AP: Virus Surge: Schools Abandon Classes, States Retreat
School systems in Detroit, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and suburban Minneapolis are giving up on in-person classes, and some governors are reimposing restrictions on bars and restaurants or getting more serious about masks, as the coast-to-coast resurgence of the coronavirus sends deaths, hospitalizations and new infections soaring. The crisis deepened at hospitals, with the situation so bad in North Dakota that the governor this week said nurses who test positive but have no symptoms can still work. Idaho clinics struggled to handle the deluge of phone calls from patients. And one of Utah’s biggest hospital systems is bringing in nearly 200 traveling nurses, some of them from New York City. (Smith and Murphy, 11/13)

The New York Times: Pandemic Shatters More Records In U.S., As States And Cities Tighten Restrictions
Public health officials in the United States announced more than 160,000 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the first day over 150,000 since the pandemic began — an alarming record that came just over a week after the country first experienced 100,000 cases in a single day. The pandemic has risen to crisis levels in much of the nation, especially the Midwest, as hospital executives warn of dwindling bed space and as coroners deploy mobile morgues. More than 100,000 coronavirus cases have been announced nationwide every day since Nov. 4, and six of the last nine days have broken the previous record. (11/13)

The Washington Post: Public Health Experts Sound Alarm About Coronavirus In The United States 
Public health experts are sounding the alarm about the trajectory of the pandemic in the United States as the coronavirus spreads through the country largely unabated and officials muse aloud about the possibility of fresh lockdowns. The experts use different language to underscore the situation’s urgency: Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Tom Frieden said the nation is experiencing a “dangerous time.” CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta called the crisis a “humanitarian disaster.” Epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who was recently named to President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus task force, described the situation bluntly as “covid-hell.” (Iati, 11/12)

Stateline: The Pendulum Was Swinging Toward Reopening Schools Then Came The Surge
Since the summer, the simmering state and local debate over reopening K-12 public schools has reflected the nation’s deep partisan divide on the coronavirus, with Republicans favoring openings and Democrats more likely to support a cautious approach. But new scientific evidence showing that in-person learning has resulted in relatively few outbreaks of COVID-19 — combined with growing concerns about learning and social development setbacks for kids — may be closing that chasm. (Vestal, 11/13)

The New York Times: What Places Are Hardest Hit By The Coronavirus? It Depends On The Measure 
The coronavirus is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace. Hospitals are filled to perilous levels. More than 120,000 new cases are being identified every day. And ever higher and more miserable records — of states’ cases, of positive testing rates, of hospitalizations — are being set, day after day. A pandemic that was once raging in New York and later across the Sun Belt is now spread so widely across the country that any number of cities and states might now be considered the worst off, depending on the measurement used. (Smith, Harmon, Tompkins and Fuller, 11/12)

Also —

The Hill: Fauci: Coronavirus Won't Be A Pandemic For 'A Lot Longer' Thanks To Vaccines 
Anthony Fauci said Thursday the global coronavirus outbreak will not be a pandemic for "a lot longer" because of the development of vaccines, striking a hopeful note even as the situation worsens in the short term. "Certainly it's not going to be pandemic for a lot longer because I believe the vaccines are going to turn that around," Fauci said at an event hosted by the think tank Chatham House. (Sullivan, 11/12)

Politico: Labs Sound Alarm On Coronavirus Testing Capacity, Supplies
Clinical laboratories are warning they could soon face delays processing coronavirus tests, similar to slowdowns this summer, as infections again surge to record numbers across the country. The nation’s testing capacity has increased, but not fast enough to keep pace with the swarm of new cases. Over the past week, the U.S. conducted nearly 10 million coronavirus tests, an increase of 12.5 percent from the previous week, while confirmed cases rose 40.8 percent to more than 875,000. (Lim, 11/12)

Modern Healthcare: Nurses Say Hospitals Aren't Prepared For COVID-19 Surge During Flu Season
Nurses allege that U.S. hospitals don't have basic infection control and prevention measures in place as they face another surge of COVID-19 cases, this time during flu season. In a recent survey, National Nurses United, a nationwide union of registered nurses, found that only 18% of nurses worked in hospitals where there was surge capacity planning and preparation. (Christ, 11/12)

The Washington Post: ‘Catastrophic’ Lack Of Hospital Beds In Upper Midwest As Coronavirus Cases Surge
Covid’s long, dark winter has already arrived in the Upper Midwest, as cases and deaths surge, snatching lives, overwhelming hospitals, exhausting health-care providers and raising fears that the region’s medical system will be completely overwhelmed in the coming days. As coronavirus cases grow across the United States — up 70 percent on average in the past two weeks, with an average of 130,000 cases per day nationally — the situation is particularly acute now in the Upper Midwest and Plains states, with North and South Dakota leading the nation in new cases and deaths per capita over the past week, according to Washington Post data. (Gowen and Bailey, 11/12)

Crain's Cleveland Business: Cleveland Clinic Postpones Some Nonessential Procedures As COVID-19 Surges
As COVID-19 cases soar, Cleveland Clinic is postponing nonessential surgical cases that require an inpatient hospital stay at most of its Ohio hospitals for Friday, Nov. 13, and Monday, Nov. 16 in the interest of ensuring it has "the staffing and resources needed to continue safely caring for our patients," according to a statement from the system. This week, Ohio reached the highest number of new COVID-19 cases, cracking 6,500 in one day. In 50 days, COVID-19 patients in Ohio hospitals increased 350%, according to the Ohio Hospital Association. (Coutré, 11/12)

ABC News: A Silent Trump Shows Little Sign Of Leading On Pandemic, Governing As He Refuses To Concede 
President Donald Trump, who has remained almost entirely out of sight for nearly a week, has demonstrated little evidence of -- or interest in -- governing in the wake of the election, as he persists in refusing to concede defeat. The president’s absence from the spotlight -- the longest stretch of silence of his presidency -- comes as the coronavirus pandemic rages across most of the country and the nation continues to break records for new cases and hospitalizations. (Phelps and Gittleson, 11/12)

AP: Trump, Stewing Over Election Loss, Silent As Virus Surges
President Donald Trump has publicly disengaged from the battle against the coronavirus at a moment when the disease is tearing across the United States at an alarming pace. Trump, fresh off his reelection loss to President-elect Joe Biden, remains angry that an announcement about progress in developing a vaccine for the disease came after Election Day. And aides say the president has shown little interest in the growing crisis even as new confirmed cases are skyrocketing and hospital intensive care units in parts of the country are nearing capacity. (Madhani and Miller, 11/13)

Also —

The Hill: Trump Campaign Adviser Corey Lewandowski Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser to President Trump's reelection campaign, has tested positive for the coronavirus, a source familiar with the matter confirmed on Thursday. Lewandowski is the latest person in Trump's orbit to contract the virus since Election Day, though it was not immediately clear when he became infected. (Samuels, 11/12)

Newsweek: At Least 8 Republican Staffers And 12 White House Officials Have Tested Positive For COVID After Election Day
COVID-19 has spread through the GOP since Election Day, affecting approximately 12 White House staff members and eight employees of the Republican National Committee (RNC), according to reporting from the Washington Post. (Martin, 11/12)

