AP: Trump, First Lady Positive For Virus; He Has 'Mild Symptoms'
resident Donald Trump is experiencing “mild symptoms” of COVID-19 after revealing early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus, a stunning announcement that plunged the country deeper into uncertainty just a month before the presidential election. Trump, who has spent much of the year downplaying the threat of a virus that has killed more than 205,000 Americans, said he and Mrs. Trump were quarantining. The White House physician said the president was expected to continue carrying out his duties “without disruption” while recovering. A White House official said Friday morning that the president was experiencing mild symptoms but was working from the White House residence. (Colvin and Miller, 10/2)

Politico: Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
The 74-year-old president disclosed his diagnosis in a tweet at 12:54 a.m. on Friday, hours after news broke that top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19,” he tweeted, referencing first lady Melania Trump. “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!“ (Choi, McGraw and Cook, 10/1)

The New York Times: Trump Tests Positive For The Coronavirus 
Mr. Trump, who for months has played down the seriousness of the virus and hours earlier on Thursday night told an audience that “the end of the pandemic is in sight,” will quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, forcing him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail only 32 days before the election on Nov. 3. (Baker and Haberman, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Trump Says He And First Lady Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus 
The diagnosis is a jolt for the country’s leadership and had some advisers early Friday discussing the continuity of government should the president’s condition grow worse. The vice president was not known to be infected. Trump’s early-morning announcement marked an extraordinary turn for the first family, coming little more than a month before Election Day and as Trump has escalated his campaign pace in an effort to catch Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who leads in national and key state polls. Trump, aides and voters say, trails largely because of his handling of the virus, which has dominated voters’ attention along with the economic collapse caused by pandemic shutdowns. (Dawsey and Itkowitz, 10/2)

What are the health risks? —

The New York Times: Trump Has The Coronavirus. What Risks Does He Face?
In a statement, the president’s physician said Mr. Trump, who is 74, was “well” but did not say whether he was experiencing symptoms. He said the president would stay isolated in the White House for now. Here is what we know about how the virus could affect people with his general profile. (Wee, 10/2)

The Guardian: Donald Trump's Age And Weight May Cause Covid Complications, Doctors Say
Doctors have warned that the US president, Donald Trump, has numerous factors placing him at risk of complications from Covid-19, including his age and being overweight. ... Dr Barry Dixon, an intensive care physician at St Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne, said Trump’s risk would increase if he developed pneumonia, which is associated with a high Covid-19 mortality rate, especially in patients over 65 and those who have cardiovascular disease or conditions affecting blood vessels of the brain. (Davey, 10/2)

AP: Statement From Trump's Doctor On President's Virus Diagnosis
Text of a statement from Sean Conley, physician to the president: I release the following information with the permission of President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. This evening I received confirmation that both President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The President and First Lady are both well at this time, and they plan to remain at home within the White House during their convalescence. (10/2)

Get More News On Trump's Health: KHN's Morning Briefing rounds up many more stories, including who else could be exposed, what's next for the administration, the election impact and the global reaction.

Politico: Trump Coronavirus Diagnosis Leaves Lawmakers Exposed
President Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis exposes the Capitol's laissez-faire approach to testing for the deadly disease, particularly for congressional Republicans who interact regularly with the president and his top aides. The president regularly hosts Republican senators at the White House, including for the introduction of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. At these events, these lawmakers and much of the crowd are maskless. (Levine and Everett, 10/2)

USA Today: Trump Tests Positive For COVID-19: Here's Where He's Recently Traveled
Trump, 74, is known for staying busy and traveling around the country for both work and play. But he was especially active these past seven days, including hosting rallies, taking part in the debate, and introducing his Supreme Court nominee. The White House uses rapid tests made by Abbott that allow for quicker results and officials are tested frequently. It can take up to four days to develop enough viral particles in your nose for a test to come back positive, meaning the day you are exposed, you likely would not get positive test results.  (Hayes, 10/2)

The New York Times: The Week Where Trump Went From Coronavirus Strategy To Testing Positive 
On Monday, President Trump updated the nation on the administration’s coronavirus testing strategy and announced a plan to distribute 150 million rapid tests. By early Friday morning, he had the virus himself. On the days in between, Mr. Trump interacted with scores of staff members, donors and supporters. Even the woman he has nominated to the Supreme Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, has been at the White House this week. (Karni and Haberman, 10/2)

AP: Timeline Of Trump's Activities In Week Coronavirus Hit Home
With just a month to go until the election, President Donald Trump had a busy schedule during the week the coronavirus hit home with him. Trump tweeted early Friday that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus. (10/2)

CNN: White House Officials Knew Hope Hicks Tested Positive — But Trump Still Traveled For A Fundraiser
A small group of White House officials knew by Thursday morning that Hicks had contracted Covid-19, according to CNN Correspondent Kaitlan Collins — but Trump still took a trip to New Jersey for a fundraiser, and press secretary Kayleigh McEnany still held a news briefing at the White House on Thursday. McEnany didn't wear a mask at the briefing, and made no mention of Hicks' diagnosis to reporters in the room, Collins said. (10/2)

CNN: White House Residence Staff 'Nervous' After Trump Tests Positive For Covid-19, Source Says
Staff at the White House Executive Residence are feeling "nervous" over President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump testing positive for Covid-19, a source familiar with White House operations told CNN Friday. The residence staff, who serve, cook and clean for the first family, is "very careful, but there is concern," the source said. (Bennett, Salama and Marquardt, 10/2)

The Atlantic: Trump Has COVID: Now What? 
The gravest of what-ifs has become a “what now?”: This morning, while many Americans were sleeping, President Donald Trump announced that he and the first lady have tested positive for the coronavirus. He disclosed his diagnosis in a tweet, sent at nearly 1 a.m. Eastern time: “We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” (Madrigal and Meyer, 10/2)

CNBC: Vice President Pence Tests Negative For Covid-19 After Trump's Positive Result
Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence have both tested negative for the coronavirus, Pence’s spokesman said Friday, hours after President Donald Trump announced he and the first lady tested positive. “As has been routine for months, Vice President Pence is tested for COVID-19 every day,” said Devin O’Malley, the vice president’s press secretary, in a tweet. (Breuninger, 10/2)

Business Insider: Pence Sent Wishes To Trump After Caught Virus, Is In Line To Take Over 
Vice President Mike Pence said that he and his wife "send our love and prayers" to President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump after they both tested positive for the coronavirus. Pence said in a statement early on Friday morning: "Karen and I send our love and prayers to our dear friends President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS Melania Trump." (Baker, 10/2)

Reuters: How Mike Pence Could Temporarily Assume Control If Trump Becomes Incapacitated
Like two U.S. presidents before him, Donald Trump could temporarily hand over power to his vice president should he become incapacitated, for example while undergoing a medical procedure as treatment for the coronavirus. Under Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment, adopted in 1967 following the 1963 assassination of President John Kennedy, Trump could declare in writing his inability to discharge his duties. (10/2)

Newsweek: Mike Pence Then Nancy Pelosi To Serve As Acting President If Trump Unable To Perform Duties
Under Section 4, if the president were too sick to invoke Section 3, the vice president, along with a majority of the Cabinet, can inform Congress the president is unable to carry out his role. In both instances, the vice president would undertake the role of acting president until the president were able to say he is ready to fulfil his duties once again. In the circumstance that Pence were also to become unable to fulfil the role, Pelosi as speaker of the House would be able to quit that position to then undertake it, under the scope of the Presidential Succession Act 1947.Trump has previously said it would be a "total disaster" if this were to happen. (Jarvis, 10/2)

USA Today: Trump COVID Positive Test: Biden Offers Thoughts, Prayers To President
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his wife Jill offered their thoughts and prayers Friday after President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus. "Jill and I send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery," Biden, a former vice president, said in a tweet. "We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family." (Jansen, 10/2)

USA Today: 'May God's Healing Powers Touch Them': Twitter Reacts After President Donald Trump Announces He And Melania Are Positive For COVID-19
From world leaders to TV commentators, wishes for prayers and a speedy recovery poured in early Friday across Twitter after news broke that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the coronavirus. White House officials, meanwhile, sought to reassure the public that the government remained in steady hands. Trump himself did not add much detail in his tweet announcing that he and his wife had tested positive, though Melania later tweeted that they "are feeling good." (Woodyard, Santucci and Flores, 10/2)

