The Washington Post: Denial And Dysfunction Plagued U.S. Government As Coronavirus Raged
By the time Donald Trump proclaimed himself a wartime president — and the coronavirus the enemy — the United States was already on course to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. The country has adopted an array of wartime measures never employed collectively in U.S. history — banning incoming travelers from two continents, bringing commerce to a near-halt, enlisting industry to make emergency medical gear, and confining 230 million Americans to their homes in a desperate bid to survive an attack by an unseen adversary. (Abutaleb, Dawsey, Nakashima and Miller, 4/4)

The Associated Press: U.S. 'Wasted' Months Before Preparing For Virus Pandemic
After the first alarms sounded in early January that an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in China might ignite a global pandemic, the Trump administration squandered nearly two months that could have been used to bolster the federal stockpile of critically needed medical supplies and equipment. A review of federal purchasing contracts by The Associated Press shows federal agencies largely waited until mid-March to begin placing bulk orders of N95 respirator masks, mechanical ventilators and other equipment needed by front-line health care workers. (Biesecker, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Lost Time: How Coronavirus Spread While Supply Orders Lagged
An Associated Press review has found that the Trump administration squandered precious months before bolstering the federal stockpile of urgently needed medical supplies and equipment. (4/6)

NBC News: Two Months In, Trump's Coronavirus Response Creates More Chaos
More than two months into what President Donald Trump calls a "war" against COVID-19, his administration's efforts to combat the deadly disease, along with its disastrous effects on the U.S. economy, are often creating more problems than they solve. Bidding wars for lifesaving equipment, a power struggle between Trump's son-in-law and the vice president, political gamesmanship, the centralization of authority and decentralization of accountability, and the creation of new government programs while standing bureaucracies are ignored have all contributed to chaos within the political, economic and health care systems. (Allen, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Trump Sees Limits Of Presidency In Avoiding Blame For Virus
President Donald Trump is confronting the most dangerous crisis a U.S. leader has faced this century as the coronavirus spreads and a once-vibrant economy falters. As the turmoil deepens, the choices he makes in the critical weeks ahead will shape his reelection prospects, legacy and the character of the nation. The early fallout is sobering. In the White House’s best-case scenario, more than 100,000 Americans will die and millions more will be sickened. At least 10 million have already lost their jobs, and some economists warn it could be years before they find work again. (Peoples, Colvin and Miller, 4/6)

NBC News: 'His Achilles' Heel': Coronavirus Crisis Highlights Trump's Lack Of Health Care Plan
Health care was already a vulnerability for President Donald Trump before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Now his lack of a plan to fix the system is coming under a new microscope as the crisis costs many Americans their coverage and overwhelms providers. (Kapur, 4/6)

Politico: Trump Tries On A Fourth Chief Of Staff In The Middle Of A Devastating Crisis
President Donald Trump’s fourth chief of staff relinquished a safe seat in Congress and agreed to join the White House in early March, when the unemployment rate sat at a historic low and Trump’s team appeared confident about his reelection. A month later, Mark Meadows is now presiding over vastly different West Wing, which is under siege like never before due to the coronavirus pandemic. The administration still lacks the ability to widely test Americans for the virus. (Cook and Zanona, 4/6)

The Associated Press: Trump Tempers Officials' Grave Assessments With Optimism
The U.S. surgeon general says that Americans should brace for levels of tragedy reminiscent of the Sept. 11 attacks and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, while the nation’s infectious disease chief warned that the new coronavirus may never be completely eradicated from the globe. Those were some of the most grim assessments yet for the immediate future and beyond. But hours later, President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tried to strike more optimistic tones, suggesting that hard weeks ahead could mean beginning to turn a corner. (Weissert and Freking, 4/6)

Reuters: U.S. Faces 'Really Bad' Week As Coronavirus Deaths Spike
The United States is entering what a senior official warned on Sunday would be the “hardest” week of the coronavirus crisis as the death toll mounted, but some saw glimmers of hope from a slight slowing of fatalities in hard-hit New York. New York, the epicenter of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before. But there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases in the state. (Trotta and Alper, 4/5)