Reuters: Alaska Congressman Who Ridiculed Coronavirus Now Says He Has COVID-19 
The Alaska congressman who once ridiculed the seriousness of the novel coronavirus, calling it the “beer virus,” said on Thursday he is now infected with it. The announcement by Republican Representative Don Young, 87, comes as the state’s governor on Thursday warned that health-care and public-safety systems were at risk of being overwhelmed by the rapid spread of the virus across Alaska. (Rosen, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Chad Wolf Planning Latin America Trip Amid Staff Concerns About Coronavirus 
Acting Department of Homeland Security secretary Chad Wolf is making plans to travel to several countries in Latin America next month, a proposal that has raised concerns about the necessity of such a trip in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. ... There are no major conferences for Wolf to attend in the region that week, and at least one person familiar with the outlines of the plan referred to the trip as “a boondoggle.” “There are no specific events requiring the travel,” the person said. “The region is hard-hit by covid and embassies will be hard-pressed to deal with so many visitors in a covid-safe way.” (Miroff, 11/12)

Politico: Klain: Delayed Transition Could Hamper Coronavirus Vaccine Preparations 
The Trump administration's refusal to acknowledge Joe Biden's electoral victory could hinder the incoming team's preparations on pressing issues, including the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine, Biden's future chief of staff said Thursday. In his first public interview since being named chief of staff, Ron Klain called the current administration's stonewalling of Biden's transition "unreasonable," but added that the president-elect's preparations for the transfer were underway within legal limits. (Choi, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Democrats Allege GOP Refusal To Accept Election Results Is Imperiling U.S. Coronavirus Response
Congressional Democratic leaders accused Republicans on Thursday of refusing to confront the dramatically worsening coronavirus pandemic and instead acquiescing to President Trump’s false insistence that he won last week’s presidential election. Republicans dismissed the attacks and Trump didn’t weigh in at all, with his only public comments coming through a series of Twitter posts that included false claims of electoral success. As Washington has become paralyzed over the past 10 days, 1 million new people have tested positive for the virus as death numbers are climbing rapidly. (Werner, 11/12)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Transition Interrupted
Five days after the election was called for President-elect Joe Biden, President Donald Trump has not conceded — and instead ordered his administration not to begin the transition of power. That could have serious ramifications for health care, particularly as nearly every state is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases. One piece of good news is that early results for a coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer look promising. But that vaccine, even if it is approved soon, won’t likely be ready for wide distribution for several months. (11/12)

And comments swirl about the possibility of a national mask mandate —

ABC News: Biden Adviser Walks Back Earlier Proposal Calling For Lockdown 
Dr. Michael Osterholm, an adviser to President-elect Joe Biden, said in a phone interview late Thursday that he has not discussed with the incoming administration his earlier proposal to lock down the country for several weeks to try to curb a rising tide of coronavirus cases. “I’ve never discussed any of this with them,” Osterholm told ABC News. (Tatum and Flaherty, 11/13)

The Hill: Biden's COVID-19 Strategy: Lockdowns, Mask Mandates And More 
President-elect Joe Biden is likely to impose stiff COVID-19 response measures on America once in office. Biden staked his campaign’s closing argument on coronavirus, attempting to draw the starkest and most salient contrast with President Trump. Having narrowly won on this central commitment, he must not just confront coronavirus, but he must be definitively seen doing so. (J.T. Young, 11/12)

The Hill: Mississippi Governor Says He Will Fight National Lockdown If Biden Proposes One
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said his state will not comply with a mandatory six-week national quarantine should President-elect Joe Biden try to enforce one when he enters office. “We’re not going to participate in a nation-wide lockdown,” Reeves said during a Facebook Live COVID-19 update on Thursday, citing a Biden adviser’s suggestion that a collective effort to quell the coronavirus for longer than a month could prove successful. (Polus, 11/12)

In other news related to the transition —

AP: Biden Has Room On Health Care, Though Limited By Congress
President-elect Joe Biden is unlikely to get sweeping health care changes through a closely divided Congress, but there’s a menu of narrower actions he can choose from to make a tangible difference on affordability and coverage for millions of people. With the balance of power in the Senate hinging on a couple of Georgia races headed to a runoff, and Democrats losing seats in the House, Biden’s proposals for a public health insurance option and empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices seem out of reach. Those would be tough fights even if Democrats controlled Congress with votes to spare. (Alonzo-Zaldivar, 11/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden’s Penchant For Bold Stimulus To Test His Deal-Making Skills 
When Joe Biden takes office in January, a main focus will be continuing to pull the country out of the economic hole caused by the pandemic. He has been there before, running the Obama administration’s recovery plan as vice president. The priorities Mr. Biden touted during the financial crisis 12 years ago, and the lessons his team learned from that downturn, offer clues to how he’ll handle this one. (Schlesinger, 11/12)

The Hill: Powell Says Economy Will Still Need More Support Despite Progress Toward COVID-19 Vaccine 
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned Thursday that the U.S. economy will likely need further support from Congress and the central bank even if a coronavirus vaccine becomes available by the end of the year. Powell said that even if a vaccine is widely available, millions of people who lost their jobs to the pandemic will still struggle to find work as the economy attempts to recover from deeper long-term damage. (Lane, 11/12)

Politico: Alito's Politically Charged Address Draws Heat
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito delivered an unusually inflammatory public speech Thursday night, starkly warning about the threats he contends religious believers face from advocates for gay and abortion rights, as well as public officials responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking to a virtual conference of conservative lawyers, the George W. Bush appointee made no direct comment on the recent election, the political crisis relating to President Donald Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his defeat or litigation on the issue pending at the Supreme Court. (Gerstein, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Alito Responds To Liberal Critics, Says Covid-19 Is ‘Constitutional Stress Test’ 
Justice Samuel Alito fired back at liberal critics of the Supreme Court on Thursday, calling a 2019 brief filed by five Democratic senators “an affront to the Constitution and the rule of law” for suggesting that the court is a “sick institution” that may need to be “restructured.” “Let’s go back to some basics: the Supreme Court was created by the Constitution, not by Congress, and under the Constitution we exercise the judicial power of the United States,” Justice Alito said in remarks to the Federalist Society’s National Lawyers Convention. The society is a conservative lawyers network whose members—including former White House counsel Don McGahn—have dominated judicial appointments and legal policy during the Trump administration. (Bravin, 11/13)

AP: Justice Alito: COVID Restrictions 'Previously Unimaginable'
Alito was particularly critical of two cases earlier this year where the court sided with states that, citing the coronavirus pandemic, imposed restrictions on the size of religious gatherings. In both cases, the court divided 5-4 in allowing those restrictions to continue with Chief Justice John Roberts siding with the court’s liberals. In May, the high court rejected an emergency appeal by a California church challenging attendance limits at worship services. The justices turned away a similar challenge by a Nevada church in July. Alito said in both cases the restrictions had “blatantly discriminated against houses of worship” and he warned that “religious liberty is in danger of becoming a second-class right.” (Gresko, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Justice Alito Says Pandemic Has Resulted In ‘Unimaginable’ Restrictions On Individual Liberty
Alito said he was not criticizing officials for their policy decisions — “I’m a judge, not a policymaker” — and said before launching into the speech that he hoped his remarks would not be “twisted or misunderstood.” (Barnes, 11/12)

