NBC News: Coronavirus Case Increase Sets New U.S. Record, Rising To Over 77K In One Day
The U.S. set a record Thursday as the number of new coronavirus cases rose to over 77,000, topping the previous record in July. Nationwide, 77,640 new cases were reported for the day, up from the previous record of 75,723 on July 29, according to the latest tally compiled by NBC News. (Wong and Sheeley, 10/23)

CNN: Task Force Warns Several US Regions Show Signs Of 'Deterioration' Amid Covid-19 Surges 
With more than two dozen states reporting rising Covid-19 infections, new reports from leading health officials show a worsening of the pandemic across several US regions. In White House coronavirus task force reports obtained by CNN this week, officials say there are "early signs of deterioration in the Sun Belt and continued deterioration in the Midwest and across the Northern States." (Maxouris, 10/23)

The Atlantic: The Coronavirus Surge That Will Define the Next 4 Years
The United States is sleepwalking into what could become the largest coronavirus outbreak of the pandemic so far. In the past week alone, as voters prepare to go to the ballot box, about one in every 1,000 Americans has tested positive for the virus, and about two in every 100,000 Americans have died of it. Today, the United States reported 73,103 new cases, the third-highest single-day total since the pandemic began, according to the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic. ... This third surge is far more geographically dispersed than what the country saw in the spring or summer: The virus can now be found in every kind of American community, from tiny farm towns to affluent suburbs to bustling border cities. This is the first of the American surges with no clear epicenter: From North Carolina to North Dakota, and Colorado to Connecticut, more Americans are contracting COVID-19. (Meyer, 10/22)

The Hill: On The Trail: A Third Coronavirus Wave Builds Just Before Election Day 
A new wave of viral infections is washing over the nation just weeks before Election Day, putting a new spotlight on a crisis that has come to define President Trump’s struggle for reelection. For months, public health experts have warned of an increase in the number of cases that would accompany lower temperatures in the fall and winter. As people move inside more, they said, the coronavirus was likely to spread. Those predictions have come true — earlier and more significantly than expected. (Wilson, 10/22)

Also —

The Washington Post: This Rippling Field Of Flags On A D.C. Hillside Shows Covid-19's Grim Toll
As you approach, it looks like a blanket of fresh snow — a startling expanse of white. But closer, the snow melts into little white flags. One for each of the more than 220,000 Americans who have died of covid-19. ... “Like souls,” said Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg, 61, the artist behind the growing, powerful commemoration she’s building outside RFK Stadium, at the edge of D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. (Dvorak, 10/22)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Will Likely Worsen Mortality Gap Between U.S. And Peer Nations
Deaths from COVID-19 will likely be the third leading causing of death this year in the U.S. and will contribute to a worse mortality gap between the U.S. and peer countries, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. More Americans have died from COVID-19 in 2020 than died in accidents in 2017, the third leading cause of death that year. By comparison, Belgium is the only one of 12 similarly wealthy nations that's seeing COVID-19 rank as a top three cause of death so far this year, according to the analysis. (Castellucci, 10/22)

KHN: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: A Little Good News And Some Bad On COVID-19 
For the first time in a long time, there is some good news about the coronavirus pandemic: Although cases continue to climb, fewer people seem to be dying. And there are fewer cases than expected among younger pupils in schools with in-person learning. But the bad news continues as well — including a push for “herd immunity” that could result in the deaths of millions of Americans. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is doubling down on efforts to allow states to require certain people with low incomes to prove they work, go to school or perform community service in order to keep their Medicaid health benefits. The administration is appealing a federal appeals court ruling to the Supreme Court and just granted Georgia the right to impose a work requirement. (10/22)

USA Today: FDA Approves Remdesivir As Treatment For COVID-19 Hospital Patients
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday approved the antiviral drug remdesivir as a treatment for patients with COVID-19 who require hospitalization. Given through an IV, remdesivir works to stop replication of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the drug's manufacturer, California-based Gilead Sciences, Inc. Previously authorized by the FDA for emergency use to treat COVID-19, the drug is now the first and only approved COVID-19 treatment in the United States, Gilead said in a release. (Rice, 10/22)

AP: FDA Approves First COVID-19 Drug: Antiviral Remdesivir
The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc. is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery by five days — from 15 days to 10 on average — in a large study led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It had been authorized for use on an emergency basis since spring, and now becomes the first drug to win full Food and Drug Administration approval for treating COVID-19. President Donald Trump received it when he was sickened earlier this month. (Marchione, 10/22)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Approves First Drug For Treating Coronavirus Patients 
The F.D.A. said the antiviral drug had been approved for adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kilograms (about 88 pounds) who require hospitalization for Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, which has killed more than 220,000 people in the United States. ... The drug does not prevent deaths in Covid-19 patients. The formal approval now granted by the F.D.A. indicates that the drug cleared more rigorous regulatory hurdles involving a more thorough review of clinical data and manufacturing quality since it was given emergency authorization in May. (10/22)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coronavirus Drug Gets FDA Approval
Previous reporting by the AJC said the average cost for a five-day regimen of the drug was $3,120 for patients who had private insurance. Gilead charges $2,340 for a typical treatment course for people covered by government health programs in the United States and other developed countries, and $3,120 for patients with private insurance. The amount that patients pay out of pocket depends on insurance, income and other factors. (Lee, 10/22)

USA Today: Biden Says He'd Create 'Bidencare' If Supreme Court Strikes Down Affordable Care Act
Former Vice President Joe Biden cast aside attacks from President Donald Trump over what health care could look like under a Democratic president, saying his plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, should it be dismantled, would be dubbed "Bidencare." (Hayes, 10/22)

Time: As Joe Biden Touts 'Bidencare,' Donald Trump Promises a Health Care Plan That Doesn't Exist
Biden took the opportunity to plug his own health care plan, which he called “Bidencare” multiple times on stage, a sign that he is growing more confident in the popularity of the proposal. The former Vice President would boost the ACA’s subsidies to help more people buy health coverage and would create a government-run public option. The idea of a public option for health insurance has gotten significantly more popular in recent months. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll found that 67% of likely voters support a public option, even more than the 55% who support Obamacare. (Abrams, 10/22)

USA Today: ‘Learning To Live’ With COVID-19, Bidencare And Other Top Moments From The Final Presidential Debate
Trump, who took the first question on how his administration is going to deal with the latest surge in [COVID] cases, said the mortality rate has decreased and that the surges will go away. “We’re fighting it, and we’re fighting it hard,” Trump said. “There’s some spikes and surges in other places, and they will soon be gone.” Biden responded by criticizing the president for not doing more to prevent the deaths of 220,000 Americans from the virus so far. “Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said. (Morin and Santucci, 10/22)

Stat: As Trump Misleadingly Boasts Of ‘Rounding The Turn’ On Covid-19, Biden Warns Of ‘Dark Winter’
Trump, as he has throughout the pandemic, largely glossed over the country’s death toll and painted an optimistic picture about the availability of Covid-19 vaccines. ... Biden attempted to throw cold water on Trump’s boasts, warning Americans they likely wouldn’t have access to a Covid-19 for several months, if not longer. “We’re about to go into a dark winter,” Biden said. “He has no clear plan, and there’s no prospect that a vaccine is going to be available for the majority of the American people before the middle of next year.” (Facher, 10/22)

Yahoo News: ‘He Thinks He’s Running Against Somebody Else’: Trump, Biden Spar Over Health Care At Presidential Debate
President Trump’s attempt to paint Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s health care plan as a government takeover of the medical industry was met with stiff resistance in the second and final presidential debate Thursday night. In Nashville, Tenn., Trump said that Biden’s plan, which would provide a “public option” that gives Americans the ability to buy into a government plan, would eliminate private insurance. But the former vice president, who frequently sparred with his more left-wing Democratic primary rivals over the issue, insisted that he would leave private insurance alone. Biden shot down what he called “the idea that I want to eliminate private insurance.” He argued that his differing view on this issue was the “reason why I had such a fight with 20 candidates for the nomination.” (Wilson, 10/22)

KHN and PolitiFact: In Tamer Debate, Trump And Biden Clash (Again) On President’s Pandemic Response
In the second and final debate of the 2020 presidential race, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred over Trump’s handling of the pandemic and Biden’s plan to reform health care. In stark contrast to the first debate, there was more policy talk. There was also less interrupting. Trump said a COVID-19 vaccine is “ready” and will be announced “within weeks,” shortly before conceding that it is “not a guarantee.” (10/23)

