wish you vigorous health and a robust mind-set.” Like many tending to business matters during the current pandemic, Mr. Schmerler wants to signal concern for the email recipient. “Any note should, at a minimum, acknowledge the collective vulnerability that people feel,” says Mr. Schmerler, who is based in New York. (Dizik, 5/14)

NPR: StoryCorps: Postal Workers Fight Fear To Work During Pandemic
When Evette Jourdain was struggling to get back on her feet, landing a job as a postal worker gave her security. Now, during the coronavirus pandemic, the job carries new risks she and her colleagues never imagined. Jourdain, 32, and her friend and fellow mail carrier Craig Boddie, 48, spoke for a remote StoryCorps conversation last month, from Palm Beach, Fla., about how their work has changed since the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. (Born and Bowman, 5/15)

The Washington Post: Shortage In The Nursing Field Amid Pandemic Is Causing Concern 
Karli McGuiness had just accepted her spot in a demanding masters program at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing when the catastrophe that has rocked the world hit the United States. She was “amazed and inspired” to see how members of her future profession flocked to battle the coronavirus, but the dangers they faced were enough to give her pause about her newly chosen career path. (Pitts, 5/14)

Kaiser Health News: Hospital Workers Complain Of Minimal Disclosure After COVID Exposures
Dinah Jimenez assumed a world-class hospital would be better prepared than a chowder house to inform workers when they had been exposed to a deadly virus. So, when her boyfriend, an employee of a popular seafood restaurant in Seattle, received a call from his boss on a Sunday in late March telling him a co-worker had tested positive for COVID-19 and that he needed to quarantine for 14 days, she said she assumed she’d get a similar call from the University of Washington Medical Center. After all, the infected restaurant employee worked a second job alongside her at the hospital’s Plaza Cafe. (Gold and Hawryluk, 5/13)

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline
A hands-on pharmacist who made the big city feel smaller. A family practice physician who made house calls. A couple married for 44 years. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who die of COVID-19. (5/15)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Lockdowns And Economic Collapse May Prove Deadlier Than The Disease In Poor Countries
The consequences of the coronavirus pandemic may prove more devastating than the disease itself for the world's poorest countries as the global economy hurtles into recession, people lose jobs by the hundreds of millions and the risk of hunger grows, U.N. officials and aid experts fear. For now at least, covid-19 seems to be largely a disease of the rich, developed world, with 74 percent of the 4.4 million cases reported worldwide occurring in North America and Europe, along with an overwhelming 85 percent of the deaths. (Sly, 5/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Employment Shock Hits Women Harder Than Men
Women usually fare better than men during an economic downturn. Not this time. Growth in service professions has allowed women to overtake men as a proportion of the U.S. labor force. But it has also made them more vulnerable to job losses, because sectors with more women, such as education, leisure and hospitality, have been hardest hit by social-distancing measures. (Chaney and Weber, 5/15)

The New York Times: Unemployment Claims Above 36 Million In Coronavirus Pandemic
Scattershot reopenings of retail stores, nail salons and restaurants around the country have not halted the flood of layoffs, with the government reporting Thursday that nearly three million people filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the two-month tally to more than 36 million. The weekly count of new claims has been declining since late March, but that hopeful flicker barely stands out in an otherwise grim and chaotic economic landscape. “This is a very protracted, painful situation for the labor market,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, “and I just don’t see anything positive.” (Cohen and Hsu, 5/14)

The New York Times: DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds To Favored Private And Religious Schools
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed in late March, included $30 billion for education institutions turned upside down by the pandemic shutdowns, about $14 billion for higher education, $13.5 billion to elementary and secondary schools, and the rest for state governments. (Green, 5/15)

The Hill: Less Than 40 Percent Of Small Businesses Have Received Emergency Coronavirus Loans: Census Bureau
Less than 40 percent of small businesses have received support from the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration's (SBA) emergency coronavirus lending initiative, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday. While 74.9 percent of respondents to the Census Bureau’s survey of small businesses applied for a forgivable loan through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), only 38.1 percent received aid. (Lane, 5/14)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Flood Of Georgia Jobless Claims Continues
Georgia’s Department of Labor processed nearly a quarter of a million unemployment claims last week as the flood of virus-triggered job cuts continued, officials said Thursday. The latest figures bring the total number of claims handled since the start of March to 1,849,382. That’s 37% of Georgia’s pre-virus workforce, a much higher share than the national average of about 22%. (Kanell, 5/14)