NBC News: Inhaled Medication May Help Covid-19 Patients, But More Studies Are Needed
An inhaled form of interferon — a drug commonly used to treat multiple sclerosis by injection — may help protect hospitalized Covid-19 patients from getting worse, according to a British drugmaker. Results were first released in July, but were published Thursday as a peer-reviewed study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. (Edwards, 11/12)

Stat: Pill For OCD And Anxiety May Prevent Worsening Covid-19, Early Study Says
A pill ordinarily prescribed to treat obsessive compulsive or anxiety disorder prevented symptoms of nonhospitalized Covid-19 patients from worsening compared to placebo, a small randomized controlled trial concludes, suggesting the drug’s immune-modulating effects could be further explored as a treatment for the disease. (Cooney and Herper, 11/12)

In vaccine news —

The Hill: Trump Administration Partners With Pharmacies For Wide COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution 
The federal government has reached agreements with pharmacies across the country to distribute a coronavirus vaccine for free when one becomes available. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the program will reach 60 percent of the pharmacies in every state and U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, including major chains and independent pharmacies to reach traditionally underserved areas. (Weixel, 11/12)

Stat: Placebo Patients Will Get Pfizer's Covid Vaccine. The Timing Is Complicated
Should patients who volunteer to be in Covid-19 vaccine studies, but who are assigned to get placebo, be offered the vaccine? As companies and regulators raced to start clinical trials in the summer, that question was left open. But for Pfizer and partner BioNTech, the answer now is not if but when. (Herper, 11/12)

Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19: Thousands Across Cincinnati Area Signed Up For Vaccine Trials
A key ingredient in the accelerating race to develop vaccines for the new coronavirus is Cincinnati. Nearly 10,000 local residents have already signed up to participate in clinical testing of at least eight potential candidate vaccines through hospital systems and private companies. Of those volunteers, at least 678 have so far gotten one of three possible vaccines, including 500 enrolled through Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center to test the candidate from the drug company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech. (Saker, 11/12)

ABC News: The Reality Behind Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan 
Early data revealed Monday that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine candidate could be up to 90% effective. The company still needs to submit its soon-to-be-completed late-stage data to the Food and Drug Administration for final authorization, but U.S. officials say they are prepared to begin distributing the vaccine as soon as they are given the green light. (Ordonez, 11/13)

Stat: Lawmakers Introduce Bill To Eliminate Use Of Dogs In Pharmaceutical Testing 
A bipartisan group of Congressional lawmakers has introduced a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to permit pharmaceutical companies to avoid running tests in dogs, an issue that has galvanized animal rights groups for years. The move comes amid growing criticism that the agency has failed to ease testing requirements, even as some drug makers have argued that such testing may sometimes be unnecessary. (Silverman, 11/12)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

The Hill: Indivior Hit With $600 Million In Civil And Criminal Penalties Over Marketing Of Opioid Addiction Treatment 
Drugmaker Indivior Solutions will pay $600 million in criminal and civil liability over its marketing of opioid-addiction treatment Suboxone, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced. Indivior pleaded guilty to a one-count misdemeanor in July for making false statements to Massachusetts’s Medicaid program, MassHealth, in order to expand access to the drug for children. (Williams, 11/12)

Stat: An FDA Adviser On Why His Panel Didn't Endorse Biogen's Alzheimer's Drug
The biggest question in biotech — other than whether Covid-19 vaccines will work — centers on Biogen and its years-long quest to win Food and Drug Administration approval for a polarizing treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. (Feuerstein, Garde and Tirrell, 11/13)

Stat: IVF Can Be A Painstaking Process. Could AI Make It More Precise? 
Artificial intelligence is gaining new ground in nearly every corner of the clinic — including, increasingly, in vitro fertilization. IVF has helped millions of families conceive. But it’s also expensive, often emotionally and physically grueling, and requires many patients to go through numerous rounds to get pregnant. Researchers are looking to see if AI can more precisely pick the most viable embryo to implant — and in turn, improve success rates, reduce the risk of pregnancy loss, and bring IVF costs down. (Snow, 11/12)

AP: California Approves Billions For Stem-Cell Research
California voters have granted the state’s nearly broke first-of-its-kind stem-cell research program a desperately needed $5.5 billion cash infusion. Following Thursday’s vote count update, Proposition 14 had a 325,000-vote lead and 51% of the votes. It was the narrowest margin of victory for any of this year’s 12 ballot questions. (Rogers, 11/13)

In other science and research news —

The Hill: Study Finds Black And Asian People In The US, Britain Have Higher Coronavirus Risk 
A study published Thursday concluded that Black and Asian people in the U.S. and Britain are at higher risk of coronavirus infection than white individuals. The study, which was published in one of the Lancet medical journals, reviewed records from more than 18.7 million patients across 50 studies to determine that Black people in both countries are twice as likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. (Coleman, 11/12)

CIDRAP: Study: Only 1 Of 32 COVID Survivors Testing Positive Had Live Virus
A JAMA Internal Medicine research letter today finds that 18% of recovered COVID-19 patients test positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but only 3% (1 of 32) carry replicating virus in their respiratory tract. Italian researchers studied 176 recovered COVID-19 patients admitted for post-acute follow-up treatment at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli IRCCS in Rome from Apr 21 to Jun 18. Patients had discontinued isolation according to current criteria—no fever for 3 consecutive days, improvement in symptoms, and two negative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results for the virus, 24 hours apart. (Kuebelbeck Paulsen, 11/12)

Stat: Cancer Patients Hesitant To Participate In Trials Amid Covid-19 Concerns
Cancer clinical trials have seen a drastic drop in patient enrollment since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, driven in part by some institutions pausing recruitment in order to prevent the spread of the virus. Bringing enrollment numbers back up safely will prove crucial for researchers running clinical trials and the drug companies that sponsor them. (Runwal, 11/12)

KHN: Clots, Strokes And Rashes: Is COVID A Disease Of The Blood Vessels?
Whether it’s strange rashes on the toes or blood clots in the brain, the widespread ravages of COVID-19 have increasingly led researchers to focus on how the novel coronavirus sabotages blood vessels. As scientists have come to know the disease better, they have homed in on the vascular system — the body’s network of arteries, veins and capillaries, stretching more than 60,000 miles — to understand this wide-ranging disease and to find treatments that can stymie its most pernicious effects. (Stone, 11/13)

KHN: ‘Breakthrough Finding’ Reveals Why Certain COVID Patients Die
Dr. Megan Ranney has learned a lot about COVID-19 since she began treating patients with the disease in the emergency department in February. But there’s one question she still can’t answer: What makes some patients so much sicker than others? Advancing age and underlying medical problems explain only part of the phenomenon, said Ranney, who has seen patients of similar age, background and health status follow wildly different trajectories. (Szabo, 11/13)

The New York Times: These Researchers Tested Positive. But The Virus Wasn’t The Cause. 
In mid-June, Timothy Wannier tested positive for the coronavirus. Within 48 hours of receiving his jarring result, he felt almost certain there had been a mistake. “The evidence was overwhelmingly obvious,” said Dr. Wannier, a geneticist at Harvard University. At the time, case numbers were down in Massachusetts, where he, his wife and two young children had been vigilantly sheltering in place for months. Dr. Wannier had no symptoms, and neither did any of his close contacts. To his knowledge, he had not been around the coronavirus at all. He had, however, spent the last couple days in a room teeming with pieces of the pathogen’s genetic material. (Wu, 11/12)