NBC News: Bipartisan 'Get Well Soon' Wishes For Trump, But Some Democrats Send Pointed Message
Messages for a quick recovery from lawmakers and world leaders began flooding in Friday, reacting to the news that President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have tested positive for Covid-19. It was bipartisan — Democrats and Republicans offered prayers and wishes of "get well soon" to the president and his wife, with some Democrats wondering whether contracting coronavirus would change Trump's outlook on the pandemic. (Shabad, 10/2)

AP: Shock, Sympathy, Mockery: World Reacts To Trump Infection
World leaders were quick to weigh in, with official sympathy from the top and something approaching schadenfreude elsewhere. Trump joins a growing list of the powerful who have contracted the virus, including many who were skeptical of the disease. “I hope that your inherent vitality, good spirits and optimism will help you cope with the dangerous virus,” Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote in a direct message to Trump released by the Kremlin.(Klug, 10/2)

AP: Trump Joins Growing List Of Virus-Infected World Leaders
President Donald Trump has tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders who have been infected. Trump is 74, putting him at higher risk of serious complications. Here’s a look at other leaders who have had the virus. (Anna, 10/2)

USA Today: Donald Trump Joins Small Group Of World Leaders Who Caught Coronavirus
From Washington to Madrid, politicians across the globe have been exposed to the virus, and in some cases caught it. Here's our watch list of presidents, prime ministers and supreme leaders who have been tested or may be at risk for infection.  (Shesgreen and Hjelmgaard, 10/2)

Also —

AP: The Latest: UK's Johnson Wishes Trump 'Speedy Recovery'
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is wishing U.S. President Donald Trump a “speedy recovery” from COVID-19. Johnson tweeted Friday morning: “My best wishes to President Trump and the First Lady. Hope they both have a speedy recovery from coronavirus.” (10/2)

Reuters: WHO Boss Wishes Trump Full And Speedy COVID-19 Recovery
The head of the World Health Organization, a body which U.S. President Donald Trump has savaged for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Friday sent his best wishes to Trump and his wife Melania after they tested positive for coronavirus. “My best wishes to President @realDonaldTrump and @FLOTUS for a full and speedy recovery,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyeusus said in a Tweet. (10/2)

Daily Beast: Hannity Touts Hydroxychloroquine After Trump Tests Positive For COVID-19
Fox News host Sean Hannity reacted to the news of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis by touting the ineffective COVID-19 therapeutic hydroxychloroquine, claiming the nation is on the “back end” of the pandemic, and boasting that the president’s partial China travel restriction saved millions of Americans lives.The world stopped late Thursday night after it was revealed that the president and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, which has killed over 200,000 Americans. The news came as close White House aide Hope Hicks also tested positive for the disease. (Baragona, 10/2)

The New York Times: What President Trump Has Said About Wearing Masks
During the course of the outbreak, the president has expressed confidence that the virus would quickly go away and skepticism about the value of wearing masks. (Serviss and Paybarah, 10/2)

Kaiser Health News: The Mask Hypocrisy: How COVID Memos Contradict The White House’s Public Face 
While the president and vice president continued to forgo masks at rallies, the White House was quietly encouraging governors to implement mask mandates and, for some, enforce them with fines. In reports issued to governors on Sept. 20, the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommended statewide mask mandates in Iowa, Missouri and Oklahoma. The weekly memos, some of which were made public by the Center for Public Integrity, advocate mask usage for other states and have even encouraged doling out fines in Alaska, Idaho and, recently, Montana. (Weber and Houghton, 10/2)

Reuters: In His Own Words: Trump And The Coronavirus 
While facing sharp criticism for his response to an outbreak that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States alone, the president has touted his management of the crisis. Here is a timeline of some of his comments: (10/2)

In related news —

The New York Times: Outbreak At Secret Service Training Center Underlines Proximity Of Virus To White House 
The Secret Service sustained a coronavirus outbreak in August at its training facility in Maryland, evidence of how close the pandemic has been to President Trump’s White House in the weeks before he was infected. At least 11 employees at the center in rural Maryland tested positive for the virus even though the agency had closed it for several months this year to enforce procedures to mitigate transmission, according to officials with knowledge of the matter. (Kanno-Youngs and Schmidt, 10/2)

CNN: Joe Biden "Needs To Be Immediately Tested," Says CNN'S Chief Medical Correspondent
Former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden needs to be tested for Covid-19 after having been on the same stage as President Trump on Tuesday night for the first presidential debate in Cleveland, said CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. (10/2)

The New York Times: Trump’s Positive Coronavirus Test Upends Campaign In Final Stretch
President Trump’s announcement early Friday that he had contracted the coronavirus upended the presidential race in an instant, inviting significant questions about his cavalier attitude toward the pandemic and the future of his campaign just 32 days before the election. Mr. Trump had already been trailing in the polls to Joseph R. Biden Jr., in part because of his mishandling of a virus that has unsettled the day-to-day lives of voters for over six months. He compounded his difficulties by disregarding and at times belittling the basic precautions, such as wearing a mask, that his health advisers were urging Americans to take to protect themselves. (Martin, Haberman and Stevens, 10/2)

Politico: ‘This Is The Worst Nightmare For The Trump Campaign’
Donald Trump had done everything possible to shift the focus of the presidential campaign away from his handling of the coronavirus. His own infection now ensures that he can’t – pulling Trump off the road 32 days before the election, throwing debates into question and fixing the public attention’s more squarely than ever on a pandemic dragging down his prospects for a second term. (Siders and Mahtesian, 10/2)

Axios: Trump's Month Of Hell
Over the last 29 days, President Trump has stared down a month of hell — a relentless barrage of reporting and developments that have seriously damaged his re-election hopes. (Savitsky, 10/2)

CNBC: Trump: Coronavirus Test Unlikely To Prompt Sympathy Vote, Analyst Says
President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis is unlikely to move the needle ahead of next month’s presidential election, a political analyst told CNBC on Friday. (Meredith, 10/2)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Stock Futures Drop After Trump Tests Positive For Coronavirus
U.S. stock futures slid Friday after President Trump and first lady Melania Trumptested positive for the new coronavirus, adding to the political uncertainty in the final weeks before the election.Futures tied to the S&P 500 fell 1.3% on Friday, suggesting that U.S. markets could drop after the New York opening bell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is poised to open almost 350 points lower. Contracts linked to the Nasdaq-100 also shed 1.8%. (Ostroff and Koh Ping, 10/2)

Politico: Biden Flip-Flops On Door-Knocking With Just 33 Days Left 
Campaign door-knocking in a pandemic puts lives at risk and turns off voters. It’s also sort of useless. And anyone who said otherwise is needlessly panicking. That was the Joe Biden campaign’s position — until Thursday, when it abruptly reversed course and announced hundreds of volunteers would soon be hitting the doors in swing states with just 33 days to go in the campaign. (Thompson and Otterbein, 10/1)

The New York Times: Wisconsin Is Frazzled By Surging Virus Cases And Growing Campaign Frenzy 
Steve VanderLoop, 64, heard that several of his co-workers at a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin had fallen ill from Covid-19. Then there was his brother-in-law’s entire family in nearby Washington County. A good friend in Appleton, up the shore of Lake Winnebago. And last week, the gut punch: Mr. VanderLoop’s 96-year-old mother learned she had the virus. “It’s just crazy here now,” he said of his home state, standing on his porch on a block whose yards and fences were festooned with Biden signs, billowing Trump flags, hand-painted posters and bumper stickers with peace symbols. (Bosman, 10/1)

The New York Times: As Trump Sows Doubts On Mail, Democrats Push More In-Person Voting 
Philadelphia voters will soon hear a familiar election-year sound at their front door: the rap-rap-rap of a Democratic official canvassing for support. But the message they hear might take them by surprise. After a monthslong effort to get voters to embrace mail-in voting, Democrats in Philadelphia will push supporters to vote in person if they have not already requested a ballot. (Corasaniti and Epstein, 10/1)