Boston Globe: In Mass., Dozens Of Illegal Evictions Attempted, Despite Pandemic Moratoriums, Healey Says
The state’s top law enforcement official has stopped dozens of illegal evictions in Massachusetts in recent weeks amid the COVID-19 pandemic, authorities said this week. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s office said it has received about 15 complaints of illegal evictions since a statewide moratorium went into effect, and has secured the withdrawal of almost 50 evictions that were filed against tenants in court before the state law went into effect. (McDonald, 5/14)

The New York Times: Sweden Stayed Open. A Deadly Month Shows The Risks.
By late March, nearly every country in Europe had closed schools and businesses, restricted travel and ordered citizens to stay home. But one country stood out for its decision to stay open: Sweden. The country’s moderated response to the coronavirus outbreak has drawn praise from some American politicians, who see Sweden as a possible model for the United States as it begins to reopen. ... But while Sweden has avoided the devastating tolls of outbreaks in Italy, Spain and Britain, it also has seen an extraordinary increase in deaths, mortality data show. (Leatherby and McCann, 5/15)

The Washington Post: In Brazil’s Hard-Hit Manaus, A Coronavirus Patient Searches For An Open Bed
As the rain picked up, the ambulance sped across the largest city in the Amazon. In the back, a 78-year-old man lay disoriented, unable to say who he was, slipping in and out of consciousness. The coronavirus had reached his brain, emergency physician Alessandra Said realized. He was in danger of dying. They didn’t have much time. But in a city isolated by geography and overwhelmed by disease, Said didn’t know of a single hospital with space left for coronavirus patients. The hunt for a bed could take hours, and some patients didn’t survive to see its conclusion. She looked down at the man — bald and frail, writhing on his stretcher — and hoped that this one would. (McCoy and Traiano, 5/14)

The Associated Press: Iraqi Doctor's Fight With Virus Lays Bare A Battered System
Dr. Marwa al-Khafaji’s homecoming after 20 days in a hospital isolation ward was met by spite. Someone had barricaded her family home’s gate with a concrete block. The message from the neighbors was clear: She had survived coronavirus, but the stigma surrounding the disease would be a more pernicious fight. The young physician was catapulted into the front lines of Iraq’s battle with the virus in early March. (Kullab, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Years Of Conflict Leave Somalia Ill-Equipped To Fight Virus
Years of conflict, instability and poverty have left Somalia ill-equipped to handle a health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, no one really knows how many cases of COVID-19 it has. The uncertainty has led to fear, confusion and panic even after authorities have tried to keep the public informed about the outbreak. The official count of cases is now above 1,200, with 53 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. (Guled and Nor, 5/15)

The Associated Press: Outside US, Top Scientists Steer Debate Away From Politics
President Donald Trump is never far from a public spat with his government’s top expert on the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most recent flare-up occurring this week over the pace of reopening schools. Among U.S. allies, however, many leaders are happy to step away from the spotlight to leverage experts’ ability to counter misleading information and appeal across political boundaries to gain public compliance for health restrictions. (Gatopoulos, 5/15)

NPR: Russia Defends Its Tally Of Coronavirus Deaths After Reports Of Undercounting
As Russia's coronavirus infections have surged, observers have puzzled over a mystery: How is it that a country with over 250,000 suspected cases, and a shaky health care system, has had relatively few deaths? The answer appears to be the Russian approach to pathology — an approach that has the Kremlin and government health officials in a bitter feud with media organizations over how Moscow interprets, or possibly manipulates, its data. (Maynes, 5/14)

The Washington Post: Taiwan Beat The Coronavirus And Won Friends. At The WHO, It's Still Fighting For A Seat At The Table.
With just 440 covid-19 cases and seven deaths, Taiwan looks to have conquered the coronavirus. Its 24 million residents have not faced a lockdown; schools, shops and offices have remained open, and the capital's sidewalks, subways and shopping areas are bustling. Taiwan has won praise for its effective response and donations of medical equipment, including millions of face masks — the fruits of a campaign to combine health diplomacy and relief with an effort to bolster Taiwan's international image. (Aspinwall and Rauhala, 5/15)