Modern Healthcare: 2.1 Million Patients Had Data Exposed In October-Reported Breaches
As of Thursday, HHS' Office for Civil Rights posted 59 data breach reports that healthcare providers, insurers and their business associates had submitted to the agency in October. In terms of patients affected, that's a 219.6% increase from October 2019, when organizations reported 53 breaches affecting nearly 677,300 patients. But 2.1 million is down from September, when 9.7 million patients had data exposed in a landmark 97 breaches—the highest number reported in a single month since OCR began tracking healthcare data breaches in 2010. (Kim Cohen, 11/12)

Modern Healthcare: Provider Relief Fund Contract Limits UnitedHealthcare's Use Of Provider Financial Data
The Health Resources and Services Administration set some initial guardrails for how UnitedHealthcare can use financial data it may acquire as healthcare providers apply for COVID-19 relief grants. The letter contract between UnitedHealthcare and HRSA for administering the Provider Relief Fund offers a first look into the parameters that structured a mammoth effort to quickly get billions of dollars into healthcare providers' bank accounts. The preliminary contract said the target date to sign a definitive contract was July 7, or more than four months ago, but no such agreement has been reached. (Cohrs, 11/12)

The Oklahoman: State Pursuing Health Information Network To Make Sharing Patient Information Easier
Oklahoma is making progress on the creation of a statewide health information exchange, a central repository for digital patient information. A priority of Gov. Kevin Stitt, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority is close to finalizing a contract with a company to create an exchange to make it easier for doctors, regardless of their health system, to access patient information. (Forman, 11/13)

Also —

The Hill: North Dakota Nurses Call For Mask Mandate, Reject Policy Allowing COVID-19-Positive Workers To Stay On Job 
A North Dakota nurses union is rejecting a policy that would allow COVID-19-positive nurses to continue treating patients at coronavirus units of hospitals and nursing homes if they are not symptomatic. In a statement released Wednesday, the North Dakota Nurses Association said the policy does not address the root of the problem and called for a statewide mask mandate and other public health measures to be implemented first. (Weixel, 11/12)

NPR: Even With Health Insurance, Many Americans Still Struggle With High Health Costs 
When it comes to worries about high health care costs, having health insurance doesn't necessarily spare you, according to a study recently published in JAMA. Despite the gains in insurance coverage brought by the Affordable Care Act, high health care costs continue to plague many Americans, researchers found. Around 11 million Americans experienced "catastrophic medical expenses" in 2017, the last year the study covered — and privately insured people represented more than half of those. (Kendrick, 11/12)

Modern Healthcare: Wendy Horton Named CEO Of UVA Medical Center
Wendy Horton has been named the chief executive of UVA Medical Center, the academic health system announced Thursday. Horton, who will officially take over Nov. 15, joined UVA Health in March as chief operating officer. Interim CEO Dr. K. Craig Kent has filled in for Pamela Sutton-Wallace, who left last year to join New York-Presbyterian Hospital. (Kacik, 11/12)

The Hill: CDC: Proportion Of Pediatric Emergency Room Visits For Mental Health Increased Sharply Amid Pandemic 
The proportion of mental health-related pediatric visits to hospitals are on the rise during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analysis released Thursday. The CDC data found mental health-related emergency room visits increased 31 percent for children between the ages of 12 and 17 from March to October compared to the same period in 2019. There was also a 24 percent increase in emergency room visits for children between the ages of 5 and 11. (Budryk, 11/12)

The New York Times: Teens In Covid Isolation: 'I Felt Like I Was Suffocating' 
The social isolation of the pandemic has taken a toll on the mental health of many Americans. But the impact has been especially severe on teenagers, who rely on their friends to navigate the maze and pressures of high school life. Research shows that adolescents depend on their friendships to maintain a sense of self-worth and to manage anxiety and depression. A recent study of 3,300 high school students found that nearly one-third reported feeling unhappy or depressed in recent months. (Goldberg, 11/12)

In other public health news —

USA Today: Amazon, Walmart See Online Grocery Shopping With Food Stamps Surge Amid Coronavirus, Reports Say
Shopping for groceries online for delivery or curbside pickup has grown in popularity amid the coronavirus pandemic with many shoppers looking to make fewer trips to stores. And using Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly referred to as food stamps, to pay for online grocery trips has been surging. (Tyko, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says He Tested Both Positive And Negative For Covid-19
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk, who has repeatedly played down the risk of the coronavirus since early in the pandemic, says he tested both positive and negative for Covid-19 on Wednesday and raised questions about the validity of such testing more broadly. Mr. Musk, on Twitter, said he was experiencing cold-like symptoms and, when taking four of the same tests administered on the same machine, had two results come back positive and two negative. (Wall, 11/13)

USA Today: Al Roker 'Relieved' To Be Home After Prostate Cancer Surgery
Al Roker appears to be in good spirits while sharing a health update. On Thursday, the 66-year-old "Today" show co-host and weatherman announced on Twitter that he's back home after undergoing surgery to have his prostate removed following his cancer diagnosis.  (Henderson, 11/12)

The New York Times: A Tough Call For Families: How To Spend Thanksgiving 
Just as the country cannot seem to agree on whether to wear masks or stay six feet apart, there are also disagreements bubbling up over how to celebrate Thanksgiving. To gather or not to gather? Masks or no masks? Is everyone invited or only a select few? Strong opinions can become a recipe for frustration and disappointment. (Caron, 11/11)

USA Today: Fact Check: No Evidence Mask Wearers Arrive In ICUs With Pneumonia
“There’s no evidence of masks leading to fungal or bacterial infections of the upper airway or the lower airway as in pneumonia,” said Dr. Davidson Hamer, infectious disease specialist and professor of global health and medicine at Boston University. (Fauzia, 11/12)

NBC News: Why Experts Say We Need To Stop Talking About Herd Immunity
Ali Mokdad is tired of hearing about herd immunity. A former official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mokdad spent years training his counterparts in other countries on how to respond to infectious disease outbreaks and how to develop immunization programs. As the idea of natural herd immunity has gained traction, Mokdad has not been shy with his reproach. (Chow, 11/11)

Also —

Bangor Daily News: Your Periods Are Causing A Lot Of Waste. Here Are Ways You Can Reduce It.
When it comes to ways to decrease our contribution to the waste stream, the thought of menstrual products often isn’t the first that comes to our heads. Increasingly, though, people who have periods are pursuing options that are reusable for their health, the environment and personal comfort. Periods have a significant impact on the environment. The average person with a menstrual cycle throws away 250 to 300 pounds of pads, tampons and applicators in their lifetime, according to “Flow: The Cultural History of Menstruation.”  Many disposable period products also contain chemicals that can leach into the soil in and around landfills. (Schipani, 11/12)

KHN: Black Hair Matters: How Going Natural Made Me Visible
The night before I chopped off my hair, I got nervous. This decision felt bigger than me, given all the weight that Black women’s hair carries. But after three months of wearing hats and scarves in a pandemic when trips to the hairdresser felt unsafe, I walked into a salon emotionally exhausted but ready to finally see my natural hair. (Anthony, 11/13)