Also —

Business Insider: What Is Trump's Healthcare Plan? It Looks A Lot Like Obamacare. 
Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy expert who was an architect of the original ACA in the Obama administration, is skeptical that any major Republican changes to his legislation are truly in the works. "They've had 10, almost 11 years now, after passage of the Affordable Care Act to put in place an alternative, and they haven't done it," Emanuel told Insider. "They don't have a plan." Perhaps that's because Republicans don't really want to get rid of the whole ACA.  (Brueck and Leonard, 10/22)

NPR: Trump Vs. Biden On Health Care: Compare Their Platforms
Health care was going to be the defining issue of the 2020 election before a pandemic and economic upheaval eclipsed pretty much everything else. But of course, the pandemic has highlighted many health policy issues. With a highly contagious virus spreading around the world, "you might be thinking more about the importance of health insurance, or you may be worried about losing your job, which is where you get your health insurance," says Sabrina Corlette, co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. "The COVID pandemic and health policy are intertwined." (Simmons-Duffin, 10/22)

KHN and Politifact: Did Trump Confuse The Public Option With ‘Medicare For All’? 
During the final presidential debate, President Donald Trump claimed that 180 million people would lose their private health insurance to socialized medicine if the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, is elected president. “They have 180 million people, families under what he wants to do, which will basically be socialized medicine — you won’t even have a choice — they want to terminate 180 million plans,” said Trump. (Knight, 10/23)

USA Today: 'They Are So Well Taken Care Of': Trump Defends Separating Migrant Children From Parents
President Donald Trump said Thursday only immigrants with the “lowest IQ” attend their immigration hearings. His comment came after moderator Kristen Welker asked during the final presidential debate if his administration had plans to reunite the hundreds of children who remain separated from their parents at the border. A recent court filing revealed that parents of 545 immigrant children separated at the border have not been found. ... On stage Thursday, Trump repeatedly accused Biden of building the steel cages during the Obama administration that act as holding pens for migrants who have crossed into the U.S. without documentation. Photos of children separated from their families and held in the facilities under the Trump administration caused a national uproar two years ago. (Jervis, 10/23)

Business Insider: Trump Falsely Claims Only Migrants With 'Lowest IQ' Appear In Court 
During Thursday's presidential debate, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that, of the migrants arrested by US immigration authorities who are released from custody pending their court proceedings, only those "with the lowest IQ" show up for their immigration hearings. "Less than 1% of the people come back. We have to send ICE out and border patrol out to find them," Trump said. "When you say they come back — they don't come back, Joe, they never come back. Only the really — I hate to say this — but those with the lowest IQ, they might come back," he added. Trump's claims refer to an immigration policy often called "catch and release," where immigration authorities have the discretion to release detained migrants who they deem to be a low safety or flight risk, pending their immigration court proceedings. (Sonnemaker, 10/22)

In the debate over racism and health —

The New York Times: Kristen Welker Asks Candidates About 'The Talk' 
Kristen Welker, the second Black woman to moderate a presidential debate on her own, asked the candidates directly on Thursday about an experience that Black families have every day, but that is rarely discussed on a national debate stage: The Talk, the conversation that Black parents must have with their children, telling them how to behave so police officers will not shoot them. Mr. Biden responded by talking about his daughter, who is a social worker. “I never had to tell my daughter, if she’s pulled over, make sure she puts — for a traffic stop — put both hands on top of the wheel and don’t reach for the glove box, because someone may shoot you,” he said. ... He continued: “The fact of the matter is, there is institutional racism in America.” (Astor, 10/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump, Joe Biden Clash Over Covid, Ethics In Calmer Presidential Debate
Mr. Trump was reminded by the moderator of his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement as a “symbol of hate,” but said he had enacted policies to help minorities, including sentencing reform. He attacked Mr. Biden’s role in crafting tough crime laws in the 1990s. Mr. Biden conceded that the 1994 crime law was a mistake, but sarcastically referred to Mr. Trump as “Abraham Lincoln” and mocked the president’s claim that he was the least racist person in the room. “He pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one,” Mr. Biden said, citing Mr. Trump’s comments on Mexican immigrants and his restrictions on travel from several Muslim-majority countries. “This guy is a dog whistle about as big as a fog horn.” (McCormick and Leary, 10/23)

The New York Times: Biden Calls Trump ‘One Of The Most Racist Presidents We’ve Had In Modern History’
President Trump came to the debate ready with his regular wrap on race when asked to explain his description of “Black Lives Matter” as a symbol of hate: He claimed he had done more than any president since Abraham Lincoln for African-Americans, and he called himself the “least racist person in this room.” (Never mind that the moderator of the debate, Kristen Welker, is a Black woman.) ... Mr. Biden, however, appeared to take him by surprise by mocking the claims. “Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history,” Mr. Biden said. “He pours fuel on every single racist fire.” (Karni, 10/22)

USA Today: Unemployment Benefits: Racial Disparity In Jobless Aid Grows As Congress Stalls On COVID-19 Stimulus
President Donald Trump asserted in Thursday’s final presidential debate that his administration recorded the “best Black unemployment numbers in the history of our country. ”To be sure, the jobless rate for Black workers dropped to a record low of 5.4% in August 2019. The worst global pandemic in a century, however, has undone years of gains. (Menton, 10/22)

Vox: Trump In 60 Minutes Interview: The Supreme Court Should End Obamacare 
Days before the 2020 presidential election, President Donald Trump isn’t making any secret of his health care agenda: He wants the Supreme Court to strike down the Affordable Care Act — which could leave tens of millions without health care coverage — and he’s nowhere close to having a plan in its place. “I hope they end it,” Trump told 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl, in an interview that the Trump campaign preemptively released over purported concerns that the president’s words would be misconstrued. “It’ll be so good if they end it.” (Scott, 10/22)

Bloomberg: Trump Releases ‘60 Minutes’ Video, Says He Hopes Court Ends Obamacare 
Repeatedly pressed by ["60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley] Stahl on what would happen to Americans who could lose their insurance or protections for preexisting conditions, Trump said his administration had -- or would have --- “various plans.” Stahl told Trump that he’d made earlier statements promising a plan “will be here in two weeks -- it’s going to be something like we’ve never seen before. And of course we haven’t seen it. So why didn’t you develop a health plan?” Trump said: “It is developed, it is fully developed, it is going to be announced soon.” (Sinkn, 10/22)

Forbes: Trump Presented CBS With Book On His Health Care Record – Opened To A Blank Page
President Trump on Wednesday tweeted photos of 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl holding a large book ostensibly documenting his healthcare accomplishments – but one photo showed Stahl opening the book to a blank page, underscoring Democratic attacks against Trump’s health care record. (Solender, 10/21)

Mother Jones: Trump Wants The Supreme Court To “End” Obamacare. Here’s How They’d Do It. 
“I hope that they end it.” That’s what President Donald Trump told CBS this week, referring to an upcoming Supreme Court case that will decide the fate of Obamacare. On November 10, the court—which will almost certainly include three Trump appointees—will hear arguments in the latest Republican challenge to the landmark health care law. If the justices side with Trump, millions of Americans could lose their health coverage. (Weinberg, 10/22)

In related news on the Affordable Care Act —

The Guardian: How Trump Success In Ending Obamacare Would Kill Fauci Plan To Conquer HIV
In his State of the Union address in February 2019, Donald Trump vowed to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.' But if Trump has his way and the supreme court strikes down the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the resulting seismic disruption to the healthcare system would end that dream. (Ryan, 10/23)

KHN: KHN On The Air This Week 
KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner discussed the impact of the election and the upcoming Supreme Court challenge on the Affordable Care Act with New Hampshire Public Radio’s “The Exchange” and WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show” on Wednesday. Rovner also spoke with Newsy’s “Morning Rush” on Thursday about the roles of health care and COVID-19 in the presidential campaign. (10/23)