In developments in the battle over mail-in ballots —

The Washington Post: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Limit On Drop-Off Sites For Mail-In Ballots Criticized As Voter Suppression 
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday said each of the state’s counties could provide only one mail-in ballot drop-off location for the November election, a proclamation that quickly spurred criticism and a legal threat from Democrats and election officials. The executive order, which amended a July 27 order by Abbott that expanded early voting and absentee ballot drop-offs, cites election security as the reason counties must close sites that were already collecting early ballots. Critics immediately seized on the news, threatening legal challenges and arguing the change does not prevent fraud but hurts populous cities that are Democratic strongholds. Texas Democrats called Abbott’s move “a blatant voter suppression tactic.” (Kornfield and Sonmez, 10/1)

The Washington Post: South Carolina GOP Asks Supreme Court To Reinstate Mail-In Ballot Witness Requirement 
South Carolina Republicans asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reinstate the witness signature requirement for mail ballots ahead of the November election, extending the legal turmoil over the rule even as tens of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters across the state. The request to the high court comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Wednesday left in place an order blocking the requirement because of the risks associated with in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic. (Marimow, 10/1)

In other election news —

Kaiser Health News: Biden’s In The Ballpark On How Many People Have Preexisting Conditions
The first minutes of Tuesday’s presidential debate immediately turned to how President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could undo the Affordable Care Act and its protections for people with preexisting conditions. “There’s 100 million people that have preexisting conditions,” said former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, arguing that those patients could lose coverage protections if the federal health law were declared unconstitutional by the high court. (Knight, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Election Preview: What’s Next For Health?
Voters say health issues — from the Affordable Care Act to COVID-19 to prescription drug prices — are important considerations in the November general election. But which issues are truly moving voters to participate in a year as politically polarized as 2020? Former Vice President Joe Biden says he wants to expand the Affordable Care Act if he’s elected and Democrats win the Senate. President Donald Trump says he will find a way to protect people with preexisting conditions if his Supreme Court nominee helps strike down the ACA. And both candidates insist they will successfully control the coronavirus pandemic. (10/1)

Modern Healthcare: Prospects Dim For COVID-19 Relief As House Passes Partisan Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief bill that will likely go nowhere as negotiations between House Democrats and the White House have failed to produce a bipartisan deal. The bill included several priorities for healthcare stakeholders, and prospects for a deal before Election Day appear grim as House lawmakers are scheduled to return to their districts on Friday. The scaled-down version of the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act passed the House on a 214-207, largely party-line vote. (Cohrs, 10/1)

Reuters: U.S. House Passes Democratic COVID-19 Aid Plan After Bipartisan Deal Proves Elusive 
No Republican voted for the Democratic plan, [and] 18 Democrats voted no, many of them moderates from swing districts who have been urging Pelosi to bring a bipartisan proposal to the House floor. “Today’s package is another partisan exercise that will never become law,” Representative Abigail Spanberger, one of the Democrats who voted no, said. (Cornwell and Morgan, 10/1)

Lawmakers vow to investigate 'systemic racism' at VA —

The Washington Post: VA Will Be Investigated After ‘Staggering Accounts Of Racism,’ Sen. Warren Says 
The Government Accountability Office will investigate claims of systemic racism within the Department of Veterans Affairs, lawmakers said Thursday, two months after a government union said most of its surveyed members saw racism as a problem inside the agency. The survey of 1,500 union members who are VA employees concluded that nearly 80 percent of staffers said racism is a moderate or serious issue, with more than half reporting they had witnessed racism aimed at veterans, according to the American Federation of Government Employees. (Horton, 10/1)

NPR: Senate Report Highlights Pandemic's Racial Disparities 
The disproportionate harm people of color have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as an "appalling reminder of the deep inequities" of the American health care system and demands congressional remedies, according to a new Senate committee report. The report cites research showing that Black people are dying from COVID-19 at 3.4 times the rate of white people, when adjusted for age. It notes that COVID-19 accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among Latinos. And American Indian or Alaska Native patients are hospitalized at more than four times the rate of white people, according to the analysis undertaken by Democrats on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). (Neighmond, 10/1)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Politico: House Oversight Expands Probe Of Pandemic Ad Blitz
A House oversight panel is expanding its probe of the Trump administration’s $300 million ad campaign to boost confidence in its pandemic response, citing POLITICO reports in questioning if contracts are being steered to people with ties to a senior administration official. The administration "appears to be misusing taxpayer dollars to fund a political propaganda campaign — disguised as a public health effort—just weeks before a presidential election,” House Oversight select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis Chair Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), wrote in letters to Atlas Research and video firm DD&T. (Diamond and Roubein, 10/1)

The Hill: Asbestos Ban Stalls In Congress Amid Partisan Fight 
Democrats and Republicans are each accusing the other of holding up a bill to ban asbestos that had been expected to pass with little controversy this week. The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act exited committee with just one no vote and was expected to sail through the voting process without amendments. But Democratic aides on the Energy and Commerce Committee say that progress has stalled as GOP lawmakers object to a provision that assures the legislation would have no impact on ongoing litigation over injuries tied to use of talcum powder. (Beitsch, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Food Banks Are Removing The Signed Letter Trump Wanted To Include In Every Food-Aid Box 
Thirty-five days before the election, food assistance boxes, doled out at food banks around the country, are coming with a surprise: a signed letter from President Trump. Anti-hunger advocates and food bank workers are outraged, saying the move violates the Hatch Act and compromises relationships with the food-insecure Americans they serve. A letter in English and Spanish, on White House letterhead, exhorts needy Americans to wash hands and maintain social distance, closing with: “We will support Americans’ recovery every step of the way. Together we will overcome this challenge, and our Nation will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before.” And then Trump’s distinctive signature. (Reiley and Bellware, 10/1)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Trump Includes Letter With Food Boxes To The Needy, Sparking Charges Of Politicizing Hunger
Along with apples and precooked pork, hunger fighters across America who distribute boxes of food from the federal government to those in need are discovering something unexpected inside each one: a letter from President Donald Trump. The letter, signed by the president, says, “I prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to our families in need throughout America. ”The so-called Coronavirus Food Assistance Program emergency food boxes are part of an effort to dispense food to help those hurt by the pandemic. They are also referred to as Farmers to Families Food Boxes. (Lubrano, 10/1)

In other news from the Trump administration —

The New York Times: Federal Prisons Will Let Inmates Have Visitors During Pandemic 
Relatives and friends will be permitted once again to begin visiting inmates in federal prisons as of Saturday, six months after such visits were ended over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Federal prisons officials said they were resuming family visits based on “the importance for inmates to maintain relationships with friends and family,” and some relatives of inmates lauded the decision. (Turcotte and Seline, 10/1)

Politico: Trump Vows To Overturn 'Ridiculous' Gender-Neutral Navy SEAL Ethos
President Donald Trump vowed Thursday to reverse a move by the elite Navy SEALs to make its ethos gender neutral — marking the latest incursion by the commander in chief into the service's operations. American Military News first reported on Monday that the Navy SEALs and the Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen had changed their ethos and creed statements to remove words such as "man" and "brotherhood." (O'Brien, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Trump’s COVID Program For Uninsured People: It Exists, But Falls Short
In a wide-ranging executive order, President Donald Trump this month outlined some of the efforts he has made to affect health care since taking office. One involved uninsured people and the current pandemic. The administration, Trump said, set up a program to provide them “access to necessary COVID-19-related testing and treatment.” Did it? (Appleby, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Nominee Amy Coney Barrett Signed Antiabortion Ad In 2006 
Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett signed an antiabortion newspaper advertisement more than a decade ago that blasted the high court’s landmark abortion rights ruling in Roe v. Wade, a public stance that brought new focus Thursday to a central issue in her confirmation battle. A Senate Democratic aide said “the ad should have been included in Judge Barrett’s Senate Judiciary questionnaire and was not.” The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is vetting her nomination, had asked her to provide a list of all published material, including letters to the editor. (Hughes and Kendall, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Barrett Signed Ad In 2006 Decrying 'Barbaric Legacy' Of Roe V. Wade, Advocating Overturning The Law
Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court, added her name to a local newspaper advertisement in 2006 that decried the “barbaric legacy” of Roe v. Wade and advocated overturning the landmark decision that guarantees a woman’s right to an abortion. The public declaration from Barrett drew criticism Thursday from a top Democrat who warned that Senate confirmation of the conservative judge to replace the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would threaten women’s reproductive rights. (Itkowitz, 10/1)