KHN: Stanford Vs. Harvard: Two Famous Biz Schools’ Opposing Tactics On COVID
At the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Northern California, the stories got weird almost immediately upon students’ return for the fall semester. Some said they were being followed around campus by people wearing green vests telling them where they could and could not be, go, stop, chat or conduct even a socially distanced gathering. Others said they were threatened with the loss of their campus housing if they didn’t follow the rules. “They were breaking up picnics. They were breaking up yoga groups,” said one graduate student, who asked not to be identified so as to avoid social media blowback. “Sometimes they’d ask you whether you actually lived in the dorm you were about to go into.” (Kreidler, 11/13)

KHN: KHN On The Air This Week 
KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal discussed how to manage unexpected health care costs with CBSN on Wednesday. And KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the Affordable Care Act case before the Supreme Court with WBEZ’s “Reset” and WDET’s “Detroit Today” on Tuesday and with WHYY’s “Radio Times” on Wednesday. (11/13)

The Hill: Ivy League Cancels Winter Sports Amid US COVID-19 Pandemic Surge 
The Ivy League on Thursday announced that it would be cancelling competitions for winter sports and postponing spring sports through February 2021 due to continued safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic. The league is the first Division I college athletics conference to cancel its winter sports seasons. The league includes Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton and Yale. (Castronuovo, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Maryland Football Players At Hotel After Game Is Canceled 
Maryland’s football players are quarantining at a hotel near campus after eight members of the team tested positive for the novel coronavirus. They moved into individual rooms Wednesday evening after their game against No. 3 Ohio State scheduled for Saturday was canceled. Coach Michael Locksley said the team plans to stay in the hotel until Sunday afternoon, but there is no timeline for when the players could return to practice. The Terrapins are scheduled to play Michigan State at home Nov. 21, and Locksley said the team is preparing as though the game will go on as planned. (Giambalvo, 11/12)

The Hill: At Least 5 Passengers On First Caribbean Cruise In Months Tests Positive For COVID-19
At least five people who were aboard the first Caribbean cruise ship in months tested positive for COVID-19, according to a CNN report. NBC reported earlier on Wednesday that a passenger tested positive for the virus, citing a report from Gene Sloan, a reporter for the website The Points Guy who was on the ship. (Williams, 11/12)

The Hill: Hawaiian Airlines Letting Customers Trade Points For COVID-19 Test Kits 
Hawaiian Airlines is now allowing their customers to use their frequent-flier miles in exchange for COVID-19 test kits. The airline announced a partnership with Vault Health that provides members of their loyalty program with an opportunity to put their unused HawaiianMiles to use as air travel is down due to the global pandemic. (Polus, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Travel Insurance: What You Need To Know For Covid-19 And Beyond
The Covid-19 pandemic is prompting many travelers to take a new look at buying trip insurance. How much is this peace of mind worth? A typical plan covering contingencies like trip cancellation, interruption and medical emergencies could run from 5% to 10% of the total tab of your vacation, says Stan Sandberg, co-founder of travelinsurance.com, a policy-comparison site. Unless you choose carefully, however, you could still end up holding the bag if the worst happens. (Peterson, 11/12)

AP: Critics Speak Out On Tokyo Olympic Costs, Pandemic, Fairness
Three-time Olympic champion gymnast Kohei Uchimura wants the postponed Tokyo Olympics to happen next year. But he’s also talked openly about the skepticism in Japan where enthusiasm is muted by health risks, billions of dollars in taxpayer bills, and questions why the Games are a priority amid a pandemic. Polls over the last several months show Japanese — and Japanese companies — are divided about holding the Games, or doubtful they should be held at all. (Kageyama, Wade and Ueda, 11/13)

Vox: 80 Percent Of Those Who Died Of Covid-19 In Texas County Jails Were Never Convicted Of A Crime 
Over 230 people have died from Covid-19 in Texas’s correctional facilities — and in county jails, nearly 80 percent of them were in pretrial detention and hadn’t even been convicted of a crime, according to a new report. A team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin reviewed data from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), which has reported that at least 231 people have died of Covid-19 in the state’s correctional facilities between March and October. This report only looked at state-operated prisons and county-operated jails, as researchers were focused on how Texas’s Covid-19 prison policies had fared. (Demsas, 11/12)

Also —

The Washington Post: Prisons And Jails Have Become A ‘Public Health Threat’ During The Pandemic, Advocates Say 
Nobody knows how the ­novel coronavirus sneaked through the barbed wire and imposing gates of Ohio’s Pickaway Correctional Institution, where visitors and volunteers were barred from entering in March. But the first case showed up April 4. Within a week, 23 inmates and 17 staff members were found to be infected. One inmate, Charles Viney Jr., a 66-year-old with a collapsed lung, died hours after testing positive. Within a month, more than three-quarters of Pickaway’s roughly 2,000 inmates were confirmed positive. By the end of May, 35 were dead. (Standifer and Stead Sellers, 11/11)

NPR: Pandemic's Deadly Toll Behind Bars Spurs Calls For Change In U.S. Jails And Prisons
Prisoner's rights advocates are pleading for more action to help stop the deadly toll taken by the pandemic that has ravaged America's jails and prisons. Their calls come as the country grapples with increases in cases and hospitalizations from the coronavirus, forcing states and cities to impose tougher restrictions on public gatherings. The advocates want faster, early release of older and medically vulnerable inmates, those nearing their parole date, as well as non-violent prisoners with a track record of good behavior. (Westervelt, 11/12)

Lex18.com: Family Fears For Inmates As COVID-19 Cases In Kentucky Prisons Rise
As COVID-19 cases rise across Kentucky’s communities, so do the number of cases in the state’s prison system. There are a total of 367 active COVID-19 cases in the state’s 14 correctional facilities, according to the Kentucky Department of Correction’s most recent data. (Millar, 11/11)

The Morning Sun: COVID Outbreak Infects 131 Inmates In St. Louis Prison 
An outbreak of COVID-19 has infected 131 inmates at Central Michigan Correctional Facility in the last 10 days, leaving family of inmates fearing for their safety. Evelyn Jones, who lives in the Detroit area, is one of them. "Mama, I just don't want to die in here," she said her son Ricardo told her during a recent phone call. (Baerren, 11/12)

The Morning Call: Serious COVID-19 Outbreak Threatens Hundreds At Pa. Prison For Medically Vulnerable
A serious coronavirus outbreak is unfolding inside the Pennsylvania prison facility for medically vulnerable inmates diagnosed with cancer or other health problems, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are urgently pushing for a release plan. Four inmates at the Laurel Highlands facility in Somerset are in the hospital, and the facility reported its first death of the pandemic last week. In total, one-fifth of the prison’s inmates and staff are positive. (Jaafari, 11/12)

AP: Over 100 Active Virus Cases At West Virginia Federal Prison
There are 107 active cases of the coronavirus among inmates at a federal correctional institution in West Virginia. Gilmer County Health Department announced the numbers on Wednesday. The county of about 8,500 in central West Virginia has two other active cases. The federal facility has nearly 1,300 inmates. (11/13)