Reuters: Trump Hopes Virus Leveling-Off In Hot Spots; Advisers Take Tempered View
New York, the hardest-hit state, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before, but there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases. “Maybe that’s a good sign,” Trump told reporters at a White House briefing, referring to the drop in fatalities in New York.While Trump cited those numbers as an indication that Americans were starting to see “light at the end of the tunnel”, Anthony Fauci, a member of Trump’s coronavirus task force, said it took weeks for efforts like social-distancing and stay-at-home orders to slow the virus’ spread. (Alper and Spetalnick, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Americans Warned Of ‘Pearl Harbor Moment’ As Trump Tells Parts Of The Nation To Brace For ‘Peak’
Fauci, when asked if dire predictions were at odds with the promise of light at the tunnel’s end, said a peak suggests a possible turning point in the path of the virus but “doesn’t take away from the fact that tomorrow or the next day is going to look really bad.” The dead in the United States already number more than 9,500, triple the toll of the terrorist attacks that brought the nation low on Sept. 11, 2001. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams reached back further to find an analogue for the sense of national alarm, as the country surpassed 333,000 known cases. He said the coming days could bring catastrophe comparable to the attack that drew the United States into World War II in 1941. (Stanley-Becker, Gregg and Booth, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Expects Coronavirus Peak In Some Cities Next Week As Global Toll Climbs
Modeling shows New York, Detroit and New Orleans—and areas around those cities—will likely reach the peak of their outbreaks in the next six to seven days, White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx said Saturday evening. “The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,” Dr. Birx said at a White House news briefing. “This is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines. This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe.” (Restuccia, Korn and Honan, 4/4)

CNN: Fauci: US Is 'Struggling' To Get Coronavirus Under Control And To Say Otherwise Would Be Wrong 
The nation's top infectious disease expert said Sunday that the United States is "struggling" to get the coronavirus crisis under control and that to say otherwise "would be a false statement." Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Americans in an interview on CBS that "it is going to be a bad week" ahead as there is an escalation in cases, but that "within a week" or so the number of cases should start to flatten out. (Robertson and Cole, 4/5)

ABC News: Trump Discusses Opening The Country As Coronavirus Peak Approaches 
The president discussed a Saturday morning call he had with commissioners of most of the major sports to discuss the effects of coronavirus to the industry, emphasizing that he wants fans "back in the arena" as soon as they can be. "You know, they want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. They want to go out onto the golf courses and breathe nice clean, beautiful fresh air," Trump said. "No, I can't tell you a date, but I think it's going to be sooner rather than later." (Stoddart, 4/4)

The New York Times: Official Counts Understate The U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll
A coroner in Indiana wanted to know if the coronavirus had killed a man in early March, but said that her health department denied a test. Paramedics in New York City say that many patients who died at home were never tested for the coronavirus, even if they showed telltale signs of infection. In Virginia, a funeral director prepared the remains of three people after health workers cautioned her that they each had tested positive for the coronavirus. But only one of the three had the virus noted on the death certificate. Across the United States, even as coronavirus deaths are being recorded in terrifying numbers — many hundreds each day — the true death toll is likely much higher. (Kliff and Bosman, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Death Toll: Americans Are Almost Certainly Dying Of Covid-19 But Being Left Out Of The Official Count
The fast-spreading novel coronavirus is almost certainly killing Americans who are not included in the nation’s growing death toll, according to public health experts and government officials involved in the tally. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counts only deaths in which the presence of the coronavirus is confirmed in a laboratory test. “We know that it is an underestimation,” agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said. (Brown, Reinhard and Davis, 4/5)

Politico: CDC Begins Blood Tests To Find Undetected Coronavirus Cases
The CDC has started conducting antibody tests to help determine how many people have been infected with the coronavirus — including those who never developed symptoms, an agency spokesperson confirmed. The test analyzes antibodies in a person’s blood to detect if they have been exposed to the coronavirus. identifying people who have recovered from infection and likely have some degree of protection from reinfection is a possible key to opening back up the country’s workforce. (Roubein, 4/4)

In other news about top health officials —

The Washington Post: Fauci And Birx Worked Together On AIDS. Now They’re Partners In Fighting The Coronavirus.
Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx walked side-by-side in the 1980s on hospital rounds, watching young men die of a mysterious disease that had no cure. The disease was so deadly that when Birx lost a large amount of blood giving birth in 1983 at the hospital where she worked, she screamed at the physician not to give her a transfusion, concerned tainted blood might come from men with the mysterious disease. (Kranish, 4/5)