The Washington Post: FDA Advisory Committee Debates Safety And Efficacy Standards For A Coronavirus Vaccine
Vaccine experts on Thursday rigorously debated the Food and Drug Administration’s planned standards for clearing a coronavirus vaccine quickly for broad use, discussing what level of evidence would be sufficient to establish safety and effectiveness. The FDA advisory committee, in an all-day virtual meeting, did not consider any specific vaccine. The session served in large part as a venue for the agency to try to reassure the public that any vaccine will be held to a high standard, not the relatively low bar used this year for emergency use authorization for treatments. The FDA said that though it probably will grant emergency use authorizations — which can be handed out faster than full approvals — for the early vaccines, it will use robust criteria similar to those applied in regular approvals. (McGinley and Johnson, 10/22)

AP: US Regulators Seek Advice On Thorny Issues As Vaccines Near
Scientific advisers told U.S. regulators Thursday they’re concerned that allowing emergency use of a COVID-19 vaccine could damage confidence in the shots and make it harder to ever find out how well they really work. The Food and Drug Administration may have to decide by year’s end whether to allow use of the first vaccines against the coronavirus. Facing growing public fears that politics may override science, the FDA took the unusual step of assembling more than a dozen independent scientists to review if its standards are high enough to judge the shots. The panelists generally supported guidelines for the vaccines that the FDA recently issued, over White House objections. (Neergaard and Perrone, 10/23)

CNBC: FDA Opens Private Covid Vaccine Meetings To The Public In Bid To Gain Trust
The FDA took the unusual step Thursday in opening to the public a routine meeting with an advisory group that’s weighing in on approving the coronavirus vaccine as the agency battles public concerns about its safety as well as political pressure from President Donald Trump to approve it before the Nov. 3 election. The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, an outside group of researchers and physicians who are advising the Food and Drug Administration on whether to approve a Covid-19 vaccine, debated the standards needed to ensure a Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective in a meeting broadcast on YouTube and C-SPAN. (Lovelace Jr., 10/22)

NPR: Researchers Find Doubts About COVID-19 Vaccine Among People Of Color
At a meeting Thursday of experts advising the FDA on COVID-19 vaccines, the concerns of front-line workers and people of color were read aloud verbatim, highlighting the crucial project of communicating the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine in an environment of deep political distrust. (Wamsley, 10/22)

In related news about the FDA —

Politico: An Angry Azar Floats Plans To Oust FDA’s Hahn 
Infuriated by the FDA’s defiance in a showdown over the Trump administration’s standards for authorizing a coronavirus vaccine, health secretary Alex Azar has spent recent weeks openly plotting the ouster of FDA chief Stephen Hahn. Azar has vented to allies within the Health and Human Services Department about his unhappiness with the top official in charge of the vaccine process, and discussed the prospect of seeking White House permission to remove him, a half-dozen current and former administration officials said. (Cancryn and Diamond, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Moderna’s Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Is Fully Enrolled; 37 Percent Of Participants Are Minorities 
Moderna, the biotechnology firm partnering with the National Institutes of Health to develop a coronavirus vaccine, announced Thursday that it has fully enrolled its trial, with 30,000 participants — more than a third of whom are minorities. The coronavirus vaccine trials have been closely watched to ensure they reflect the diversity of the U.S. population at a minimum, and Moderna’s enrollment was slowed in September to recruit more minorities. A fifth of the participants are Hispanic and 10 percent are Black, according to data released by the company. People over 65, a population also at high risk for coronavirus, make up 25 percent of the study population. (Johnson, 10/22)

USA Today: Pfizer Has Expanded Its COVID-19 Vaccine Trial To Include Teens. Some Say It's Risky. Others Argue It's Necessary.
Pfizer is the only one of the leading drug companies to allow minors into a vaccine trial. Some pediatric vaccine experts say drugmakers and federal regulators should wait until the vaccines have been proven safe and effective in adults before moving to children. ... But Dr. Barbara Pahud, director of research in the infectious diseases department at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said it's immoral not to get kids into trials as soon as possible. "We should not allow children to die," she said. "That's our job as pediatricians to make noise and make sure people are noticing." (Weintraub, 10/22)

Also —

Quartz: Will The Covid-19 Vaccine Be Mandatory?
Given that a vaccine is going to be one of the catalysts in ending the pandemic, could the president mandate that people take it? In a word, no. The US president has never been able to impose a federal mandate of vaccines across the country, and that won’t change anytime soon. (Foley, 10/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Vaccine Makers To Face Challenges When Recognizing Revenue 
Drugmakers developing Covid-19 vaccines can add one more challenge to their list: how to account for the sales. The companies will face challenges recognizing revenue due to a lack of specific guidance from U.S. regulators and standard-setters on Covid-19 vaccines and the sheer scale of the production effort. (Maurer, 10/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Palantir To Help U.S. Track Covid-19 Vaccines 
Data-mining company Palantir Technologies Inc. is helping the federal government set up a system that will track the manufacture, distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccines, state and local health officials briefed on the effort said. Palantir has been developing software that federal health officials would use to manage the various vaccine data and identify any issues that could prevent Americans from getting the shots, according to the health officials and materials reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (Loftus and Winkler, 10/22)

Bloomberg: Investors Brace For Barrage Of Covid Vaccine Data To Roil Market
The next month or two has the potential to wreak havoc in the health-care sector and the market as a barrage of Covid-19 vaccine test results roll in at the tail end of the U.S. presidential election. “The vaccine outlook will ultimately dwarf the election in terms of market impact,” Goldman Sachs’s strategists said. An earlier-than-expected vaccine would send equity values higher while a delay could send the market lower no matter what the election’s outcome, the bank’s analysis shows. (Flanagan, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Barrett Moves One Step Closer To A Seat On The Supreme Court As Republicans On Senate Panel Advance Her Nomination 
Judge Amy Coney Barrett moved one step closer to a seat on the Supreme Court on Thursday as the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced her nomination with solely Republican support after Democrats boycotted the vote in protest of what they viewed as an illegitimate confirmation process. The vote was 12 to 0, with no Democrats present to officially register their objections. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is expected to take procedural steps Friday to bring her confirmation to the floor, with Barrett being confirmed by Monday evening, putting her in position to hear key cases involving potential election disputes and health care. (Min Kim and Firozi, 10/22)

AP: GOP-Led Senate Panel Advances Barrett As Democrats Boycott
“Big day for America,” Trump tweeted after the committee vote. Barrett, 48, would lock a 6-3 conservative court majority for the foreseeable future. That could open a new era of rulings on abortion access, gay marriage and even the results of this year’s presidential election. (Mascaro and Jalonick, 10/22)

USA Today: Photos Of Obamacare Recipients Filled Democrats' Seats At Barrett Vote
Senate Democrats boycotted Thursday's vote to advance the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for Supreme Court — and poster-size photos of Affordable Care Act (ACA) recipients took their place. To supporters of the ACA, the faces represent what is at stake: individuals who could lose health care if the Obama-era law is struck down. (Grantham-Philips, 10/22)

Pew Research Center: 8 Key Findings About Catholics And Abortion 
As the Senate prepares to vote on Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court, public attention has focused on her Catholic faith and, in particular, her stance on abortion rights. Some critics, citing Barrett’s past rulings on abortion, have questioned her views on Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established a woman’s right to abortion. ... In practice, Catholics’ views on abortion are not always aligned with the guidance of their church. (Fahmy, 10/20)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

The Washington Post: Senate Republicans Fume As Mnuchin Gives Ground To Pelosi In Search Of Deal 
Senate Republicans are growing increasingly frustrated with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as he makes what they see as unacceptable compromises in his quest for a stimulus deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, multiple people familiar with the talks said Thursday. Mnuchin has committed to a top-line figure of around $1.9 trillion, much too high for many Senate Republicans to swallow. That includes at least $300 billion for state and local aid, also a non-starter for many in the GOP. (Werner and Stein, 10/22)

The Hill: McConnell Says 'No Concerns' After Questions About Health 
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday there were "no concerns" about his health, after bandages and what appeared to be bruises on his hands drew widespread attention this week. McConnell, 78, batted down questions from reporters in the Capitol about if he had health concerns, which would come as he is running for a seventh term. (Carney, 10/22)

The Washington Post: U.S. Signs International Declaration Challenging Right To Abortion And Upholding ‘Role Of The Family’
The United States joined Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda on Thursday to co-sponsor a nonbinding international antiabortion declaration, in a rebuke of United Nations human rights bodies that have sought to protect abortion access. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar participated in the virtual signing ceremony. The Geneva Consensus Declaration aims to promote women’s health, “defends the unborn and reiterates the vital importance of the family,” Pompeo said at the ceremony. (Berger, 10/22)