KSTP.Com: DOC Commissioner Responds To Family Members' Concerns About COVID Spread In Prisons
As COVID-19 cases increase across Minnesota, the disease is also spreading within the Department of Corrections’ facilities. Inmates at nine of the state's 11 prisons have now tested positive for the virus. Most notably, two inmates died in June after contracting COVID-19 while in custody at the Faribault facility. A third inmate died Nov. 1 after contracting the disease at the Stillwater prison. (Gray, 11/12)

Politico: Pandemic Invades Nursing Homes Again 
The coronavirus is surging in nursing homes once again, despite President Donald Trump’s promise to keep vulnerable residents of care facilities safe while encouraging most people to work, play, shop and attend school normally. Covid-19 cases in nursing homes saw a more than 40 percent increase from mid-September to Oct. 25 after seven weeks of steady decline, according to the most recent data. Nursing home operators and experts on long-term care say it’s basically impossible to keep the coronavirus from seeping in as cases spike in communities across the country. (Roubein, 11/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Nursing Homes See Surge In Coronavirus Cases Amid Statewide Spike
Coronavirus cases are starting to surge again in California nursing homes amid a third deadly wave of the virus. The spike is reigniting worries that accelerating community spread is spilling over to settings where residents are most vulnerable to dying from COVID-19. The number of new daily coronavirus cases at the state’s skilled nursing facilities has more than doubled since the start of November — from 42 on Nov. 1 to 101 on Nov. 10 — after a relatively steady decrease since August, according to state data. (Ho, 11/12)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Nursing Homes Seeing Increase In COVID-19 Cases, Deaths
The state's nursing homes are seeing an increase in coronavirus cases and deaths among residents and staff, and several groups are sounding the alarm to protect these vulnerable residents and those who care for them as the virus surges in Michigan and across the country. On Thursday, AARP Michigan said new coronavirus cases and deaths in nursing homes are reflective of recent upward trends in Michigan's general population and that there are shortages in staff and personal protective equipment (PPE). (Hall, 11/13)

The Providence Journal: RI Nursing Homes Seeing New Spike In COVID Cases
COVID cases are spiking in Rhode Island nursing homes. At least 230 new nursing-home resident cases were reported in the two weeks leading up to Wednesday, according to a state data update. Over the summer lull, cases had hovered at around 35 every two weeks. They’d slowly ticked up over the autumn, with just under 100 cases in the two weeks leading up to Nov. 4.  (Amaral, 11/12)

Buffalonews.Com: Brothers Of Mercy Nursing Home Fined $6,000 For Covid-19 Violation
The State Health Department fined a Clarence nursing home $6,000 after a worker failed to encourage three dementia patients to wear masks and maintain social distancing during a recreational activity. The Brothers of Mercy nursing home residents were not separated by 6 feet at a table where two of the individuals were working on a puzzle during an Aug. 18 infection control review, according to an inspector. (Michel, 11/12)

KHN: Prayers And Grief Counseling After COVID: Trying To Aid Healing In Long-Term Care 
A tidal wave of grief and loss has rolled through long-term care facilities as the coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 91,000 residents and staffers — nearly 40% of recorded COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. And it’s not over: Facilities are bracing for further shocks as coronavirus cases rise across the country. (Graham, 11/13)

Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago Issues Stay-Home ‘Advisory,’ 10-Person Limit On Social Gatherings 
Warning that up to 1,800 more Chicagoans could die by year’s end, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday issued a 30-day stay-at-home “advisory” and slapped a mandatory, 10-person lid on social gatherings to control a second surge of coronavirus cases that’s worse than the first. Two weeks to the day before Thanksgiving, Lightfoot implored Chicagoans to shake off “COVID fatigue,” avoid unnecessary travel, order small turkeys and resist the temptation to open their homes to extended family. (Spielman, 11/12)

NBC News: New Jersey Governor Pleads With Covid-Fatigued Residents To Choose Inconvenience Over Death
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy pleaded with coronavirus-fatigued residents on Thursday to keep following health guidelines, bluntly telling them the ultimate inconvenience is "when you die." Murphy rattled off a long series of numbers showing how the virus is spiking in New Jersey before a reporter asked what he'd say to state residents tired of Covid-19 protocols. (Li, 11/12)

NBC News: Ohio Gov. DeWine, In Risky Move, Reimposes Tougher Mask Mandate
Faced with skyrocketing numbers of new Covid-19 cases in his state, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has risked antagonizing his own Republican Party by reimposing a statewide mask mandate and bolstering it with some additional tougher guidelines. DeWine made the move on Wednesday as the number of new cases in Ohio jumped by 96 percent over the past two weeks and after nine straight days of logging 4,000 or more new Covid-19 infections a day in the state, the latest NBC News data showed. (Siemaszko, 11/12)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Kentucky Supreme Court Upholds Beshear's Emergency COVID-19 Orders
The Kentucky Supreme Court has upheld the authority of Gov. Andy Beshear to issue executive orders in an emergency, following a challenge to those he delivered in response to COVID-19. In a unanimous decision Thursday, the state high court found Beshear acted within the power granted to the governor under the Kentucky Constitution and state law to issue orders that have sparked heated political debate and rowdy public demonstrations at the Capitol. (Yetter, 11/12)

In news from Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, West Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi —

The Washington Post: Guests At Maine ‘Superspreader’ Wedding Returned To Work Despite Showing Symptoms, Report Says
A rural Maine wedding became a deadly superspreader event because guests refused to wear masks and later showed up to work despite feeling sick, according to an analysis published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report. Though not explicitly identified in the report, the Aug. 7 gathering at the Big Moose Inn in Millinocket has received copious media coverage and become a cautionary tale about the dangers of mass gatherings. To date, it has been linked to seven deaths, all among people who did not attend the wedding. (Farzan, 11/13)

Boston Globe: Public Health Officials Fear Evictions Could Worsen COVID-19 Spike In Mass.
As the coronavirus devastated Massachusetts last spring, Governor Charlie Baker and the Legislature quickly approved a previously inconceivable law: a sweeping eviction moratorium that not only forestalled new evictions but also halted roughly 11,500 cases already in process. The impetus was economic, of course, but the law was also supposed to prevent more people from getting sick. State officials deemed it unwise to expel people from their homes while urging everyone to shelter in place. Evictions often lead families to double up with relatives or friends — precisely what public health officials hoped to prevent. (Greenberg, 11/12)

NBC News: 'Chinese Virus' Sign At Doctor's Office Draws Rebuke
A sign at a chiropractor's office in New Jersey referring to the coronavirus as the "Chinese virus" is being slammed online as racist. Annesia Paraison took a photo of the sign Tuesday at the Jersey City office of Kevin Julian and uploaded it to Facebook. Paraison said she was visiting the office with her 17-year-old daughter, Nala, who was scheduled to meet with the doctor for the first time. (Griffith, 11/12)

West Virginia Gazette Mail: Lawsuit Claims State-Funded Health Plans Discriminate Against Transgender People 
Two West Virginians said their state-funded health insurance won’t cover hormone replacement therapy solely because they are transgender, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court Thursday. The men are challenging blanket exclusions of coverage for gender-confirming health care in West Virginia’s health plans, the state’s Medicaid program and the Public Employees Insurance Agency, most commonly called PEIA. (Pierson, 11/12)