CNN: Dr. Anthony Fauci Said He Tested Negative For Coronavirus Saturday 
The nation's top infectious disease expert said he tested negative for coronavirus Saturday when asked why he wasn't wearing a face mask as the pandemic spreads across the nation. "There are a couple of reasons. One of them is part of the, in fact the major reason to wear a face mask is to protect you from infecting you," Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday at a news conference with the White House coronavirus task force. "I had my test yesterday and it's negative." (Carvajal and Kelly, 4/5)

The Hill: Scott Gottlieb Becomes Key Voice Warning Trump, GOP On Coronavirus 
Scott Gottlieb has seen his national profile grow amid the coronavirus outbreak as the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner becomes a leading voice from outside the administration on how to tackle the worst health epidemic the country may ever have faced. Gottlieb, a 47-year-old physician, has become a regular presence on cable news shows, and his Twitter account is widely followed by journalists, health policy experts and politicians. (Chalfant, 4/5)

The New York Times: He Led A Top Navy Ship. Now He Sits In Quarantine, Fired And Infected.
For days, he fended off fears that the contagion would spread unchecked through his crew. Then last week, the captain of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who had appealed to his superiors for help, was fired. By Sunday, friends said, he had come down with the coronavirus himself. The military has long adhered to a rigid chain of command and tolerated no dissent expressed outside official channels. Capt. Brett E. Crozier, the skipper of the aircraft carrier, knew he was up against those imperatives when he asked for help for nearly 5,000 crew members trapped in a petri dish of a warship in the middle of a pandemic. (Schmitt and Ismay, 4/5)

Politico: ‘How We Hold Leaders Accountable’: Esper Defends Firing Of Navy Captain Who Raised Coronavirus Alarm
Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Sunday defended the firing of the Navy captain who sounded the alarm about a coronavirus outbreak aboard an aircraft carrier, characterizing the commanding officer’s ouster as an “example of how we hold leaders accountable.” On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Esper said acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly “made a very tough decision” Thursday to relieve Capt. Brett Crozier of command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, but the Pentagon chief added that it was a decision he supported. (Forgey, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Backs Dismissal Of USS Roosevelt Captain
President Trump said he agreed with the Navy’s decision to fire Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, after a memo in which the captain pleaded for help with a coronavirus outbreak at sea leaked to the media. The president said Saturday that it was inappropriate for Capt. Crozier to write the four-page memo in which he demanded that superiors allow him to take the carrier to the port in Guam to offload sailors stricken with Covid-19, the pneumonialike disease caused by the virus. As of Saturday, 155 of the ship’s sailors had tested positive. (Restuccia, 4/5)

ProPublica: It’s Hardly Shocking The Navy Fired A Commander For Warning Of Coronavirus Threat. It’s Part Of A Pattern.
Navy experts believe that the cumulative effects of the service’s decisions over the past several years to punish those who speak out will result in silencing sailors with legitimate concerns about their health and safety. “This may have the effect of chilling the responses of other commanding officers because it will be perceived, fairly or not, as a shoot the messenger scenario,” said James Stavridis, a retired admiral and former head of the United States Naval Institute, who called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the dismissal. (Miller and Rose, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Aboard The USS Roosevelt, Sailors Braced For The Worst
The visit to Vietnam in early March was intended as a historic milestone and a symbol of far-reaching U.S. aims in the Pacific, marking 25 years of diplomatic relations with a rare port call by an American aircraft carrier that had been months in the planning. But as the USS Theodore Roosevelt headed back out to sea, sailors and officers realized they faced danger aboard the ship. Crew members soon began suffering from an outbreak of Covid-19 that spread rapidly, plunging the Roosevelt and the Navy into a crisis that now holds implications for U.S. military readiness. (Kesling and Youssef, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Biden Says It Was ‘Close To Criminal’ For Navy To Oust Captain Who Warned Of Coronavirus Outbreak On Aircraft Carrier
Former vice president Joe Biden on Sunday sharply criticized the dismissal of Capt. Brett Crozier, who was removed from his post as commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after speaking up in a leaked letter to his superiors about the handling of a coronavirus outbreak aboard the vessel. “I think it’s close to criminal, the way they’re dealing with this guy. … The idea that this man stood up and said what had to be said, got it out that his troops, his Navy personnel, were in danger, in danger — look how many have the virus,” Biden said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.” (Sonmez and DeBonis, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Ships Are Moving, But Exhausted Sailors Are Stuck At Sea Under Coronavirus Restrictions
Oceangoing shipping companies, already hit by crumbling demand and fractured supply chains from the coronavirus pandemic, are facing another problem on their vessels. Thousands of seafarers can’t travel to man ships, leaving growing numbers of crews around the world exhausted and facing illness at sea. (Paris, 4/5)