The Hill: Barrett Participated In 'Mock' Supreme Court Ruling Exercise On Affordable Care Act Before Ginsburg's Death: Report 
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, participated in a "mock" ruling exercise on the Affordable Care Act before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. Her position on the moot court over the Affordable Care Act, also called ObamaCare, mostly went against the Trump administration's stance, according to the Los Angeles Times. (Deese, 10/1)

In related news about the Supreme Court —

The Hill: American Medical Association Asks Supreme Court To Strike Trump Abortion Rule 
The American Medical Association (AMA), the nation’s largest doctors’ group, filed a petition to the Supreme Court Thursday asking it to strike down a rule from the Trump administration barring clinics funded by taxpayers from referring women for abortions. The petition was also filed in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association and and Essential Access Health, which administers the Title X family planning program in California. It comes after two seemingly contradictory rulings from two federal appeals courts on the administration’s restriction. (Axelrod, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: Medicare Advantage Insurers Plan For Bigger Footprints, More Telehealth
Medicare Advantage insurers are pushing into new territories and introducing new benefits in 2021, as they try to attract more members in the rapidly growing, lucrative market. UnitedHealthcare on Thursday laid out plans to sell coverage in new areas, including four new states, marking its biggest geographic expansion in five years that enables it to reach an additional 3.2 million people eligible for Medicare. Cigna Corp. announced its largest expansion to date, which will see it enter 67 new counties. (Livingston, 10/1)

FierceHealthcare: Humana Unveils Medicare Advantage Plans For 2021 
Humana is planning to expand its Medicare Advantage HMO plans into 125 new counties for 2021. The insurer also announced Thursday that it would launch PPO plans in 98 new counties. All told, Humana expects the new plan offerings to reach an more than 3 million additional MA beneficiaries in the coming plan year. (Minemyer, 10/1)

Healthcare Finance News: Walmart Partners With Clover Health To Offer Medicare Advantage Plans In Georgia 
Walmart and insurtech company Clover Health have teamed up to offer Medicare Advantage plans to eligible seniors in Georgia for the upcoming year. The new plan called LiveHealthy: Clover Powered, Walmart Enhanced (PPO) will be available in eight counties, including Bartow, Bibb, Cherokee, Cobb, Gwinnett, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale. (Hackett, 10/1)

PhillyVoice: Independence Blue Cross Unveils 2021 Medicare Advantage Health Plans
Philadelphia-based health insurer Independence Blue Cross on Thursday announced three 2021 Medicare Advantage offerings as enrollment approaches for the upcoming year. The three plans — Keystone 65 Basic Rx HMO, Keystone 65 Focus Rx HMO-POS and Personal Choice 65SM Prime Rx PPO — are described as zero-premium offerings with COVID-19 coverage for testing and treatment. (Tanenbaum, 10/1)

Nerd Wallet: The Devil's In The Details For Medicare Advantage Plans 
About 1 in 3 people 65 and older in the United States enroll in Medicare Advantage, the private insurance alternative to traditional Medicare. It’s not hard to see why: Medicare Advantage plans often cover stuff that Medicare doesn’t, and most people don’t pay extra for it. But Medicare Advantage can be more expensive if you get sick because copays and other costs can be higher, says Katy Votava, president of Goodcare.com, a health care consultant. (10/2)

Fox News: Traces Of Coronavirus Found In Lake Superior Water, Researchers Say
Traces of the novel coronavirus were found in water samples taken from Lake Superior beaches in Duluth, Minn., according to researchers with the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus. Since July, researchers have collected water samples from eight different beaches in Duluth in an effort to better understand how the novel virus “acts in the water and whether it can spread there,” the Star Tribune reported. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is “no evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread to people through water” at oceans, lakes and other natural bodies of water, as well as pools, water playgrounds and hot tubs.) (Farber, 10/1)

In other news —

The New York Times: Rapid Coronavirus Spit Tests Aren't Coming Soon
For months, public health experts have been eagerly watching the companies developing spit tests for the coronavirus that could be used at home, producing results in a matter of minutes. If these rapid saliva tests worked, as many news articles have pointed out, they could greatly expand the number of people getting tested. Some experts have even said they could perform as well as a vaccine in curbing the spread of the coronavirus and paving a path back to normalcy. But so far, the technology is not panning out as some have hoped. (Wu, 10/1)

ProPublica: What’s It Like To Be A Contact Tracer? We Spoke With 3 To Find Out. 
Renee Simmons never forgets a name. And there are a lot of names. Since late June, the 56-year-old contact tracer with the Rock Island County Health Department has spent most of her time cold-calling people whose names are assigned to her from a database that documents who in Illinois, and who in her community along the Mississippi River on the state’s northwest side, is the most recent to test positive for COVID-19. (Jaffe, 10/1)

The Baltimore Sun: Coronavirus Antibody Tests Have Had Plenty Of Problems. Hopkins Is Developing A Better, At-Home Version. 
Plenty of people want to know whether they ever had COVID-19, and public officials need to know. But existing antibody tests that look for markers of the disease caused by the coronavirus have not met the challenge, with accuracy, cost and convenience problems. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere, however, are working on the next generation of these tests that can be done at home. (Cohn, 10/1)

ABC News: 'Aerosol' Vs. 'Airborne' Vs. 'Droplets' Amid COVID-19: What You Need To Know 
Conflicting messages from public health authorities have fueled a great deal of confusion over COVID-19, particularly regarding its transmission. The terms "aerosol," "airborne" and "droplet" have made the rounds in attempts to explain how the novel coronavirus may spread, but without sufficient explanations of what they mean. (Anoruo, 10/2)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Can Purchase Remdesivir Directly From Distributor
Hospitals will be able to purchase remdesivir, Gilead Sciences' antiviral drug used to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients, directly from distributor AmerisourceBergen, federal authorities announced Thursday. Supplies of remdesivir, which is the only antiviral drug with emergency use authorization to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients, have increased over the past several weeks as demand has waned and production has expanded. As a result, HHS will no longer oversee distribution via state health departments as planned. (Kacik, 10/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Oxford University To Test AbbVie's Humira As COVID-19 Treatment
Researchers at the University of Oxford will begin studying AbbVie's drug, Humira, as a potential treatment for COVID-19 patients, the university announced Sept. 30. The trial will enroll up to 750 people from nursing home settings in the U.K. The university said nursing home patients were particularly hard hit by COVID-19 there and in other countries. In the U.S., 40 percent of nationwide deaths have been from nursing homes. (Anderson, 10/1)

In news about AstraZeneca —

The Hill: FDA Broadens Probe Into Serious Illness In AstraZeneca Coronavirus Vaccine Study
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly broadened its investigation into a serious illness suffered by a patient participating in AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine testing trials. Reuters reported Thursday that FDA officials will seek data from Oxford University, AstraZeneca's testing partner, regarding trials of vaccines for other diseases unrelated to COVID-19 in the hopes of determining whether patients in those trials developed similar side effects. (Bowden, 10/1)

Reuters: AstraZeneca Resumes Vaccine Trial In Japan, In Talks With U.S.
AstraZeneca Plc said on Friday clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine resumed in Japan, while adding that it was in talks with regulators on data needed to restart studies in the United States, where they remain halted. Several global trials of the vaccine, AZD1222, were put on hold last month after an unexplained illness in a study participant. While most trials have resumed, U.S. trials are still on pause as regulators widened their probe, Reuters reported on Wednesday. (10/2)

In updates from Moderna and Pfizer —

Fox News: Moderna's Coronavirus Vaccine Won't Be Ready For Widespread Distribution Until Spring, CEO Predicts
Just a day after President Trump said the nation was only “weeks away” from a coronavirus vaccine, the head of Moderna reportedly said his company will not be able to apply for authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) until late November at the earliest.“ November 25 is the time we will have enough safety data to be able to put into an EUA file that we would send to the FDA – assuming that the safety data is good, i.e. a vaccine is deemed safe,” Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told the Financial Times on Wednesday. (Hein, 10/1)