The Guardian: US Signs Anti-Abortion Declaration With Group Of Largely Authoritarian Governments
The “Geneva Consensus Declaration” calls on states to promote women’s rights and health – but without access to abortion – and is part of a campaign by Trump administration, led by secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, to reorient US foreign policy in a more socially conservative direction, even at the expense of alienating traditional western allies. The “core supporters” of the declaration are Brazil, Egypt, Hungary, Indonesia and Uganda, and the 27 other signatories include Belarus (where security forces are currently trying to suppress a women-led protest movement), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya. (Borger, 10/22)

And protests break out after Poland bans abortions —

CBS News: Angry Protests As Poland's Top Court Bans Virtually All Abortions 
Hundreds of people took to the streets in cities across Poland on Thursday night, protesting against the tightening of the country's abortion laws, which were already among the strictest in Europe. Police met the protesters with pepper spray in some places, and at least 15 demonstrators were arrested. Clashes between protesters and the police turned violent in the capital city of Warsaw after a ruling by the Constitutional Court left virtually all abortions banned in the conservative country. (Noryskiewicz, 10/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Poland’s Top Court Tightens Strict Abortion Laws 
Poland’s top court declared abortions unconstitutional when conducted because of fetal abnormalities, a victory for the Catholic conservative ruling party in its yearslong struggle to further tighten some of Europe’s strictest such laws. Poland will now only allow abortions in cases of rape, incest, or when the health of the woman is at stake. Its laws make the majority Catholic country nearly the hardest place in the European Union to terminate a pregnancy, excluding tiny states such as Malta or in jurisdictions such as Northern Ireland, where such procedures are illegal. (Hinshaw and Ojewska, 10/22)

In other news about abortion —

CBS News: Mississippi Asks Supreme Court Again To Review Its 15-Week Abortion Ban
The Mississippi attorney general petitioned the Supreme Court again on Thursday to review the state's 15-week abortion ban, a case that directly challenges Roe v. Wade and has the potential to reverse the landmark 1973 decision. The request came just hours after Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the high court. The full Senate confirmation vote is expected on Monday. (Smith, 10/22)

Yahoo News: Trump Has Sparked A Shift In How Some Conservatives Talk And Think About Abortion
A political cartoon that’s been widely shared on Facebook shows a horse labeled “Christian Voters” pulling a buggy with an elephant — the GOP — holding the reins, while the horse tramples over three individuals who represent “the Widow,” “the Orphan” and “the Stranger.” The Republican elephant dangles a giant carrot — labeled “Overturn Roe v. Wade” — in front of the horse, while driving a cart labeled “Corporate Interests” that carries bags of money bearing the words “Tax Cuts for 1%.”It’s a critique of conservative evangelicals that is picking up steam — including among evangelicals. (Ward, 10/21)

NPR: Hospital Bills For Uninsured COVID-19 Patients Are Covered Under The CARES Act 
When Darius Settles died from COVID-19 on the Fourth of July, his family and the city of Nashville, Tenn., were shocked. Even the mayor noted the passing of a 30-year-old without any underlying conditions — one of the city's youngest fatalities at that point. Settles was also uninsured and had just been sent home from an emergency room for the second time, and he was worried about medical bills. An investigation into his death found that, like many uninsured COVID-19 patients, he had never been told that cost shouldn't be a concern. (Farmer, 10/22)

Becker's Hospital Review: Hospitals Fail To Tell Uninsured COVID-19 Patients Their Bills Are Covered, NPR Finds
Most major health systems participate in a program that covers hospital bills for uninsured COVID-19 patients; however, many of them are not telling their patients upfront, according to NPR. The program is run by CMS and was set up by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act this spring. According to Jennifer Tolbert of the Kaiser Family Foundation, who studies uninsured patients, there is no requirement for hospitals to tell uninsured COVID-19 patients upfront that the federal government would pay the bill in full. Ms. Tolbert also said that even physicians don't always know how the program works or that it exists. She says these are shortcomings of the program.  (Paavola, 10/22)

In related news about hospital bills —

Yahoo Finance: 5 Staggering Hospital Bills From COVID-19 Patients
During a global pandemic, not getting medical treatment isn’t an option. If someone’s feeling ill or worried that they might have contracted COVID-19, it’s important to get tested immediately. And if symptoms of the condition worsen, it’s imperative that one gets medical treatment. But there’s one symptom that those who have recovered from the virus often don’t expect: sticker shock. Living in a country where medical coverage isn’t a guarantee often means that the bulk of medical treatment falls on the individual to pay. And if someone’s uninsured, then the lifesaving care they’ve received may rack up into the millions. (Shrayber, 10/22)

The Colorado Sun: Coronavirus Is A Historic Health Crisis. So Why Isn’t It Increasing Colorado Health Insurance Prices? 
Amid a historic public health crisis, something curious has happened with health insurance prices: Nothing. When state officials this month unveiled the approved rates for next year’s health insurance plans, they announced the smallest change in years. Average prices for plans in the individual market — where people shop for insurance if they don’t get coverage through an employer — are set to decline by 1.4%. Average prices in the small-group market — where small employers buy plans for their workers — are set to rise by 3.8%. ... It raises a question. Why hasn’t the coronavirus pandemic — and all the costly medical care that can go along with it — led to higher insurance prices? (Ingold, 10/22)

KBIA: Kansas Is Among A Shrinking Number Of States That Don't Protect People From Surprise Medical Bills
Kansans remain among the most vulnerable in the country to surprise medical bills — charges from outside an insurance network that the consumer only discovers after treatment. A new research brief from the Kansas Health Institute points to studies suggesting the charges are common in Kansas. It’s part of a shrinking minority of states yet to pass laws reining in the practice. (Llopis-Jepsen, 10/22)

Orlando Business Journal: Florida Nonprofit The Assistance Fund Creates Program To Cover Covid Medical Bills 
For Lawrence Hatch, alleviating the weight of health care costs is personal. That's because Hatch, an Orlando-based client adviser with SunTrust Private Wealth Management, is familiar with the burden medical costs can bring. Hatch's son has faced a number of medical issues during his lifetime, giving Hatch first-hand experience of costs associated with unexpected medical care. It's why Hatch, the chairman of The Assistance Fund, told Orlando Business Journal he looks forward to the day the medical nonprofit no longer exists. (Soderstrom, 10/21)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A Broken-Hearted Cuthbert Says Goodbye To Its Hospital
As Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center closes Thursday, it becomes the 133rd rural hospital to cease operations in the U.S., and the eighth to be shuttered in Georgia, since 2010, according to researchers. Most people in Randolph County knew of the financial struggles of their critical access hospital before the closure was made public, say those who spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for this story. (Berard, 10/22)

The Augusta Chronicle: University Hospital Faces 'Challenging’ Year Ahead From Pandemic, Officials Say
University Hospital will have a “challenging budget” for next year as officials said Thursday that they expect the COVID-19 pandemic to continue through 2021. But even now, there could be a new surge in COVID-19 cases starting in the Augusta area, CEO Jim Davis warned. University’s board approved the budget for next year at its meeting, along with its 2021 capital budget. The operating budget anticipates revenues continuing to be down from factors such as fewer admissions and surgeries. (Corwin, 10/22)

Houston Chronicle: CHI St. Luke's Severs Deal With Molina, Its Second Break With An Insurance Carrier This Week 
It’s the second time this week that the hospital system has detailed plans to leave the network of a major insurance carrier and comes just 10 days before the start of open enrollment on the Affordable Care Act marketplace exchange on Nov. 1. (Wu, 10/22)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Hospitals Paid Executive Bonuses As Pandemic Loomed
Some hospital executives in southeast Michigan received bonuses this year shortly before their health systems laid off thousands of workers and asked the federal government for a bailout as the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the nation.  Two of Michigan's largest nonprofit hospital systems, Beaumont Health and the Henry Ford Health System, awarded those bonuses in March.  And then, as the novel coronavirus caused a financial crisis at their hospitals, Beaumont and Henry Ford turned to the federal government for help. (Dixon, 10/23)