The New York Times: Amid Warnings Of A Coronavirus ‘Pearl Harbor,’ Governors Walk A Fine Line
As the surgeon general told the nation to brace for “our Pearl Harbor moment” of cascading coronavirus deaths this week, several governors said on Sunday that their states were in urgent need of federal help and complained that they had been left to compete for critical equipment in the absence of a consistent strategy and coordination from the Trump administration. Some clearly walked a delicate path, criticizing what they saw as an erratic, inadequate federal response, while also trying to avoid alienating the White House as states vie with one another for resources both from Washington and on the market that can mean the difference between life and death. (Rojas and Swales, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Races To Get Coronavirus Supplies Before Cases Peak
New York City scrambled on Sunday to get more hospital equipment as it faced the possibility of running out of ventilators in the next few days. As New York state prepared for an apex of coronavirus cases, Mayor Bill de Blasio said about 4,000 patients were intubated as of Sunday and the city expected nearly 1,000 more intubations in the coming days. The city needs 1,000 to 1,500 more ventilators to avoid running out by Tuesday or Wednesday, the mayor said. The city had originally expected to run out on Sunday. (Calfas and Ansari, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cases Rise Sharply, As U.S. Braces For Most Challenging Days Ahead
“Everyone says federal stockpile, federal stockpile. There’s not enough in the federal stockpile to take care of New York, and Illinois, and Texas, and Florida, and California,” said Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat. The Chinese government helped facilitate a donation of 1,000 ventilators, as well as a large supply of masks, that arrived in New York City on Saturday. And New York was expecting a shipment of 140 ventilators from Oregon. “New York needs more ventilators, and we are answering their call for help,” Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in a tweet, explaining that her state was in a better position now. (Ansari, Michaels and Calfas, 4/6)

Politico: Trump Administration Tells States To Step Up As Governors Plead For Aid
Republican and Democratic governors alike pushed back, saying the Trump administration had failed to mount the kind of national coordinated response needed to address the crisis and that shortages of tests, ventilators and protective equipment for physicians persisted. “This is ludicrous,” said Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, a Democrat. “The surgeon general referred to Pearl Harbor. Can you imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, ‘We’ll be right behind you, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships?’” (McCaskill and Ollstein, 4/5)

The Hill: Feds Send Ventilators To Coronavirus Hot Spots Around Country
President Trump announced Sunday that the federal government is sending several hundred additional ventilators to states hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Trump during a White House briefing said that over the last 24 hours, the federal government has delivered an additional 500 ventilators to New Jersey, which is among the hardest-hit states. He said it also has sent 200 ventilators to Louisiana and 300 to Michigan. Another 600 have gone to Illinois, he said, while Massachusetts will be getting 100. (Sullivan, 4/5)

WBUR: N.J. Governor Wants More Ventilators From Stockpile: 'We Need The Feds To Step Up'
With cases of COVID-19 surging and medical supplies rapidly dwindling, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is calling on federal officials to scale up aid efforts for the state, saying, "It feels like we entered this war, and it is a war, with less ammunition than we needed." New Jersey has reported more than 25,500 cases of the coronavirus and more than 500 deaths — second only to New York. The crush of cases pushed Murphy to take dramatic action on Thursday by granting the state police the authority to commandeer medical supplies and equipment from private companies. (Breslow, 4/3)