Politico: Pfizer CEO: ‘Disappointed’ In Presidential Debate, Vows No Political Pressure On Covid Shot
The CEO of Pfizer — one of the frontrunners in the coronavirus vaccine race — said in a staff memo Thursday that the company wouldn’t cave to political pressure to rush its vaccine to market, while at the same time decrying "those who argue for delay." “Tuesday night I joined the millions of Americans who tuned in to the Presidential debate. Once more, I was disappointed that the prevention for a deadly disease was discussed in political terms rather than scientific facts,” Albert Bourla said in an internal memo obtained by POLITICO. (Owermohle, 10/1)

In other developments in the search for a COVID vaccine —

AP: EU Agency Starts 'Rolling Review' To Speed OK For Vaccine
The European Medicines Agency has started a “rolling review” process for the COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, a move it hopes will speed any eventual approval. In a statement Thursday, the EU regulator said instead of waiting for all of the required vaccine data to be submitted before beginning its assessment, the EMA has begun analyzing the preliminary information from scientists on the Oxford vaccine. (Cheng, 10/1)

Reuters: Exclusive: New Global Lab Network Will Compare COVID-19 Vaccines Head-To-Head
A major non-profit health emergencies group has set up a global laboratory network to assess data from potential COVID-19 vaccines, allowing scientists and drugmakers to compare them and speed up selection of the most effective shots. Speaking to Reuters ahead of announcing the labs involved, Melanie Saville, director of vaccine R&D at the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), said the idea was to “compare apples with apples” as drugmakers race to develop an effective shot to help control the COVID-19 pandemic. (Kelland, 10/2)

CNBC: Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Participants: Exhaustion, Fever, Headaches
Luke Hutchison woke up in the middle of the night with chills and a fever after taking the Covid-19 booster shot in Moderna’s vaccine trial. Another coronavirus vaccine trial participant, testing Pfizer’s candidate, similarly woke up with chills, shaking so hard he cracked a tooth after taking the second dose.  High fever, body aches, bad headaches and exhaustion are just some of the symptoms five participants in two of the leading coronavirus vaccine trials say they felt after receiving the shots. (Farr and Lovelace Jr., 10/1)

Axios: PhRMA Calls Trump's Ban On Anti-Racism Training "Harmful" 
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) said in a statement Thursday that President Trump's executive order that appears to block federal contractors from holding anti-racist programs or diversity training is "ill-conceived and harmful" and asked that it be rescinded. (Knutson, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Old Drug Turned ‘Cash Cow’ As Company Pumped Price To $40K A Vial, Emails Show
For a dad whose infant son was afflicted with a rare seizure disorder, a drug invented in 1952 was indispensable for his boy. It was also indispensable to executives at the pharmaceutical firm that acquired the drug in 2014 — not because it was a cure, but because it was a “cash cow,” according to documents released at a House hearing Thursday. The firm, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, got ahold of the venerable drug called H.P. Acthar gel by buying the company that owned it before, Questcor, for $5.8 billion in 2014. (McAuliff, 10/2)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech industry news —

FiercePharma: Beleaguered Bayer Adds $1.8B To Cost-Cutting Goal Amid COVID-19 Slowdowns 
Bayer unveiled on Wednesday additional cost cuts to the tune of more than €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) annually by 2024 as COVID-19 pressures its businesses mainly in the crop science sector. The new goal comes on top of a €2.6 billion ($3.1 billion) annual savings target it set for 2022 as part of a gigantic revamp initiated in late 2018.The reason for the expanded program? Financial numbers so far this year do not bode well for Bayer, Baumann said during a Wednesday call with investors. (Liu, 10/1)

Stat: Appeals Court Hands FTC A Setback In AbbVie Anti-Trust Case
A U.S. appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that required AbbVie (ABBV) and another company to disgorge $448 million in profits for filing “sham” patent litigation to keep generic versions of its blockbuster AndroGel treatment off of the market. In reviewing an anti-trust case originally brought by the Federal Trade Commission, the appeals court determined that the district court judge who ordered the disgorgement lacked authority under federal law. As a result, the ruling called into question the ability of the agency to use the federal court system to seek disgorgements against drug makers and others. (Silverman, 10/1)

Stat: Merck's Roger Perlmutter Joins Board Of Medical AI Startup Insitro
Roger Perlmutter, the head of research and development at Merck, is joining the board of Insitro, a firm focused on using artificial intelligence to discover drugs. Insitro, backed with $243 million in venture capital from firms including Casdin Capital and ARCH Venture Partners, was founded by Daphne Koller, known for co-founding Coursera, the online learning firm, and working at Calico, a drug discovery arm of Alphabet. The company has a research partnership with Gilead Sciences. (Herper, 10/1)

Stat: How Should The FDA Go About Regulating Adaptive AI? 
Picture this: As a Covid-19 patient fights for her life on a ventilator, software powered by artificial intelligence analyzes her vital signs and sends her care providers drug-dosing recommendations — even as the same software simultaneously analyzes in real time the vital signs of thousands of other ventilated patients across the country to learn more about how the dosage affects their care and automatically implements improvements to its drug-dosing algorithm. (Surette, 10/2)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Rolls Out Applications For $20 Billion In Provider Grants
HHS on Thursday announced that it will accept applications for $20 billion in new provider relief grants for a month starting Oct. 5. Unlike many prior distributions, healthcare providers will have to apply for additional funds and supply data about their financial situations to qualify. The funds will be newly available to some behavioral health providers and any providers that began practicing in 2020. (Cohrs, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Awards More Than $2.2 Billion To Boost HIV/AIDS Care
HHS awarded more than $2.2 billion to cities, counties, states and community-based organizations to deliver HIV/AIDS care, support services and medication, the agency said Thursday. The grants will go to participants in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program, which provides care and treatment to low-income people with HIV. The program helps about half of all people diagnosed with HIV in the U.S. According to HHS, it helped control the virus in nearly 9 in 10 people in 2018, up from less than 7 in 10 people in 2010. The program aims to reduce new HIV infections in the U.S. by 90% by 2030. HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration runs the program. (Brady, 10/1)

In other health industry news —

AP: Hacked Hospital Chain Says All 250 US Facilities Affected
The hospital chain Universal Health Services said Thursday that computer services at all 250 of its U.S. facilities were hobbled in last weekend’s malware attack and efforts to restore hospital networks were continuing. Doctors and nurses at affected hospitals and clinics, many already burdened with coronavirus care, have had to rely on manual record-keeping, with lab work slowed. Employees have described chaotic conditions impeding patient care. (Bajak, 10/1)

Modern Healthcare: 4 Health IT Lessons Learned From The UHS Cyberattack
A malware attack at Universal Health Services, one of the largest hospital chains in the U.S., has highlighted long-standing cybersecurity concerns faced by hospitals. To contain a malware intrusion that UHS discovered in its information systems Sunday, UHS took all of its U.S. information technology networks offline, including systems for medical records, laboratories and pharmacies. UHS has been bringing servers back online as it investigates the cyberattack, so some facilities don't have all applications available yet. (Cohen, 10/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Female Physicians Spend More Time With Patients, Get Paid Less, Study Finds
Female primary care physicians spend more time with patients during visits, but get paid less than their male peers, a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine found. Researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis, Boston-based Harvard Medical School and athenahealth analyzed all-payer claims and EHR data on 24.4 million primary care visits nationwide in 2017. (Bean, 10/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Device Used In Cardiothoracic Surgery Poses Infection Risk, FDA Warns
The FDA is warning healthcare providers of a potential infection risk linked to heater-cooler devices used during cardiothoracic surgery. The agency received three reports of patients from one healthcare facility who were infected with Mycobacterium abscessus bacteria after heart surgery involving CardioQuip's Modular Cooler-Heater. The bacteria typically do not pose a threat to humans, but in rare cases can cause infections or death. The cause of the infections and device contamination is unknown, the FDA said.  (Bean, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Amazon Says 19,816 Employees, Including At Whole Foods, Have Had Coronavirus This Year 
Amazon said Thursday that nearly 20,000 of its U.S. employees had tested positive, or had been presumed positive, for the coronavirus since the pandemic started spreading through the country this year. The retailer has faced harsh criticism this year as hundreds of workers and critics have said it hasn’t done enough to keep employees safe as they work in its warehouses amid a surge in demand to send items to shoppers across the country. (Lerman, 10/1)