Modern Healthcare: Prices Spike As Exam Glove Supplies Dwindle, GPO Says
The available supply of medical-grade exam gloves may not meet the projected demand over the next 12 months, which will likely translate to price hikes for health systems and other providers, according to data from the group purchasing organization Vizient. Personal protective equipment supply levels have been dropping for several product types as COVID-19 cases rebound in some states. While many health systems and other providers have been able to source alternatives for PPE like face shields and gowns, exam gloves may be more complicated. (Kacik, 10/22)

In news about health care personnel —

San Francisco Chronicle: Nurses Demand Overtime Pay In Lawsuit Against San Francisco; Union Claims 90,000 Hours Of Work Unpaid 
Three nurses filed a lawsuit against the San Francisco’s Department of Public Health on Thursday for back pay they say they are entitled to after years of chronic understaffing at public health facilities. The nurses say the department uses illegal practices to avoid paying overtime. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court, they allege that nurses who work under a civil service appointment are not properly compensated for hours that exceed their standard 40-hour work week. (Mishanec, 10/22)

CIDRAP: PTSD Symptoms Noted In 29% Of Norwegian Health Workers
A survey of healthcare and public service providers in Norway shows high rates of mental health problems, especially among those with direct COVID-19 patient care, highlighting the need for mental health monitoring and support. Previous studies have identified higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among healthcare workers during pandemics due to fear of infection, higher patient deaths, responsibility for difficult decisions, and disruption of social support. The risk of pandemic-associated mental health problems has also been shown to be higher for women, younger workers, people previously diagnosed as having a mental disorder, and those lacking social support. (10/22)

Reuters: As COVID-19 Cases Spike, Pneumonia Vaccine Demand Rockets And Europe Runs Low
As COVID-19 infections rise, people seeking to avoid one lung disease compounding another are queuing up to get inoculated against bacterial pneumonia, causing shortages of a Merck & Co vaccine in parts of Europe. Demand for Merck’s Pneumovax 23, which is used to prevent pneumococcal lung infections, has hit record highs across the world, the company said. (Parodi, Burger and Erman, 10/23)

Stat: Covid-19 Is Pushing Pharma Companies To The Cloud
The drug industry has been gradually migrating to the cloud for years. But the Covid-19 pandemic has rapidly accelerated that shift for a simple reason: Researchers needed to run the biggest experiment of their lives in record time, and they lacked the power to launch it. (Ross, 10/22)

In other pharmaceutical industry news —

Stat: FDA Wants Pharma To Include Younger Women In Breast Cancer Drug Trials 
The Food and Drug Administration is pushing drug companies to include younger people in drug trials for breast cancer drugs — a boon for the more than 16,000 American women under the age of 40 who are diagnosed with the condition each year. The FDA’s new guidance, published in draft form earlier this month, encourages drug companies that are investigating hormonal treatments for breast cancer to include people who are premenopausal in the drug trials, provided they take adequate hormone-suppressing drugs. (Ritzel, 10/23)

Stat: CRISPR Therapeutics' CAR-T Treatment Shows Encouraging Results
An off-the-shelf CAR-T cell therapy developed by CRISPR Therapeutics induced complete remissions in some patients with advanced B-cell lymphoma, but a patient death was also deemed to be related to the treatment, the company said Wednesday. The clinical trial results are preliminary and represent an effort by CRISPR Therapeutics to expand CRISPR-edited treatments into cancer care. The company, in partnership with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, is also conducting clinical trials of CRISPR-based therapies for patients with rare, inherited blood disorders. (Adam Feuerstein, 10/21)

Stat: New Rare Disease Gene Therapy Startup Recruits Former Sarepta Executive
A three-year-old gene therapy startup from Florida is relaunching Thursday with an infusion of health care investor cash and a chief executive officer recruited from Sarepta Therapeutics. AavantiBio will use $107 million in new Series A financing to fund the development of an experimental gene therapy to treat patients with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a rare, inherited disease that causes damage to the central nervous system and heart. (Feuerstein, 10/22)

In updates on the opioid crisis —

The Hill: Walmart Preemptively Sues DOJ In Opioid Case 
Walmart filed a preemptive lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in what it says is an attempt to thwart an incoming suit for failing to thwart otherwise valid opioid prescriptions. The suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas asks the court to declare that the government has no lawful basis for seeking civil damages from the company based on claims that pharmacists filled prescriptions for opioids that should have raised alarm, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the suit. (Williams, 10/22)

CIDRAP: Down Syndrome Tied To 10 Times The Risk Of COVID-19 Death 
In findings that could place another group onto the COVID at-risk list, researchers in the United Kingdom estimated in a research letter published yesterday that adults with Down syndrome are at almost five times the risk for COVID-19–related hospitalization and 10 times the risk for related death. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and led by researchers from the University of Oxford, involved 8.26 million adults, 4,053 of them diagnosed as having Down syndrome. The team analyzed information from a primary care database to determine if the abnormal immune responses, congenital heart disease, and lung abnormalities common in people who have the syndrome could be risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness. (Van Beusekom, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Stop Wiping Down Groceries And Focus On Bigger Risks, Say Experts On Coronavirus Transmission
Although studies continue to show that the novel coronavirus can be detected on contaminated objects after days or weeks, a consensus has emerged among scientists that the virus is rarely transmitted through contact with tainted surfaces and that it’s safe to stop taking such extreme measures as quarantining your mail and wiping down your groceries. “To the best of my knowledge, in real life, scientists like me — an epidemiologist and a physician — and virologists basically don’t worry too much about these things,” said David Morens, a senior adviser to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony S. Fauci. (Chang, 10/22)

Stat: Blood Plasma Showed No Benefit In Covid-19 Patients In Trial
Infusing hospitalized Covid-19 patients with blood plasma from people who recovered from the disease had no effect on whether patients got sicker or died, according to the first completed randomized trial of the treatments. The study, published Thursday in BMJ, could re-energize the debate over whether blood plasma is an effective treatment for the disease. An earlier study, run by the Mayo Clinic, showed blood plasma did yield some benefit, leading the Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency access to the therapy in August. That trial, however, did not have a control arm. (Garde and Herper, 10/22)

Scientific American: What We Know So Far About How COVID Affects The Nervous System
Many of the symptoms experienced by people infected with SARS-CoV-2 involve the nervous system. Patients complain of headaches, muscle and joint pain, fatigue and “brain fog,” or loss of taste and smell—all of which can last from weeks to months after infection. In severe cases, COVID-19 can also lead to encephalitis or stroke. The virus has undeniable neurological effects. But the way it actually affects nerve cells still remains a bit of a mystery. Can immune system activation alone produce symptoms? Or does the novel coronavirus directly attack the nervous system? (Sutherland, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Southwest Will Start Filling Middle Seats Dec. 1 
Low-cost carrier Southwest Airlines, which has been limiting the number of seats sold on its flights since May, announced in its third-quarter earnings report today that it will halt the practice beginning Dec. 1. The policy will go into effect after Thanksgiving, which typically brings the busiest air travel day of the year. (McMahon, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Target Offering Shopping Appointments During Holiday Season 
At a time when the thought of holiday crowds might be more frightening than festive, Target is introducing a new safety measure: reservations. ... During the holidays, shoppers can visit Target.com/line to see if there is a line outside their local store and reserve a spot. They’ll be notified when it’s their turn to shop. (Telford, 10/22)

The Washington Post: Virus Shutdowns Took A Grim Toll On Amputee Veterans Who Died By Suicide, Families Say
As coronavirus restrictions unfurled a dangerous mix of depression and anxiety, the scourge of suicide cut through a tiny community of amputee veterans in recent months, claiming at least three in a group where isolation is already a potent risk factor. (Horton, 10/22)

North Carolina Health News: Halloween 2020: Should Kids Trick-Or-Treat? 
Halloween is on the horizon and many families are wrestling with the idea of letting their kids deck themselves out in costumes and go trick-or-treating. Pandemic fatigue has set in at many households, making many nostalgic for the days when the little kids could parade around as little Elsas, fearless Spidermen, witches, ghosts or Avengers on a mission to collect candy at every door. (Blythe, 10/22)

KHN: Travel On Thanksgiving? Pass The COVID
Molly Wiese was truly stumped. Her parents and siblings live in Southern California, and Wiese, a 35-year-old lawyer, has returned home every Christmas since she moved to Minnesota in 2007. Because of the pandemic, Wiese thought it would be wiser to stay put for once. But in June, Wiese’s father was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and they feared this could be his final holiday season. (Almendrala, 10/23)