Lexington Herald Leader: University Of Kentucky Union Wants Hazard Pay, More Telework 
Close to 50 students, faculty and staff marched the concrete pathways of the University of Kentucky campus Thursday to protest for COVID-19-related hazard pay, greater teleworking flexibility and a meeting with UK President Eli Capilouto. The march culminated in the masked crowd rhythmically chanting Capilouto’s name outside the university’s main administrative building, demanding the president come down and accept a petition signed by just over 1,000 concerned students, workers and local community members. Capilouto never appeared. Tom Harris, the vice president for university relations, accepted the thick stack of the printed pages of the online petition and promised to get it to Capilouto. (Childress, 11/12)

Clarion-Ledger: Medical Marijuana In Mississippi: Why Did It Pass?
Politicians didn't want it. Leaders in medicine, law enforcement and religion warned against it. Conservative talk radio railed against it. The Legislature, after years of inaction, offered an alternative. Voters bucked that advice. They easily passed Initiative 65 on Nov. 3, amending the constitution and legalizing medical marijuana. (Bologna, 11/11)

The New York Times: Measles Deaths Soared Worldwide Last Year, As Vaccine Rates Stalled 
Measles deaths worldwide swelled to their highest level in 23 years last year, according to a report released Thursday, a stunning rise for a vaccine-preventable disease and one that public health experts fear could grow as the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt immunization and detection efforts. The global death tally for 2019 — 207,500 — was 50 percent higher than just three years earlier, according to the analysis, released jointly by the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Hoffman, 11/12)

AP: US Military Flew Terminally Ill Bahrain Premier To America
The U.S. military flew Bahrain’s terminally ill prime minister to America for hospital care two months before his death, the State Department acknowledged Friday, underlining the importance of the island kingdom. The care offered to Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa came just after the U.S. military similarly flew Kuwait’s late ruling emir to the same Mayo Clinic hospital in Minnesota. Both countries host major U.S. military bases in the region and are considered major non-NATO allies, granting them military and economic privileges with America. (Gambrell, 11/13)

AP: Travelers To Spain Must Provide Negative COVID-19 Test
Travelers bound for Spain from countries considered high-risk areas for the coronavirus will be asked to provide proof of a negative test to visit the European country, authorities said Wednesday. Starting Nov. 23, travelers to Spain will be required to submit a negative test result from within 72 hours prior to their planned departure. They will be able to do so via the internet, a smartphone application, or with a document before boarding a plane or boat. (Wilson, 11/11)

The New York Times: An Explanation For Some Covid-19 Deaths May Not Be Holding Up 
Medical researchers are raising significant doubts about whether an agent of the human immune system causes some coronavirus patients to end up in the hospital with injured lungs and other organs, struggling to breathe. What remains is a continuing mystery about what causes certain people to die from Covid-19, and how best to prevent that. A hypothesis that emerged early in the pandemic involves cytokine storms, an immune system response that is often invoked to explain severe viral infections, and to many doctors it seemed to make perfect sense: Patients who died from Covid were found to sometimes have little or no virus in their bodies. Their immune systems got rid of it. But in doing so, the hypothesis went, their body’s defenses went rogue, spewing out powerful compounds — cytokines and other drivers of inflammation — that fatally damaged tissues and organs in a storm. (Kolata, 11/8)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccines For The Developing World? India's Serum Institute Holds The Key. 
Adar Poonawalla is an Indian billionaire whose family-owned firm makes more vaccines a year than any other company on Earth. Ask him about the race for a coronavirus vaccine and he will offer some unvarnished opinions. One prominent vaccine candidate requiring ultra-cold storage is “a joke” that will not work for the developing world. Anyone who declares how long a vaccine will confer immunity is talking “nonsense.” The world’s entire population will not be immunized until 2024, he says, contrary to rosier predictions. Poonawalla is equally frank about the gamble his company, Serum Institute of India, is making in the pandemic. He is putting $250 million of his family’s fortune into a bid to ramp up manufacturing capacity to 1 billion doses through 2021. (Slater, 11/11)

The New York Times: Travel And Coronavirus Testing: Your Questions Answered 
For those who must travel, or those who are itching to do so, airlines and airports are increasingly offering ways to get tested for the coronavirus ahead of a trip. Taking a test can assure you and others that you aren’t spreading the virus from one place to another. In recent weeks, some destinations, like Hawaii, New York, Washington, D.C., and some Caribbean countries began allowing people who have tested negative for the virus and can show test results to skip mandatory 14-day quarantines, a process that some view as risky because it is possible that people can take a test, receive a negative result and then contract the virus later. (Mzezewa, 11/10)

Also —

ProPublica: People With Developmental Disabilities Were Promised Help. Instead, They Face Delays And Denials. 
Kyra Wade’s favorite color is pink. The 11-year-old likes road trips and the movie “Monsters, Inc.” She loves to watch people laugh. Her culinary preferences run to noodles and rice. Beyond that, her parents don’t know much about her needs and wants. Kyra is autistic and profoundly deaf. She was born premature at about 27 weeks, just a little over 2 pounds, which has impacted pretty much everything: eyesight, hearing, digestion, sleep patterns. A strong tremor in her hand makes it impossible for her to use American Sign Language. Her parents think she recognizes a couple dozen signs. (Silverman and Devoid, 11/5)

NPR: Author Details 'Living With Death' And Embracing Life With A Heart Condition 
Eleven years ago, when she was 24, Katherine Standefer was working as a ski instructor and a climbing teacher in Jackson, Wyo., when she suddenly passed out in a parking lot. She later learned that she has long QT syndrome, a genetic heart condition in which the heart can suddenly quiver instead of rhythmically pumping blood."[The syndrome] can lead to there not being enough blood in vital organs, which causes someone to pass out," Standefer says. "If they're lucky, they might wake back up. If they're not lucky, they could die of sudden cardiac death." Standefer was lucky to survive the parking lot incident, but she had a problem: She didn't have health insurance. (Davies, 11/10)

The New York Times: Build Mental Endurance Like a Pro
There’s a special kind of exhaustion that the world’s best endurance athletes embrace. Some call it masochistic, others may call it brave. When fatigue sends legs and lungs to their limits, they are able to push through to a gear beyond their pain threshold. These athletes approach fatigue not with fear but as a challenge, an opportunity. It’s a quality that allows an ultramarathoner to endure what could be an unexpected rough segment of an 100-mile race, or a sailor to push ahead when she’s in the middle of the ocean, racing through hurricane winds alone. (Minsberg, 11/7)

And The Marshall Project examines health care in the prison system —

The Marshall Project: When Going To The Hospital Is Just As Bad As Jail
The ambulance was rushing to a psychiatric hospital, with Y. strapped to a gurney, asking the medics: Why? Why were they taking her there? Just that morning, she’d noticed her speech quickening—a symptom of her bipolar disorder—and made an appointment with her doctor for the next day to adjust her medication. She knew she was “wavering,” but was being proactive so it didn’t disrupt her life. (She asked to go by her middle initial only, concerned that speaking openly about her mental illness could affect her current job search.) (Thompson, 11/8)

The Marshall Project: A State-By-State Look At Coronavirus In Prisons 
Since March, The Marshall Project has been tracking how many people are being sickened and killed by COVID-19 in prisons and how widely it has spread across the country and within each state. Here, we will regularly update these figures counting the number of people infected and killed nationwide and in each prison system until the crisis abates. (11/6)