NPR: See Which Countries Are Closing Borders Due To Coronavirus. But Is It Doing Any Good?
If you want to visit the Great Pyramids or the Great Wall or the Taj Mahal, forget it. Egypt, China and India are just a few of the dozens of countries that have imposed strict travel restrictions to keep visitors, and the coronavirus, out. An analysis by NPR based on data from the International Air Transport Association found that more than three quarters of the world's nations and territories have suspended travel from at least one other place. (Brumfiel and Wilburn, 5/15)

NPR: COVID-19 Has Arrived In Rohingya Refugee Camps And Aid Workers Fear The Worst
It's the moment international aid groups have been dreading for months—the coronavirus has reached the sprawling refugee camps in the Cox's Bazar district of southern Bangladesh, home to roughly a million Rohingya refugees. Bangladesh officials said on Thursday that at least two people living in or adjacent to the camps have tested positive for the coronavirus and have now been quarantined amid fears of a humanitarian disaster if the virus spreads unchecked. (Sullivan, 5/15)

Reuters: Asia-Pacific Drug Trade Thrives Amid The COVID-19 Pandemic
Illicit drug markets in the Asia-Pacific continue to expand and diversify and appear to be largely unaffected by the coronavirus outbreak, the United Nations said on Friday. (Allard and Wongcha-um, 5/14)

Reuters: Baltics Open Europe's First Pandemic 'Travel Bubble' As Curbs Ease
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia opened their borders to each other at the stroke of midnight, creating the first “travel bubble” within the European Union in a bid to jump-start economies broken down by the coronavirus pandemic. (5/14)

Reuters: Chinese Official Hails 'Incomparable' Improvement In Air Quality As Virus Hits Industry
China’s air quality saw “incomparable” improvements in the first quarter of this year as a coronavirus outbreak led to rapid declines in industrial activity and transportation, an environment ministry official said on Friday. (Xu and Stanway, 5/15)

The New York Times: How Do You Maintain Dignity For The Dead In A Pandemic?
Nick Farenga stood amid the body bags in a refrigerated 18-wheel trailer at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan. “This is him,” a hospital worker said, pointing to a white body bag among the roughly 40 others lying on wooden platforms that resembled hastily constructed bunk beds. As a funeral director in the Bronx, Farenga has spent two months on the front lines of Covid-19, picking up dozens of bodies. Yet somehow, until that day in late April, he had escaped the pain of retrieving the body of someone he loved. Philip Foglia was Farenga’s former Little League coach. He and his brother, Sal, played baseball with Foglia’s sons; the families lived just blocks apart; their fathers were longtime friends. (Montgomery and Jones, 5/14)

Politico: How Coronavirus Could Upend Human Migration
The coronavirus is upending our jobs, canceling our pastimes and messing with our social lives. Some of these effects might linger for months, even years, becoming the new normal. But the pandemic isn’t simply likely to change how we live—it could also alter where we live. As we contemplate all the ways that Covid-19 could change the world, big and small, we should consider that the pandemic’s combined effect on public health, the economy and social behavior may cause fundamental shifts in our human geography. Why choose to stay in a crowded city where body bags piled high during the worst parts of the pandemic? Why especially, when Covid-19 has shown many employers that remote work is a serious possibility? (Khanna and Prasad, 5/13)

The New Yorker: Amid The Coronavirus Crisis, A Regimen For Reentry
In places around the world, lockdowns are lifting to various degrees—often prematurely. Experts have identified a few indicators that must be met to begin opening nonessential businesses safely: rates of new cases should be low and falling for at least two weeks; hospitals should be able to treat all coronavirus patients in need; and there should be a capacity to test everyone with symptoms. But then what? What are the rules for reëntry? Is there any place that has figured out a way to open and have employees work safely, with each other and with their customers? Well, yes: in health care. The Boston area has been a covid-19 hotspot. Yet the staff members of my hospital system here, Mass General Brigham, have been at work throughout the pandemic. (Gawande, 5/13)