CNN: New York Surgeon Writes Haunting Letter About Rationing Care For Patients Who Don't Have The Coronavirus
In a haunting letter to his friends and colleagues, a Columbia University surgeon describes how coronavirus has forced doctors to ration care for very sick patients who don't have the virus, but still need medical procedures. "We have had to make decisions that I personally have never had to contemplate before," wrote Dr. Emile Bacha, director of the pediatric and congenital cardiac surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. "We have had to ration care and make decisions about who is considered an urgent or emergent case." (Cohen, Bonifield and Nigam, 4/5)

CNN: As Coronavirus Cases Grow, Hospitals Adopt A System To Rank Patients For Treatment 
With the peak of Covid-19 infections still ahead and medical supplies still scarce, hospitals and physicians are gearing up for a nearly impossible challenge: deciding who gets a life-saving ventilator and who doesn't. "Physicians who work in parts of the world that don't have adequate resources have had to make decisions like this maybe even on a routine basis, but physicians in the United States have never faced anything like this before," said Dr. Robert Truog, director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. "It is going to be extremely difficult." (de Puy Kamp, Devine and Griffin, (4/3)

CNN: Alibaba Billionaire And Brooklyn Nets Owner Joe Tsai Donates Millions Of Supplies To New York 
Joe Tsai, the billionaire co-founder of Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, and his wife Clara Wu Tsai, have donated 2.6 million masks, 170,000 goggles and 2000 ventilators to New York — the US epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. The supplies were split into two shipments. The first arrived on Thursday at Newark Liberty International Airport, while the second arrived on Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. (Alesci and Liao, 4/4)

The Hill: Momentum Grows To Change Medical Supply Chain From China
Calls are growing for the U.S. to reduce its dependence on China for key medicines and supplies as Americans face widespread shortages in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. While the U.S. supply chain's heavy reliance on Beijing for medical manufacturing has been glaringly apparent for roughly two decades, both lawmakers and administration officials say the virus has exposed just how vulnerable the country is as it leans on China and other nations to help provide the tools necessary to combat the pathogen. (Beavers, 4/5)

Meanwhile, a website change reveals Jared Kushner's sway over the federal response —

ABC News: After Kushner Says 'It's Our Stockpile,' HHS Website Changed To Echo His Comments On Federal Crisis Role 
It was a telling moment in the rising tensions between the Trump White House and state governors desperate for medical equipment to deal with the exploding coronavirus crisis. At Thursday's briefing on how the government is responding, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner scolded states for not building up their own stockpiles, saying that the "the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use." (Gittleson, 4/3)

Politico: Strategic National Stockpile Description Altered Online After Kushner’s Remarks
The official government webpage for the Strategic National Stockpile was altered Friday to seemingly reflect a controversial description of the emergency repository that White House adviser Jared Kushner offered at a news conference Thursday evening. According to a brief online summary on the Department of Health and Human Services website, the stockpile’s role “is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well.” (Forgey, 4/3)

In other news about the governors' response efforts —

The Associated Press: Governors Seize Spotlight Amid States' Coronavirus Response
Across America, as families stuck in their homes anxious and isolated by the new coronavirus, a new daily ritual is taking shape: tuning into the governor’s afternoon press briefing. Residents sequestered under a stay-at-home order in Ohio seem to hang on Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s every word, sharing his latest orders among friends via text message and on social media and following along with a drinking game — “Wine with DeWine.” Signature T-shirts and tumblers are available online. (Smyth and Ronayne, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Unafraid To Call Out Trump, Hogan Emerges As Lead GOP Voice For Urgent Action On Pandemic
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) phoned his favorite country radio station the other day and made a confession. He can’t listen anymore. The coronavirus pandemic consumes his every waking moment. The host seemed unsurprised. “Do you ever get tired of being interviewed?” she asked. “Because I’m seeing you everywhere.” (Cox, Dawsey and Wiggins, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Hogan Issues Emergency Order For Nursing Homes, D.C. Shutters Waterfront Market As Region Continues Coronavirus Fight
The Washington region’s battle with the novel coronavirus intensified Sunday, as the number of confirmed cases soared to more than 7,000 and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) issued an emergency order requiring nursing home staff to wear protective gear and segregate infected patients to halt the spread of the disease following outbreaks in the state’s long-term care facilities. (Shapira, Chason, Nirappil and Natanson, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Governors Plead For Food Stamp Flexibility Amid Pandemic
Yvonne Knight, who has respiratory problems that make her especially vulnerable in the coronavirus pandemic, can’t buy groceries online with her food stamps — even though each trip to the store is now a risky endeavor. Going out to buy food terrifies the 38-year-old woman with cerebral palsy, but she is one of millions of people who receive food aid through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that can’t be used in flexible ways. (Galvan and Khalil, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Shortage Of Test Components Forces Labs To Beg, Borrow And Improvise
Facing looming shortages of supplies needed to conduct coronavirus tests, some laboratories are taking matters into their own hands. Labs at places such as New York University and Stanford University are starting to make their own chemical mixtures because they can’t buy enough. A high-school lab in Tennessee managed to set up testing operations, with two science teachers leading the charge to reduce turnaround time in their area. And Northwell Health, a hospital network in New York, said it is making its own 3-D printed swabs to take samples from patients’ throats or noses. (Abbott, 4/5)