Los Angeles Times: The Biden Presidency Can Bring Science Back To Washington
President-elect Joe Biden has a lot of repair work to do on America, much of which will be difficult, if not impossible, if Senate Republicans are bent on obstructing him. There’s one area, though, where he could unravel a lot of Trump administration damage fairly quickly and easily: Biden can bring science back to Washington. (11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden’s Lockdown Lobby
Did you enjoy the days at home from mid-March to May? The 22 million lost jobs, the shuttered storefronts, the neighborhood shops out of business, the kids unable to attend school, and the near economic depression? Well, congratulations, a reprise may be coming your way if Joe Biden heeds his Covid-19 advisory team. We’ve told you about Ezekiel Emanuel, the advisory committee member who wanted new lockdowns during the summer flare-up in the Sunbelt states. Lucky for the country that his only power then was appearing on MSNBC. (11/12)

Dallas Morning News: Biden Must Focus On COVID-19, But Another Sweeping Shutdown Would Be Devastating
It appears that Biden will properly focus more directly on a better response. However, calls for sweeping shutdowns and other highly restrictive mandates should be approached with caution. The U.S. economy is recovering, but a major shutdown would be devastating, causing financial duress and wreaking havoc on mental health and wellness. While targeted restrictions may be essential in many places, a broad-based lockdown would cause immense harm. Greater encouragement of basic safety measures is already forthcoming from the president-elect, which experts agree can have major positive consequences. (Ray Perryman, 11/13)

The New York Post: Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Advisers Are Worse Than The Disease
Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board looks pretty . . . sick. One of his top guys wants a six-week national lockdown, with mass borrowing to pay all the sidelined workers. Another wanted the country to go on lockdown for 18 months — and doesn’t believe life is worth living after age 75. Biden adviser Michael Osterholm said Wednesday that locking down America for four to six weeks is needed while we wait for a vaccine to begin rolling out. He’s an epidemiologist by trade but seems to consider himself an economic expert, too. (11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: We Don’t Need Government Mandates For Covid Vaccination
Covid-19 vaccines are almost here. Pfizer announced Monday that its vaccine has proved more than 90% effective in clinical trials. But vaccines are useless unless people take them, and it’s likely many will refuse. The drumbeat is growing louder for the government to mandate vaccination. On Saturday the New York State Bar Association urged Albany to require Covid-19 vaccines for all New Yorkers regardless of religious objection. While courts have upheld state vaccine mandates in the past, a societywide mandate would be overbroad and unduly coercive. Private initiatives will work better. (Joel M. Zinberg, 11/12)

The Hill: Biden-Harris COVID-19 Advisory Board Should Be Met With Cautious Optimism 
I intently studied the names of the Biden-Harris COVID-19 advisory board, and it was hard not to be impressed: a former FDA head and Surgeon General, infectious disease specialists, ethicists, epidemiologists, and a front-line ICU physician. Good, I thought, I can exhale. But what should be the public’s expectation of these 13 highly qualified men and women — nine of whom parenthetically are members of underrepresented minorities, a group hit especially hard by the pandemic? (Dr. David Weill, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Three Feet Of Social Distancing Should Be Enough In Schools 
The requirement for six feet of distancing has forced many schools to limit the number of students attending in person due to space constraints and thus has become a key factor keeping millions of kids home. That’s a mistake. Six feet should be the default minimum for adults, but it’s past time we recognize that kids are different and the importance of schools is different, especially for the youngest learners. Three feet should be the default distance for schools. (Joseph G. Allen and Sara Bleich, 11/12)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Illinois, Missouri Approach Pandemic Differently, But The Results Are The Same
Although urban areas surrounding Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City are re-entering full crisis mode, with hospitals becoming overwhelmed and emergency rooms turning away patients, the real story is in the more rural parts of both states where precautionary measures are neither being observed nor enforced. In many places, such as Jefferson County, those precautionary measures were openly mocked just a few months ago with protest signs comparing mask mandates to Hitler’s Germany. (11/12)

Sacramento Bee: COVID-19 Cases Rising, Sacramento Must Enforce Indoor Rules
Some of us may be done with COVID-19, but COVID-19 is not done with us. Sacramento County’s spiking coronavirus case numbers have pushed our community back into the purple tier, meaning the infection threat has once again become severe. Now, after months of gradual reopening, Sacramento faces another round of restrictive closures. State rules require a shutdown of all indoor dining, fitness and religious services. Malls, movie theaters and museums must also halt indoor operations. Schools that have not yet reopened must now postpone in-person classes. (11/11)

Stat: Did The Pursuit Of Purpose Affect This Year's Presidential Election? 
As a people, Americans are exceptionally unhappy. In a survey conducted at the start of October, we found that 30% of U.S. adults felt depressed. That’s double what we found in a similar survey last April and triple the rate reported in 2017 and 2018. In fact, over the almost 50 years since pollsters began measuring the national mood, never have so few people — only 14% — reported feeling very happy. (Vic Strecher and Will Johnson, 11/13)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Failure To Cooperate With Biden’s Transition Is Unthinkable
We need vaccine development and distribution. We need to create protocols to reopen the economy. At the same time, we must protect ourselves from foreign adversaries and defend cyberspace. That requires providing the president-elect and his team with intelligence briefings and access to the agencies across the government. Protecting our national and health security interests requires the coordination and cooperation between the departing team of the 45th president and the incoming team of the 46th. For the sake and health of the American people, that work should start today. (Thad Allen, 11/12)

Fox News:  ObamaCare Court Challenge No Threat To Preexisting Conditions Coverage
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a Trump administration challenge to ObamaCare. The case, which the justices reacted to with skepticism during proceedings, has generated hundreds of breathless media reports about its supposed threat to Americans with preexisting health conditions. "Back to the dark ages on preexisting conditions," reads a headline on a column by Michael Hiltzik in The Los Angeles Times. President-elect Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that the challenge was a "cruel" attack on Americans' health care. This perspective is fearmongering, not facts. In reality, people with preexisting conditions are not threatened by the legal challenge to ObamaCare. (Alfredo Ortiz and Tom Price, 11/12)

The Salt Lake Tribune: ACA Was A Huge Relief For Disabled Utahns. It Must Stay In Place. 
For years, patients have fought against attempts to undo the protections that barred discrimination against people with chronic illness, mental illness and a variety of other disabilities. Now, with another pending legal challenge heard by the Supreme Court this week, the disabled community is again fighting to protect our care and grappling with the risk to our health. (Stacy Stanford, 11/12)

The New York Times: What Biden Can Do About Climate Change
During the months that Joe Biden and President Trump were campaigning against each other, vast sections of the American West caught on fire. More than five million acres burned, and the air in California, Oregon and Washington was sometimes more harmful to breathe than in the pollution-clogged cities of India. (David Leonhardt, 11/13)

The New York Times: Leave Fat Kids Alone
I was in the fourth grade, sitting in a doctor’s office, the first time my face flushed with shame. I was, I had just learned, overweight. I will remember the pediatrician’s words forever: It’s probably from eating all that pizza and ice cream. It tastes good, doesn’t it? But it makes your body big and fat. I felt my face sear with shame. (Aubrey Gordon, 11/13)