Reveal: Amazon’s Internal Records Show Its Worker Safety Deception
A new cache of [Amazon] records obtained by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting – including internal safety reports and weekly injury numbers from its nationwide network of fulfillment centers – shows that company officials have profoundly misled the public and lawmakers about its record on worker safety. They reveal a mounting injury crisis at Amazon warehouses, one that is especially acute at robotic facilities and during Prime week and the holiday peak – and one that Amazon has gone to great lengths to conceal. (Evans, 9/29)

In other public health news —

The New York Times: Where You Carry Body Fat May Affect How Long You Live 
Being overweight is linked to an increased risk for premature death, but which part of the body carries the added fat could make a big difference. Extra weight in some places may actually lower the risk. Researchers, writing in BMJ, reviewed 72 prospective studies that included more than two and a half million participants with data on body fat and mortality. They found that central adiposity — a large waist — was consistently associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. In pooled data from 50 studies, each four-inch increase in waist size was associated with an 11 percent increased relative risk for premature death. The association was significant after adjusting for smoking, physical activity and alcohol consumption. (Bakalar, 10/1)

ABC News: Salmonella Outbreaks In Multiple States Linked To Pet Hedgehogs, Bearded Dragons
Two salmonella outbreaks affecting dozens of people in multiple states have been linked to pet hedgehogs and bearded dragons, the Centers for Disease and Control said this week. The CDC is investigating an outbreak of the strain Salmonella Typhimurium, with 32 infections in 17 states tied to contact with pet hedgehogs as of Sept. 22. (Deliso, 10/1)

Becker's Hospital Review: Mothers 3 Times More Likely Than Fathers To Have Lost Jobs During Pandemic
Mothers of children under age 12 lost jobs at three times the rate of fathers between February and August in a trend that threatens to reverse decades of progress in gender equity and overall household income gains for the middle class, according to analysis from Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. (Gamble, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Evictions Damage Public Health. The CDC Aims To Curb Them ― For Now.
In August, Robert Pettigrew was working a series of odd jobs. While washing the windows of a cellphone store he saw a sign, one that he believes the “good Lord” placed there for him.“Facing eviction?” the sign read. “You could be eligible for up to $3,000 in rent assistance. Apply today.” (Sable-Smith, Bebinger and Benson, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Attorneys For Police Officers Suspended In Daniel Prude Case Challenge Autopsy Findings 
Lawyers for seven Rochester, N.Y., police officers suspended in connection with the death of Daniel Prude questioned the results of Prude’s autopsy Thursday and said the tactics officers used to pin Prude to the ground were done in accordance with state-sanctioned training. The lawyers said at a news conference that the two officers who used force by pinning Prude to the pavement carried out the restraint maneuver in a by-the-book fashion after being trained by local authorities this year and when they were recruited. Lawyers claim the officers did not obstruct Prude’s breathing by covering his mouth or nose and did not apply pressure to his neck or upper back. (Jacobs, 10/1)

Also —

US News & World Report: Experts: Tackling Poverty And Racism As Public Health Crises Requires Rapid Action
Late last month, the Healthcare Anchor Network, a coalition of more than three dozen health systems in 45 states and Washington, D.C., released a public statement declaring: "It is undeniable: Racism is a public health crisis." In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in May, many states, cities and counties across the United States issued similar declarations, according to the American Public Health Association. While it is becoming clear that ZIP code may matter more to longevity than genetic code, some public health experts have been sounding the alarm for decades. Indeed, poverty and racism have an enormous – and devastating – impact on health, according to a panel of experts brought together for a webinar hosted by U.S. News & World Report as part of the Community Health Leadership Forum, a new virtual event series. (Levine, 10/1)

NPR: The Black Doctors Working To Make Coronavirus Testing More Equitable 
When the coronavirus arrived in Philadelphia in March, Dr. Ala Stanford hunkered down at home with her husband and kids. She's a pediatric surgeon with a private practice, and staff privileges at a few suburban Philadelphia hospitals. For weeks, most of her usual procedures and patient visits were canceled. So she found herself, like a lot of people, spending the days in her pajamas, glued to the TV. And then, at the beginning of April, she started seeing media reports indicating that Black people were contracting the coronavirus and dying from COVID-19 at greater rates than everyone else. (Feldman, 10/1)

Stat: A Black Doctor Returns Home After Treating Covid-19 In New York 
When the tumultuous history of 2020 is written, no one will argue that Joseph Gallien didn’t have a front-row seat. In March, Gallien was finishing his residency in emergency medicine in Manhattan just as the novel coronavirus was overwhelming New York City. At 31, he was making life-or-death decisions while confronting a disease for which there was no treatment, no cure, and little knowledge. (Glaser, 10/2)

WVPB: Bob Murray, Who Fought Against Black Lung Regulations As A Coal Operator, Has Filed For Black Lung Benefits
Robert E. Murray, the former CEO and president of the now-bankrupt Murray Energy, has filed an application with the U.S. Department of Labor for black lung benefits. For years, Murray and his company fought against federal mine safety regulations aimed at reducing the debilitating disease. “I founded the company and created 8,000 jobs there until the move to end coal use. I am still chairman of the board,” he wrote on a Labor Department form that initiated his claim obtained by the Ohio Valley ReSource. “We’re in bankruptcy, and due to my health could not handle the president and CEO job any longer.” (Mistich and Patters, 9/30)

In news from the Midwest and West —

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Infant Mortality Hits Historic Low
Infant mortality fell to its lowest level in Indiana recorded history last year, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday. This marks the third consecutive year Indiana's infant mortality rate, which tracks the number of babies that die before their first birthday, has fallen and the lowest it's been since record-keeping began in 1900, state officials said in a news release. (Hays, 10/1)

The Hill: SD Reaches Record High Coronavirus Death Toll 
South Dakota recorded a record high COVID-19 death toll Thursday with 13 fatalities and 747 new positive virus cases. According to state epidemiologist Josh Clayton, cities and rural zones are reporting significant clusters of the virus in recent days, the Associated Press reported. He noted that 245 of the infections reported were backlogged from previous days after a reporting error. (Deese, 10/1)

Kaiser Health News: Thousands Of Minks Dead As COVID Outbreak Escalates On Utah Farms
Thousands of minks at Utah fur farms have died because of the coronavirus in the past 10 days, forcing nine sites in three counties to quarantine, but the state veterinarian said people don’t appear to be at risk from the outbreak. The COVID-19 infections likely were spread from workers at the mink ranches to the animals, with no sign so far that the animals are spreading it to humans, said Dr. Dean Taylor, the state veterinarian, who is investigating the outbreak. (Aleccia, 10/2)

The Salt Lake Tribune: State Officials, After Forcing TestUtah To Change Tests And Labs, Are Still Negotiating Its New Agreement 
When TestUtah sites returned an unusually low number of positive results for the coronavirus this spring, state officials devised two unsuccessful attempts to discover the reason — then promised a third try. The new review never got underway. But decisions by state officials have forced TestUtah to stop working with the two testing partners it had chosen — Salt Lake City company Co-Diagnostics Inc., which had supplied its testing kits, and Orem’s Timpanogos Regional Hospital, which had processed them. (Carlisle and Alberty, 10/1)

The Oklahoman: Oklahoma Receives 77,000 Rapid COVID Tests As Trump Vows More To Come
Oklahoma received this week 77,000 rapid COVID-19 tests after President Donald Trump vowed to distribute millions of the tests to states. The quick-response tests Oklahoma received were part of an initial shipment and state leaders expect more will arrive through the end of the year. The Oklahoma State Department of Health plans to distribute the tests so they can be used in K-12 schools, health care settings and be used to test other vulnerable populations, Gov. Kevin Stitt's office said in a news release in response to questions from The Oklahoman. Specific details of where the tests will be used will be released soon. (Forman, 10/2)

The Washington Post: California Wildfires Prompt New Warnings Amid Record Heat, Erratic Winds
Tens of millions of Californians are under heat warnings and advisories Thursday as a record-breaking, relentless heat wave continued to roast areas from San Francisco to San Diego. The heat, associated with an unseasonably intense and stubborn area of high pressure parked over the region, is sending temperatures soaring up to 30 degrees above average for this time of year in some areas. (Freedman, 10/1)