KHN: Workers Fired, Penalized For Reporting COVID Safety Violations
When COVID-19 began making headlines in March, Charles Collins pulled out a protective face mask from the supply at the manufacturing company in Rockaway, New Jersey, where he was the shop foreman and put it on. The dozen or so other workers at the facility followed suit. There was no way to maintain a safe distance from one another on the shop floor, where they made safety mats for machines, and a few of the men had been out sick with flu-like symptoms. Better safe than sorry. Management was not pleased. Collins got a text message from one of his supervisors saying masks were to be used to protect workers from wood chips, metal particles and other occupational safety hazards. “We don’t provide or for that matter have enough masks to protect anybody from CORVID-19 [sic]!” If workers didn’t stop using the masks for that purpose, the supervisor texted, “we’ll have to store them away just like the candy!” “I was shocked,” said Collins, 38. “They weren’t taking it seriously.” (Andrews, 10/23)

In school news —

The New York Times: Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely To Fuel Coronavirus Surges, Scientists Say
Months into the school year, school reopenings across the United States remain a patchwork of plans: in-person, remote and hybrid; masked and not; socially distanced and not. But amid this jumble, one clear pattern is emerging. So far, schools do not seem to be stoking community transmission of the coronavirus, according to data emerging from random testing in the United States and Britain. Elementary schools especially seem to seed remarkably few infections. (Mandavilli, 10/22)

Arizona Republic: Even At School For Deaf Kids, Online Learning A Struggle For Deaf Boy
Marci Barenburg's 8-year-old son, Eric Cardenas, is deaf and attends the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and the Blind's Phoenix campus. Eric has been with the same cohort of kids since kindergarten, forming "really tight" bonds that Barenburg doesn't believe would be as plentiful in a school not specifically designed for kids like him. She said all students and staff on campus know sign language. ... Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The school sent kids home and went fully remote on March 16. "He went from being the kid whose favorite thing in the world was school to ... absolutely hating school," she said. "He would beg not to do schoolwork and do online school. He would do it, but it would take a lot of work and he would have a lot of fits." (Frank, 10/21)

ABC News: Wisconsin Admits 1st Patient To Field Hospital, Reports Record COVID-19 Deaths 
Wisconsin admitted its first patient to a field hospital in the Wisconsin State Fair Park, near Milwaukee, on Wednesday, the same day that the state reported a record 48 deaths from the novel coronavirus. The field hospital, a 530-bed facility which opened last week, is meant to relieve pressure on local hospitals, which have been rapidly filling with COVID-19 patients as Wisconsin's outbreak worsens. In some areas, 90% of ICU beds are full, according to the governor's office. (Schumaker, 10/22)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Coronavirus: State Reports 3,413 New Cases, 22 Deaths
All but four Wisconsin counties are reporting a very high level of COVID-19 activity, according to state data, as the state continued its descent Thursday into a dire public health crisis. ..."This virus is spreading silently," Ryan Westergaard, chief medical officer for the state Department of Health Services, said in a news conference of the asymptomatic people likely infecting others. (Carson, 10/22)

In news from New Jersey and Massachusetts —

Politico: Murphy: Exposure To Staffer Who Tested Positive For Covid Occurred Over Drinks
A trip to a German beer hall in Hoboken, N.J., will cost New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy his weekend. Murphy, who on Wednesday announced he would be entering quarantine after being alerted during a press conference that Mike DeLameter, his deputy chief of staff, had tested positive for coronavirus, said Thursday morning that his exposure to DeLameter happened over drinks. “At the table, you're having a drink, you're eating something. By definition, you're taking your mask off,” Murphy said during an interview on radio station 1010 WINS. (Sutton and Landergan, 10/22)

WBUR: COVID-19 Hit Mass. Nursing Homes Hard — Especially Those Serving People Of Color 
In Massachusetts, nursing homes were hit hard and early by the coronavirus. Thousands of residents in these facilities have died from COVID-19, and the death rate from the virus in nursing homes is 90 times that of the statewide death rate. But nursing homes across the state did not bear this burden equally. (Mason and Wasser, 10/23)

In news from Alabama, Georgia and Texas —

The Hill: Alabama Lieutenant Governor Tests Positive For COVID-19 
Alabama’s lieutenant governor tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday after previously criticizing a statewide mask mandate. “After being notified this afternoon that a member of my Sunday school church group had acquired the coronavirus, I was tested out of an abundance of caution and received notice that the results proved positive,” Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth (R) said in a statement. (Jenkins, 10/22)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Effort To Privatize Ga. Prison Health Care Draws Fear From Experts, Advocates
Georgia Department of Corrections officials hope to save money by privatizing all health care at state prisons, a proposal that alarms experts and people who’d been incarcerated in a system they say already has a rock-bottom medical budget. GDC is researching how the prisons could have medical services provided by a for-profit firm rather than Georgia Correctional HealthCare, part of the state’s medical school at Augusta University, according to documents obtained through the Open Records Act. (Sharpe, 10/22)

Macon Telegraph: Middle Georgia COVID-19 Update 
The state of Georgia has seen stability in both test positivity and new cases according to the most recent report from the White House coronavirus task provided by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit newsroom in D.C. The state of Georgia now ranks 35rd in the country for new coronavirus cases per 100,000, after leading which led the nation in the category in mid-August. The state had 83 cases per 100,000 people last week, lower than the national average of 117. Both of those numbers are up from a week ago as the country as a whole continues to see a rise in new cases. (Baxley, 10/22)

11Alive: Georgia Ranks Near Bottom Of US For Flu Vaccine Rates Study Says 
As government and public health officials warn of a potential coronavirus/flu "twindemic" this winter, a report says Georgia has one of the lowest flu vaccination rates in the country. The analysis, compiled by insurance and research firm AdvisorSmith, examined the last vaccination rates in states across the last three flu seasons. (Raymond, 10/22)

Dallas Morning News: Health Care Could Be Deciding Factor In Dallas County Battleground District For Texas House
Republicans once had a stronghold on House District 114 — now, the North Dallas seat is one of the more intriguing legislative battlegrounds after Democrat incumbent Rep. John Turner flipped the district two years ago. Gone are the days of Jason Villaba, a three-term Republican from Dallas, who lost to Lisa Luby Ryan in the 2018 GOP primary. (Briseno, 10/22)

In news from Michigan, Illinois, Utah and Alaska —

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer OKs COVID-19 Protections For Workers, Businesses
Workers will be able to stay home if they have COVID-19 symptoms or have been exposed to the virus, and businesses will gain legal protection if people get sick at their operations as long as they have followed government rules related to the virus under a series of bills signed into law Thursday in Michigan. The legislation approved by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was touted as a bipartisan approach to dealing with the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and could reflect a continuing change in tone from state leaders as they grapple with a new, resurgent phase of the illness. (Lawrence, 10/22)

Chicago Tribune: Some Restaurants In Illinois Are Defying Closure Orders As Ban On Indoor Service Spreads To Chicago Suburbs 
Despite Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recent order to shut down indoor service at bars and restaurants in northwest Illinois due to the coronavirus, Fozzy’s Bar and Grill near Rockford was among those that stayed open.Owner Nick Fosberg said he had to leave the doors open to keep his employees working, pay his bills and stay in business. He says the workers wear masks, and customers wear masks on their way in and out, while tables are spaced 6 feet apart, at 25% capacity. “We’re sticking to what we were doing and being safe about it,” he said. “We’re getting a ton of support. People are happy someone finally stood up and said, ‘I’m not closing.’” (McCoppin, 10/22)

The Salt Lake Tribune: Gov. Herbert Warns Utah Hospitals ‘Starting To Fill Up’ As State’s COVID-19 Cases Continue To Soar 
Gov. Gary Herbert told reporters Thursday that as the state experiences record-high coronavirus hospitalizations and case counts continue to climb, the health care system is at or near capacity.As 1500 new cases were reported, Herbert warned “our hospitals are starting to fill up.” (Rodgers, Alberty and Means, 10/22)