The New York Times: Can ‘Team Science’ Yield A Covid-19 Treatment?
Xin Yin was excited to be visiting his parents in the Shandong Province of China last December. Yin, a researcher in the Immunity and Pathogenesis Program at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California, hadn’t been home in five years. So much had changed since then — a new high-speed rail station now connected his hometown with Beijing, for example. On Jan. 1, Yin was at the Beijing station, headed back to Shandong after seeing friends, when someone texted him about an unusual cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. Pneumonia, an infection of the lungs, is typically caused by the flu or another virus. Yin, whose Ph.D. is in molecular virology, was intrigued. He texted a friend who lives in Wuhan, as well as several others who work in hospitals, to see if they had heard anything about the cluster. It wasn’t the flu, they told him. (Tingley, 5/13)

The New York Times: He Was A Science Star. Then He Promoted A Questionable Cure For Covid-19.
When diagnosing the ills afflicting modern science, an entertainment that, along with the disparagement of his critics and fellow researchers, he counts among his great delights, the eminent French microbiologist Didier Raoult will lightly stroke his beard, lean back in his seat and, with a thin but unmistakable smile, declare the poor patient to be stricken with pride. Raoult, who has achieved international fame since his proposed treatment for Covid-19 was touted as a miracle cure by President Trump, believes that his colleagues fail to see that their ideas are the products of mere intellectual fashions — that they are hypnotized by methodology into believing that they understand what they do not and that they lack the discipline of mind that would permit them to comprehend their error. (Sayare, 5/12)

Undark: Where Psychologists Should Fear To Tread On Covid-19, They Don't
Consider the following brain teaser: A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? A researcher devised the question 15 years ago as a measure of our ability to move past intuitive responses to deeper, reflective thinking — a concept Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist and Nobel Prize winner in economics, would go on to explore in his 2011 book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.” It’s been popularized to the point you may already know the answer. (Hint: It’s not 10 cents, the response that springs to mind for most people. If you ponder a bit you’re more likely to arrive at the correct answer, which I’ll get to later.) (Carr, 5/6)

The Washington Post: The Staggering Coronavirus Toll At Nursing Homes Justifies Extreme Measures
Residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities account for roughly half of 1 percent of the U.S. population, and more than a third of the covid-19 deaths. That justifies extreme measures by federal officials and states, but so far both have balked. On a call Monday with governors, Vice President Pence strongly recommended testing at nursing homes nationwide, and Deborah Birx, the White House pandemic task force coordinator, said, “We really believe that all 1 million nursing home residents need to be tested within next two weeks as well as the staff,” according to a recording of the call obtained by the Associated Press. Yet, federal officials and most governors have stopped short of mandating such tests. An exception is New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D), who has ordered twice-weekly testing for nursing home staff in his state — and warned that facilities that fail to comply risk losing their operating licenses. Other governors should follow suit. (5/14)

Stat: Is Anthony Fauci Today's Galileo Galilei, The Champion Of Science? 
Defending science and scientific integrity can be a frustrating and lonely battle. As I watch Dr. Anthony Fauci do this on the news, I think of another “battler” who ultimately had the last word. In 1638, Galileo Galilei, had been under arrest for several years in his home in Arcetri, near Florence. The great scientist had been sentenced to confinement by the Roman Inquisition because he was “vehemently suspected of heresy.” (Mario Livio, 5/14)

Los Angeles Times: Rand Paul Isn't Subliterate Like Trump, But He Spreads Lies 
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, once a practicing ophthalmologist, is at it again. In a Senate hearing Tuesday, he faced down Anthony Fauci, immunologist and leader in President Trump’s coronavirus task force, on topics far from his specialty. In measured, professorial speech — a far cry from Trump’s subliterate yawps — Paul, who has boasted that he likes spreading misinformation, was disseminating the kind of lies that get people killed. He took on Fauci with bothsides-ism, pretending there’s a world of public-health experts who disagree with Fauci’s warning against recklessly reopening the economy. This just isn’t true. No public-health conflict exists. (Virginia Heffernan, 5/15)