In news from the East —

North Carolina Health News: Opioid Hotspots Get $1M In Treatment Grants 
In the decade-plus since the opioid crisis entered public consciousness, two intertwined realities have emerged in North Carolina, both involve a death of sorts. One of these realities is easy to grasp: From 1999 to 2016 more than 12,000 North Carolinians died from opioid overdoses. The other reality concerns programs that may or may not have the funding to fully address the crisis. (Engel-Smith, 10/2)

The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Picks More Companies To Grow, Process Medical Cannabis 
After more than a year of delays due to logistical errors and allegations of impropriety, the state has picked 11 companies to expand and diversify Maryland’s medical cannabis industry. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission on Thursday selected three companies to grow medical cannabis and eight companies to process the plant into products to be sold at retail dispensaries. The companies were awarded “pre-approval” for licenses. (Wood, 10/1)

Carroll County Times: Carroll County Nets $2.5M Upgrade To 911 System, Seeks Election Grant 
Carroll County’s 911 system will get a state-of-the-art upgrade thanks to a $2.5 million reimbursement from the Maryland Emergency Number Systems Board. The Board of County Commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to accept more than $2,581,300 from the state board. The project includes 10 new phone work stations for dispatchers, plus hardware and software upgrades to the county’s existing system, said Scott Campbell, director of public safety for the county. (Keller, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Maryland Relaxes Nursing Home Visitations As State Records No Virus Deaths For First Time Since March 
Maryland lifted restrictions on nursing homes and assisted-living facilities Thursday, becoming the first jurisdiction in the greater Washington region to allow widespread visitations since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) cited the increased availability of rapid tests and said the new guidelines apply to facilities with no active cases over the previous two weeks. The announcement came hours after state health officials reported that Maryland had no virus-related fatalities in a single day for the first time since the earliest days of the pandemic. (Chason, Hedgpeth and Fadulu, 10/1)

The New York Times: New York Becomes First Big City In U.S. To Reopen All Its Schools
New York City completed the reopening of all its public schools on Thursday morning, a major step in its recovery from having been the global epicenter of the pandemic and a hopeful sign for the country’s unsteady effort to return children to classrooms. Not long after sunrise, middle and high school principals welcomed students back into their buildings for the first time since March, following elementary school children who had started earlier this week. About half a million students, from 3-year-olds in pre-K programs to high school seniors, will have returned to school by next week. (Shapiro and Zaveri, 10/1)

The Washington Post: Human Rights Watch Says Egypt Abuses LGBT People 
The Egyptian government continues to target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in a "systematic fashion" through arbitrary arrests, torture and other forms of abuse, including forced "virginity tests," Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The watchdog group accused police personnel and officers of Egypt’s National Security Agency of routinely picking up suspected LGBT people off the streets and detaining them in “inhuman conditions,” often after illegally searching their phones. Security forces have also “entrapped LGBT people through social networking sites and dating applications,” Human Rights Watch said. (Raghavan, 10/1)

Reuters: Russian State Journalists Among First To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Outside Trial 
Russian journalists working for two state-owned media outlets are among the first to be offered the new Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine outside of the framework of a clinical trial, according to one of the outlets and four employees. Russia began vaccinating members of the general public seen at high risk of coronavirus infection earlier this month, while separately launching a large-scale trial. So far about 400 people have received the jabs under that scheme, the health ministry said this week. (Zverev and Ivanova, 10/2)

CNN: Subway: Irish Court Rules Its Loaves Are Too Sugary To Be Called Bread 
Bread in Subway's hot sandwiches contains too much sugar to meet Ireland's legal definition for bread, the country's Supreme Court has ruled. The judgment was handed down on Tuesday in response to a Subway franchisee who had appealed for a tax refund, arguing that its bread is a "staple" food and therefore subject to a 0% tax rate. (Guy, 10/1)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Hospitals Can’t Handle Covid Surges: They’re Flying Blind 
El Centro Regional Medical Center was overrun with dozens of Covid-19 patients in May, with nowhere to send the critically ill. The only other hospital in Imperial County, Calif., also was swamped. Chief Executive Adolphe Edward called the state’s emergency medical services director, asking him to intervene. “Please, please help us,” he pleaded. Doctors and nurses at El Centro swapped text messages and made phone calls, blindly searching for openings at other hospitals. (Evans and Berzon, 9/30)

The New York Times: Ski, Party, Seed A Pandemic: The Travel Rules That Let Covid-19 Take Flight 
They came from across the world to ski in the most famous resorts of the Austrian alps. Jacob Homiller and his college friends flew in from the United States. Jane Witt, a retired lecturer, arrived from London for a family reunion. Annette Garten, the youth director at a tennis club in Hamburg, was celebrating her birthday with her husband and two grown children. They knew in late February and early March that the coronavirus was spreading in nearby northern Italy, and across the other border in Germany, but no one was alarmed. Austrian officials downplayed concerns as tourists crowded into cable cars by day, and après-ski bars at night. (Gebrekidan, Bennhold, Apuzzo and Kirkpatrick, 9/30)

USA Today: Colleges Are Exploding With COVID And Have Lax Testing. One School Is Keeping Cases Down.
Colby College students stick out here in this New England town. They’re young, often wearing the school's blue and white, and almost always in a mask, even when common sense or personal convenience would suggest alternative options. Walking to a car or waiting for a bus in town? Colby students wear masks. Running laps around a field? Colby students wear masks. Reading alone in a grassy patch on campus? Colby students wear masks. (Quintana, 10/1)

The Atlantic: K: The Overlooked Variable That's Driving The Pandemic 
There’s something strange about this coronavirus pandemic. Even after months of extensive research by the global scientific community, many questions remain open. Why, for instance, was there such an enormous death toll in northern Italy, but not the rest of the country? Just three contiguous regions in northern Italy have 25,000 of the country’s nearly 36,000 total deaths; just one region, Lombardy, has about 17,000 deaths. Almost all of these were concentrated in the first few months of the outbreak. What happened in Quito, Ecuador, in April, when so many thousands died so quickly that bodies were abandoned in the sidewalks and streets? Why, in the spring of 2020, did so few cities account for a substantial portion of global deaths, while many others with similar density, weather, age distribution, and travel patterns were spared? What can we really learn from Sweden, hailed as a great success by some because of its low case counts and deaths as the rest of Europe experiences a second wave, and as a big failure by others because it did not lock down and suffered excessive death rates earlier in the pandemic? Why did widespread predictions of catastrophe in Japan not bear out? The baffling examples go on. (Tufekci, 9/30)

ProPublica: The COVID-19 Charmer: How A Self-Described Felon Convinced Elected Officials To Try To Help Him Profit From The Pandemic 
The video had the feel of a public service announcement, as the two elected leaders sat around a table in Austin and discussed the importance of COVID-19 testing.It was late March, and these men were among those tasked with organizing the response to the emerging coronavirus pandemic: Ruben Becerra, the chief executive of fast-growing Hays County, just south of Austin; and Tommy Calvert, a county commissioner representing a chunk of San Antonio, about 70 miles to the south. Also present was Becerra’s chief of staff, Alex Villalobos. The man hovering around the officials, holding a small needle in his gloved hands, was a convicted felon turned serial entrepreneur named Kyle Hayungs. Hayungs, 37, was seeking telemedicine contracts across the state. He had no official government role, but he did have access to thousands of COVID-19 antibody tests through a company he hoped to make his partner. (Davila, Schwartz and Churchill, 9/25)

The New York Times: Black Microbiologists Push For Visibility Amid A Pandemic
Black in Microbiology Week will be hosted entirely through virtual platforms like Twitter and Zoom. The event will feature seven days of talks, panels and online discussions, spanning a range of topics under the microbiology umbrella, including the coronavirus, and addressing disparities in medicine, education and career advancement. Everything is free and accessible to the public, and will be live-captioned. Registration is required to attend. “This is really a chance to welcome new voices and amplify those that have not been heard,” said Michael D. L. Johnson, a microbiologist and immunologist at the University of Arizona who will take part in Friday’s Black in Bacteriology panel. (Wu, 9/28)

The Wall Street Journal: How The Coronavirus Crisis Threatens To Set Back Women’s Careers 
Kate Deisseroth spent two decades building a career as an orthopedic surgeon that now, in the Covid era, looks precarious. As the single mother of twin 10-year-olds in Lebanon, Pa., the Air Force veteran made pre-pandemic life run like clockwork with an intricate schedule of early school drop-off, after-school programs and babysitters who watched her sons when she was called to the hospital for emergencies. That support system all fell away when the pandemic struck and her boys’ school went online. (Weber and Fuhrmans, 9/30)