Anchorage Daily News: COVID-19 Outbreak Expands In Overcrowded Fairbanks Jail
A coronavirus outbreak in an overcrowded Fairbanks jail is growing, with 55 inmates now testing positive. The Alaska Department of Corrections first acknowledged the outbreak on Saturday, when the DOC said that 33 people had tested positive for COVID-19 at Fairbanks Correctional Center, which houses a mix of people arrested but awaiting trial and sentenced prisoners. The jail also serves as an intake facility for people from all over northern Alaska entering DOC custody. (Theriault Boots, 10/21)

ProPublica: Inside The Fall Of The CDC 
At 7:47 a.m. on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, Dr. Jay Butler pounded out a grim email to colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Butler, then the head of the agency’s coronavirus response, and his team had been trying to craft guidance to help Americans return safely to worship amid worries that two of its greatest comforts — the chanting of prayers and singing of hymns — could launch a deadly virus into the air with each breath. The week before, the CDC had published its investigation of an outbreak at an Arkansas church that had resulted in four deaths. The agency’s scientific journal recently had detailed a superspreader event in which 52 of the 61 singers at a 2½-hour choir practice developed COVID-19. Two died. (Bandler, Callahan, Rotella and Berg, 10/15)

The Atlantic: Could The Third Amendment Protect Against Infection? 
Ever since state governors began implementing stay-at-home orders to contain the coronavirus pandemic, protesters have resisted such safety measures under the belief that they violate constitutionally guaranteed liberties. Proposals to mandate mask wearing have collided with allegations of First Amendment violations. Orders to close gun stores have clashed with concerns about Second Amendment freedoms. But a profound historical counter-vision to these ideas about “individual liberty” can be found in one of the most neglected and underappreciated corners of the Bill of Rights: the Third Amendment. (Zhang, 10/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Oxford Developed Covid Vaccine, Then Scholars Clashed Over Money
Just weeks before the University of Oxford announced a mega-deal aimed at rolling out a Covid-19 vaccine world-wide, university leaders had a revolt on their hands. Publicly, Oxford scientists were touting progress in the laboratory. But behind the scenes, two renowned vaccinologists leading the effort were fighting a proposed deal with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. The scientists’ small biotech company—a spinout partially funded by Oxford—was refusing to hand over intellectual-property rights. To outflank their bosses, the scientists asked a London investment banker to help explore other potential deals. (Strasburg and Woo, 10/21)

The Atlantic: How To Change The Mind Of An Anti-Vaxxer 
Sometime in the coming months, our prayers will have been answered. The researchers will have pulled their all-nighters, mountains will have been moved, glass vials will have been shipped, and a vaccine that protects us from the novel coronavirus will be here. We will all clamber to get it so we can go back to school, work, restaurants, and life. All of us, that is, except for people like Marcus Nel-Jamal Hamm. Hamm, a Black actor and professional wrestler, is what some might call an “anti-vaxxer,” though he finds that term derogatory and reductive. Since about 2013, he’s been running a Facebook page called “Over Vaccination Nation,” which now has more than 3,000 followers. One recent post is a video by the anti-vaccinationist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wrongly suggesting that mercury-laced vaccines are shipped to predominantly Black communities. (Khazan, 10/16)

The New York Times: 5 Ways Families Can Prepare As Coronavirus Cases Surge
As if parents didn’t have enough to worry about, here’s a new cause for alarm: Coronavirus cases in the United States are climbing toward a third peak, troubling epidemiologists. Cases are rising to record levels in nearly half the states in the country, driven by uncontrolled outbreaks in the Midwest and Mountain West, where hospitals are becoming overwhelmed. (Caron, 10/19)

The Atlantic: The COVID-19 Documentary All Americans Need to See
Given the ongoing nature of the pandemic, it may seem senseless to make a two-hour film that looks back on how the coronavirus ran rampant in the U.S. And yet, Totally Under Control—from the Oscar-winning writer-director Alex Gibney and his co-directors, Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger—not only documents the chaos of 2020 with clear-eyed precision, but also successfully argues for its own existence. (Li, 10/19)

The New York Times: Where Have All The Hospital Patients Gone? 
Weathered, wiry and in his early 60s, the man stumbled into clinic, trailing cigarette smoke and clutching his chest. Over the previous week, he had had fleeting episodes of chest pressure but stayed away from the hospital. “I didn’t want to get the coronavirus,” he gasped as the nurses unbuttoned his shirt to get an EKG. Only when his pain had become relentless did he feel he had no choice but to come in. In pre-pandemic times, patients like him were routine at my Boston-area hospital; we saw them almost every day. But for much of the spring and summer, the halls and parking lots were eerily empty. (Chen, 10/20)

Also —

The Wall Street Journal: I Married Him For Love—And So He Could Be On My Health Insurance 
You could call my marriage untraditional––at least the way it started. I was newly 25, and my 30-year-old boyfriend, Ryan Brady, was finishing his morning coffee when I told him I loved him, and I wanted to spend my life with him. And I wanted him to have my health insurance. This was last December. There had been no plans, no rings or photographers. I did get down on one knee, but only so I could meet his eye; our two cats took up the neighboring armchair. (Fontana, 10/16)

The Wall Street Journal: What If Your Therapist’s Tell-All Is All About You? 
Catherine Gildiner’s new book about her life as a psychotherapist stars her former patients, some of whom experienced strong reactions after seeing their lives exposed on the page. Ms. Gildiner said one patient, a woman who had been abused as a child, told her that reading the book brought up repressed memories of her sadistic father and briefly sank her into a depression. Another patient, a wealthy antiques collector, was mortified by the thought of anyone ever knowing the patient was her and vowed not to tell a soul about her literary turn, the author said. A third, Ms. Gildiner added, was a musician who felt so vindicated by the book’s portrayal of him that he showed the hardcover to everyone in his family.“ All of them were happy to be in it,” said Ms. Gildiner, whose memoir “Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery” came out last month. (Gamerman, 10/19)

The Washington Post: Conspiracy Theories: Protect Yourself From Being Sucked In 
Conspiracy theories such as these swirl around us like noxious germs, targeting the mind instead of the body. And in the same way that our immune system can leave us more vulnerable to pathogens, our emotional state can make us more open to false — and potentially harmful — beliefs. People who feel scared, confused, alone and under siege are especially at risk of coming under the sway of conspiracy theories, experts say. But there are steps we can take to protect ourselves from these dangerous ideas. (Haupt, 10/19)

Center For Public Integrity and McClatchy: Deadly Bacteria Lurk In Coastal Waters. Climate Change Increases The Risks.
Vibrio is a group of rod-shaped bacteria found in brackish and balmy coastal waters. It has many species but only about a dozen make people sick. (Raj, Penney, Lombardi, Moutinho and Fretwell, 10/20)

The Washington Post: The Last Debate Is The Final Straw
The good news is that we likely will never be forced to endure another debate featuring President Trump. The better news is that even before the Thursday night event, Trump sabotaged himself by pre-releasing an interview for “60 Minutes” with CBS News’s Lesley Stahl in which he declared flatly that he hoped the Supreme Court would invalidate the Affordable Care Act. "I hope that they end it. It’ll be so good if they end it,” Trump said. This is what they call in soccer an “own goal.” Former vice president Joe Biden could not have asked for more going into a debate. But as a bonus, Trump not only displayed his whiny, thin-skinned demeanor, but he also let on that he has no replacement health-care plan for Obamacare. (Jennifer Rubin, 10/22)

WBUR: Overturning The Affordable Care Act Would Be Catastrophic — Especially For People With Disabilities 
For the 61 million Americans who live with a disability, there’s an important date on the calendar this fall: November 10, the day the Supreme Court will hear a case about whether to overturn the Affordable Care Act. President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have picked a Supreme Court nominee whose position is clear: she doesn’t like the ACA, or the previous court rulings that upheld it. There is so much at stake. (Elizabeth Warren and Matthew Cortland, 10/23)

The Washington Post: Want To Protect People With Preexisting Conditions? You Need The Full ACA.
Ensuring that people with preexisting conditions will continue to have access to health insurance has become a central issue in the presidential campaign — all the more so because the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments one week after the election in a lawsuit to nullify the Affordable Care Act. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been hammering home the points that the Trump administration backs that suit, that a Supreme Court with Amy Coney Barrett on it might be sympathetic to the challenge and that the ACA is what stands between voters and the old days when preexisting conditions could disqualify you from coverage. (Larry Levitt, 10/22)