Modern Healthcare: The Payer-Provider Disconnect
Call it the big disconnect. Thousands of healthcare provider groups face financial ruin. Tens of millions of Americans are losing insurance coverage. Yet private health insurers are doing just fine, thank you. So far, Congress has responded only to the provider crisis. Social distancing has cut hospital revenue by an estimated 30% to 40%. Local physician practices, with primary care hardest hit, have seen declines of up to 90%. (Merrill Goozner, 5/14)

Stat: Covid-19 Testing For All Isn't The Right Strategy For Moving Ahead 
In response to calls for Covid-19 testing of the entire U.S. population, several large universities, and even some employers, have announced plans for extensive Covid-19 testing of their employees (and students) to support a safe return to work and school. These efforts are based on expert recommendations, some of which call for repeated testing of the entire population (using the PCR test) every 14 days, or even more often. Such initiatives could require millions of tests in the U.S. each and every day. (Michael Hochman, 5/15)

The Hill: While Businesses May Open, Avoid Business As Usual 
The COVID-19 global pandemic continues to spread and impact the lives of the children who are out of school, the senior citizens who are most vulnerable to the virus, and pretty much everyone in between. To halt the spread, much of the nation has been social distancing and sheltering in place for over a month now. The good news is the curve is starting to show signs of flattening in certain parts of the country, bringing to light the urgent question on everyone’s mind: when can we reopen? (Dr. Emily Landon, Dr. Shikha Jain and Dr. Vineet Arora, 5/14)

Stat: Contact Tracing Must Balance Privacy And Public Health 
Contact tracing armies in California and New Jersey. Rapid-response contact tracing in Washington. Track and trace in Connecticut. Across the country, governors are putting contact tracing — the tried-and-true public health practice of finding individuals who were in contact someone with an infectious disease — front and center in their Covid-19 reopening strategies. (David Blumenthal and Richard Blumenthal, 5/15)

Los Angeles Times: Doctor Fights Coronavirus By Day, Loneliness By Night 
As I make my way into my building’s elevator after a long hospital shift, a neighbor throws his arm out to stop me. “Sorry,” he says, “only one person per elevator.” Seeing my confusion, our doorman kindly but firmly corrects him. “Two per elevator is fine.” I take a step toward the open doors, but the passenger again holds up his palm. “Please,” he pleads, his eyes glancing frantically at my scrubs. “Please, just take a different one.” Speechless, I take the next elevator and arrive at my New York City apartment filled with my son’s toys, untouched since he and my wife moved out nearly 40 days ago. (Samuel Yamshon, 5/14)

The Hill: COVID-19 Could Exacerbate Eating Disorders Rates In Children — Here's How To Combat It 
The COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily moved students’ classrooms to their dining room tables. This has been quite an adjustment for teachers, students and parents alike. While most districts around the country are continuing with virtual learning for at least the rest of the school year, we can’t afford to not focus on students’ physical and mental wellbeing as well as their academic success. (Joslyn Smith, 5/14) 

Stat: Life With Autism Has Been Completely Upended By Covid-19 
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted daily life for most people around the world. It has completely upended it for people with autism and their families. My son Muhammed — we call him Mu — is 15 years old and severely autistic... Like everyone else, Mu has good days and bad ones. But even on his good days, daily life can be a challenge. (Feda Almaliti, 5/15)

The Hill: Without Transparency, We Can't Trust Robot Operators — Especially In A Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic is exponentially increasing the need for robots in our already exceedingly robo-reliant lives... If we continue along this trajectory, our day-to-day lives will become even more robot intensive, with robots increasingly making or advising our decisions. This new reality will offer some benefits. But should we trust the operators of these intelligent robots that are becoming the fabric of our everyday lives? (Vasant Dhar, 5/14)

CNN: Restaurants Will Need A Miracle To Survive The Coronavirus Pandemic
Restaurants, especially independent ones, have been decimated by the pandemic. Without access to the same financing options as large corporate chains, restaurant owners like me have to figure out whether and how to stay open -- or just quit the business altogether... As more states begin phasing in restaurant reopening, many of us have no idea what the right move is. But we do know this: We need drastic, realistic solutions so restaurants can survive into the Covid-era future. (Rohini Dey, 5/14)

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)