Also —

Scientific American: How Decoding Dyslexia Can Help Decode The Mind 
During this school year, thousands of children will begin reading. Despite their best efforts, however, up to a tenth of them will struggle. If we were aware of the early warning signs, we could help these children by using research-based remediation. But dyslexia is poorly understood by the public. Unveiling these misconceptions can help millions of children. It could also help decode the human mind. To shed light on the public view of dyslexia, let us take a moment to play clinician. Consider John and Jack, who suffer from reading difficulties. John confuses letters, like b and d, while Jack struggles to link letters with sounds; he doesn’t recognize that kat sounds like the name of a familiar animal. Which one has a reading disorder? (Berent, 9/27)

The New York Times: Sometimes It’s Not Just Shyness 
My daughter’s silence in preschool wasn’t prompted by shyness or defiance, nor is she on the autism spectrum. Yet those are common misconceptions surrounding the disorder with which she was diagnosed: selective mutism. Selective mutism, which affects as many as 1 in 140 children (though estimates vary), is characterized by an ability to speak freely in specific situations (at home with parents and siblings) while being unable to speak in others (such as in the classroom, park or even their living room when outsiders are present). (Kordova, 9/28)

The Washington Post: Ankle Pain Led To Ominous Medical Mystery 
When he turned 42, Ram Gajavelli made himself a promise: he would take better care of his health. But in August 2017, a few months after the software engineer began exercising regularly, his left ankle grew swollen and painful, even though he didn’t remember injuring it. Over the next 18 months, the pain spread to his back, shoulders and feet. Meanwhile several teeth, which had looked normal six months earlier, became riddled with decay. (Boodman, 9/26)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's Coronavirus Infection Is Of His Own Doing
Americans awaken this morning to the grave news that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump have tested positive for the dreadful coronavirus that has killed more than 207,000 people in the U.S. and brought the U.S. economy to its knees. ...No matter how you feel about Trump’s performance as president — and we feel pretty strongly that it has been a disaster — this is another crisis for a nation reeling from a year that almost seems apocalyptic: Trump’s impeachment, COVID-19, a popular outcry over racial injustice, the deaths of John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, catastrophic wildfires. And now this: A reckless president whose irresponsibility has endangered not only himself and his family but the stability of the country by throwing the executive branch into chaos. Another crisis, this one fully of Trump’s own making. (10/2)

The Guardian: Trump's Positive Covid Test Is A Surprise That Many Saw Coming
It is likely to go down as the biggest “October surprise” in the history of US presidential elections. Yet anyone who was paying attention could have seen it coming. Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus after claiming “it will disappear”, telling the journalist Bob Woodward he was downplaying it deliberately, failing to develop a national testing strategy, refusing to wear a face mask for months, floating the idea of injecting patients with bleach, insisting to one of his many crowded campaign rallies that “it affects virtually nobody” and, at Tuesday’s debate, mocking his rival Joe Biden: “He could be speaking 200 feet away and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.” (David Smith, 10/2)

The New York Times: Defiant, Now Infected: Trump Is A Morality Tale 
It’s a measure of the cynicism that has infected American politics — and, yes, me — that among my initial reactions to the news that President Trump had tested positive for the coronavirus was: Are we sure? Can we trust that? A man who so frequently and flamboyantly plays the victim, and who has been prophylactically compiling ways to explain away or dispute a projected election loss to Joe Biden, is now being forced off the campaign trial, which will be a monster of an excuse. I couldn’t help thinking that. ...He didn’t wear a mask. He encouraged large gatherings — including the Tulsa, Okla., rally that Herman Cain attended before falling sick with the coronavirus and dying, and his big convention speech, at which hundreds and even thousands of people, many without any facial covering, packed in tight. At the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, he mocked Biden for so often wearing a mask, suggesting that it was a sign of … what? Timidity? Weakness? Vogueishness? Moral vanity? (Frank Bruni, 10/2)

The Washington Post: We Should Be Just As Careful About Covid-19 In Relatives’ Homes As We Are In Grocery Stores
A disturbing new trend is making the coronavirus even harder to control: A rising proportion of infections are occurring at informal gatherings of family and friends. At the beginning of the pandemic, there were many outbreaks in congregate facilities such as nursing homes and prisons. State and local authorities put into place infection-control measures that have substantially reduced transmission in these high-risk settings. (Leana S. Wen, 10/1)

Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19 Targets People Of Color, But Treatment Doesn't
Imagine an approved treatment is imminent. In fact, many new medicines and vaccines are in placebo-controlled clinical trials for COVID-19. However, drug trial participants are overwhelmingly white, meaning over 80% of medicines meet the established standard of proof of safety and effectiveness for white people only. We've known for many decades about the potential for serious differences in drug responses that relate to genetic ancestry, habits, practices, comorbid disease and environments that often associate with race and ethnicity. (James H. Powell and David Hawks, 10/2)

The Wall Street Journal: A Bullying President At An Ugly Debate
Where does all this stand, days after the debate and a month before the election? All summer, wise people were saying Joe Biden’s ahead but Donald Trump’s in the game, can’t write him off, a lot of issues (rising crime, economic fear, a poor Democratic convention) are going in his favor, this thing is dynamic. But things are congealing now, taking on their final shape, and isn’t it kind of obvious, especially after the debate, what’s happening? (Peggy Noonan, 10/1)

The Hill: A Fresh Future For Medicaid 
The coronavirus started as a medical crisis, but quickly produced an unemployment crisis and a state fiscal crisis. Medicaid, the state-operated health care entitlement that covers 67 million low-income Americans, has been strained by all three. (Chris Pope, 10/1)

Miami Herald: Miami-Dade School Board Stands Tall In Face Of Thuggish Threat From The State
After hours of discussion, and for the umpteenth time in recent months, the Miami-Dade School Board tackled on Tuesday how to return to the schoolhouse model of learning. But this time, board members did it under what they believed was a veiled threat — not from coronavirus fears, but from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran. In a stern letter, Corcoran instructed the nation’s fourth-largest district to reopen its school doors by Monday, Oct. 5 or be prepared to justify exemptions on a school-by-school basis by Friday — oh, and also face the possibility of having state funding withheld. What appalling thuggery.

The Washington Post: Trump’s Health-Care Stance Is So Bad That His Voters Can’t Believe He Holds It 
At the debate this week, President Trump was crystal-clear about his intention to wipe out the Affordable Care Act. He said: “We do want to get rid of it.” But, in addition to promising to wipe out the ACA’s actually existing protections for people with preexisting conditions, he also promised to replace them with some other nonexistent plan that would do the same thing. “We will protect people,” he said.When moderator Chris Wallace pointed out that Trump has been promising a plan for four years — and still hasn’t yet delivered — Trump just filibustered, and the discussion turned to another topic. It appears a lot of people who plan to vote for Trump find this sufficient. (Greg Sargent, 10/1)

Stat: Stigma From Providers Interferes With Treating Addiction 
“It was dehumanizing,” Slade Skaggs told us about how health care providers treated him when he turned to them for help with his substance use disorder. “They made me feel like I was drug-seeking and that I was not deserving of their time or care.” Fortunately, he finally got the help he needed and is now in recovery, serving as a peer-support specialist for others with substance use disorders. (Richard Bottner, Christopher Moriates and Matthew Stefanko, 10/2)

The Washington Post: Chrissy Teigen And John Legend Are Heroes, Not Oversharers
The pictures are simultaneously mundane and intimate. A pregnant woman, crying, leans forward in a hospital bed as she’s prepped for an epidural. A mother and father hold a baby nestled in the candy-stripe Kuddle-Up receiving blanket recognizable to legions of new parents.The black-and-white images posted Wednesday by celebrities Chrissy Teigen and John Legend document not just familiar birth scenes but also death: Teigen, who had been on bed rest, lost her pregnancy. This tragedy — what writer Elizabeth McCracken has described as “the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending” — is deeply personal. Yet in grieving for their son as openly as they share other experiences, Teigen and Legend are doing a public service for families who have suffered similar losses — and outsiders trying to understand this sort of mourning. (Alyssa Rosenberg, 10/1)