Fox News: Trump Vs. Biden – Here's Who Won The Debate And What It Means For The 2020 Election
“If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this: anyone who is responsible, for not taking control — in fact, saying ‘I take no responsibility at all’ initially — anyone that is responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said. The pandemic has taken the lives of more than 222,000 Americans, and more than 8.3 million people in the U.S. have been infected with the coronavirus.In another plus for Biden — and to the likely disappointment of the Trump campaign — the former vice president successfully avoided a lengthy discussion about the foreign business contacts of his son Hunter. (Douglas E. Schoen, 10/23)

Detroit Free Press: Trump Falsely Says Michigan Is 'Like A Prison.' Here Are The Facts.
President Donald Trump said, "Michigan is shut down, it's like a prison" during the final presidential debate Thursday night. Like many governors across the country, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a stay-at-home order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The order, issued March 23, was lifted June 1. Churches and houses of worship in Michigan were exempt from penalties under the state's order. Bars and restaurants across the state reopened shortly after the order was lifted followed by barbershops, spas and hair and nail salons in mid-June. Casinos in Detroit were allowed to reopen in early August. Schools across the state reopened this fall for in-person learning. And Whitmer allowed gyms to reopen in early September and movie theaters and bowling alleys to reopen in early October. (Clara Hendrickson,10/22)

The Washington Post: Do We Tolerate The Kidnapping Of Children? This Election Is Our Chance To Answer.
What kind of people are we? As a society, are we so decadent and insecure that we show "toughness" by deliberately being cruel to innocent children? Is this what our nation has come to? Or are we better than that? This election demands we answer those questions. The choice between President Trump and Joe Biden is not just political. It is also moral. And perhaps nothing more starkly illustrates the moral dimension of that decision than the Trump administration's policy of kidnapping children at the southern U.S. border, ripping them away from their families — and doing so for no reason other than to demonstrate Trump's warped vision of American strength. (Eugene Robinson, 10/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden’s Character Campaign
President Trump came to the second and last presidential debate Thursday night trying to pin down Joe Biden on his policies and family’s business with foreign governments. Mr. Biden did his best to parry and duck, coming back time and again to his main themes of “character” and an end to divisive politics. With a solid lead, and more than 40 million votes already cast, Mr. Biden’s bet is that he can run out the clock. Trump was both better prepared and more disciplined than in the first debate, and if he loses on Nov. 3 he will wish he had done that the first time. He offered the best defense we’ve heard him make of his coronavirus effort, focusing on the vaccines in development, his mobilization of resources in the spring, and the need to balance protection of the vulnerable with reopening the country. (10/23)

Stat: Doctors Need To Lead By Example At The Voting Booth 
As the needle moves past 220,000 deaths from Covid-19 and the Supreme Court prepares to hear California v. Texas, which threatens to eliminate health insurance for almost 20 million Americans, it’s no surprise that health care remains one of the top issues for voters this election. Historically, doctors vote less than other professionals. From 2006 to 2018, doctors were less likely to vote than the general public, particularly if they were not already registered to vote. (Hussain Lalani, Rija Siddiqui and Arthur Hong, 10/22)

Stat: Science Journal Editors Shouldn't Contribute To Politicizing Science 
When the editors of some of the world’s leading science journals agree on something, it is generally safe to assume that they are correct. So when prominent journals like Science, Nature, and the New England Journal of Medicine recently published editorials excoriating President Trump’s deadly bungling of the pandemic response and suppression of scientific activity, the editors accurately spotlighted the troubling deficiencies of the current administration. But in advocating against or endorsing a presidential candidate, these editors made a grave error. (Genevieve P. Kanter, 10/23)

The Washington Post: The Maker Of OxyContin Admits To Serious Crimes. Why Is No One Going To Prison? 
The opioid addiction epidemic has engulfed the United States in three devastating waves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the first, which began in 1999 and peaked in 2010, the primary killers were legal prescription pain medications. A crackdown on those drugs led some users to turn to heroin, which created a second wave between 2013 and 2018. Since then, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have predominated. Two key facts help put this history in perspective: Deaths from opioid overdose used to be rare, with only three for every 100,000 persons in 1999. Now they occur five times as frequently, and almost 450,000 people had died as of 2018. (10/22)

The Roanoke Times: On Purdue Pharma, Trump's Justice Department Just Did What Bush's Refused To Do
President Trump’s Department of Justice has just done something that George W. Bush’s Department of Justice refused to do.It’s secured a criminal conviction against the maker of OxyContin — which has agreed to plead guilty to three felony counts, pay more than $8 billion and shut down the company. Separately, the Justice Department has reached a civil settlement with the Sackler family, the former owners of Purdue Pharma. They will pay $225 million in civil penalties, while leaving open the possibility of future criminal charges. (10/23)

The New York Times: Why Can’t We See All Of The Government’s Coronavirus Data?
The Trump administration has declined to release critical data to outside public health experts that would enable them to devise strategies against the virus that has killed 223,000 Americans and counting.Federal agencies have told us that since March they have been compiling basic data for each county and city on Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the timing of social distancing mandates, testing, and other factors. This information can provide insights into how combinations of public health mandates — masks, social distancing and school closures, for instance — can keep the virus spread in check. But the government, inexplicably, is not sharing all of its data. (Christopher J.L. Murray, 10/23)

Bloomberg: Covid-19 Reinfections Are Real, Should You Be Worried? 
We all suffer multiple bouts of the common cold throughout our lives and never think twice about it. We live with recurring influenza seasons despite a vaccine. But what about Covid-19? Repeat occurrences of cold and flu happen because our immune systems seem to “forget” the previous infection. Sometimes, a case isn’t serious enough for the body to develop an immune reaction and create a “memory” to help fight it the next time. In other cases, the virus has changed enough such that the immune system doesn’t recognize it and has to mount a brand new reaction. This tends to happen with the flu because it mutates a lot, and is why vaccines targeting a specific flu strain become less effective as new ones arise. (Sam Fazeli, 10/22)

Stat: Countering Covid-19's Threat To Community-Based Cancer Care 
Americans take great cancer care for granted. We pride ourselves on access to the best specialists and the most innovative medicines. And this January we learned of the largest ever single-year drop in the rate of cancer deaths across the country. The Covid-19 pandemic is putting this success at risk, as is the loss of independent oncology practices, reducing patients’ access to community-based cancer care and increasing their costs. (Zachary A.K. Frosch, Lawrence N. Shulman and Justin E. Bekelman, 10/22)

The Washington Post: For Thanksgiving 2020, We Should Rethink How We Celebrate
It’s time for Americans to plan for a very different kind of Thanksgiving. Many of us need to be prepared to accept a Thanksgiving where we do not see our loved ones in person — or if we do, only with serious precautions. I had hoped we wouldn’t get to this point. Up until a few weeks ago, I thought there was a chance we could turn the trajectory of covid-19 enough to lower the baseline of infection, allowing us to resume holiday gatherings. That didn’t happen. On the contrary, we are in the midst of a major coronavirus surge. On Friday, the United States recorded more than 70,000 new daily infections, the highest rate since the previous surge in July. (Leana S. Wen, 10/22)

Houston Chronicle: Fauci Is An American Hero Trying To Save Lives — Everything Trump Is Not.
Sen. John Cornyn, we have a question for you. A question for you, as well, Sen. Ted Cruz :Are the two of you so beaten down by the bloviating bully in the White House that you’re unable to speak up on behalf of the most trusted man in America? Are you too craven to object when the president denigrates the scientist and veteran public servant who by word and deed has the power to save thousands of lives during this dreadful pandemic? We’re talking, of course, about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the globally respected director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci also is a member of the Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force and this week a target for Donald Trump’s trademark arrows of denigration. (10/20)

Stat: I'm Never Prepared For Emptiness, Grief When Police Shoot A Black Person
Another day. Another Black person in America shot by police. I should be well-equipped to deal with the emotions that arise in me every time such an event occurs. As a child and adolescent psychiatrist, I hold the emotions of others every day... I’m also African American and gay. All of the skills forged over seven years of medical training aren’t enough to stop what happens to me every time a Black individual is shot in America. A lifetime of being Black and gay in America hasn’t made me “tougher” — it has made me more susceptible to racial pain. (Chase T.M. Anderson, 10/23)