NPR: Coronavirus Testing Woes Continue To Plague U.S.
One of the nation's most important medical testing companies has acknowledged that it has a backlog of at least 115,000 coronavirus tests, which helps explain why so many desperate doctors and patients haven't been able to get tested. Quest Diagnostics of Secaucus, N.J., says the backlog occurred because a company lab in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., where the company's coronavirus testing started, got overwhelmed when testing started to ramp up. (Stein, 4/3)

Politico: ‘Lord Of The Flies: PPE Edition’: U.S. Cast As Culprit In Global Scrum Over Coronavirus Supplies
The coronavirus pandemic is pushing countries around the world into a cutthroat competition for medical resources — and the United States is being cast as a leading villain. President Donald Trump’s administration stands accused of effectively hijacking shipments of masks and additional crucial supplies meant for other countries, including U.S. allies, and strong-arming private firms to prioritize America over other parts of the world. (Toosi, 4/3)

NBC News: Government Watchdog: Hospitals Face Severe Shortages Of Medical Gear, Confusing Guidance From Government
Hospitals across the country face dire shortages of vital medical equipment amid the coronavirus outbreak — including testing kits and thermometers — and fear they can't ensure the safety of health care workers needed to treat patients with COVID-19, according to an internal government watchdog report released Monday. The alarming findings, based on interviews conducted from March 23 to March 27, represent the first government assessment of how the country's hospitals are coping with the outbreak and confirm previous media reports and warnings from health workers that the medical system is under unprecedented strain. (Strickler, Rappleye, De Luce and Dilanian, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Trump Administration Uses Wartime Powers To Be First In Line On Medical Supplies
The Trump administration quietly invoked the Defense Production Act to force medical suppliers in Texas and Colorado to sell to it first — ahead of states, hospitals or foreign countries. It took this action more than a week before it announced Thursday that it would use the little-known aspect of the law to force 3M to fill its contract to the U.S. first. Firms face fines or jail time if they don’t comply.The Cold War-era law gives federal officials the power to edge out the competition and force contractors to provide supplies to them before filling orders for other customers. (Jewett and Weber, 4/3)

WBUR: Health Care Workers Push Back Against Rationing Of Protective Equipment
The Massachusetts Nurses Association, where Wright is a union leader, says Mercy is one of several medical facilities in the state that have recently adopted concerning policies. In statements released on Thursday, the union described it as part of a chaotic response to the COVID-19 pandemic at two large hospital networks: Trinity Health, which operates Mercy, and Steward Health Care, which operates Carney Hospital and eight other facilities in the state. The policies have left nurses confused and worried for their own health and that of their patients, union leaders say. (Chen, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Protective Equipment Shortage Spurs Grassroots Solutions
More than 2,500 healthcare providers have requested protective gear for their employees via Project N95, one of the latest volunteer-based efforts to mitigate equipment shortages spurred by COVID-19.Project N95 aims to connect healthcare facilities, manufacturers and distributors to arm frontline workers with personal protective equipment like N95 respirators, which are in short supply. As of March 24, around 1,700 healthcare institutions requested more than 70 million units of PPE via the website. That has grown to nearly 2,550 facilities and more than 341 million units. (Kacik, 4/3)

NBC News: Staff At NYC Hospital Where Nurse Died Will Finally Get Coronavirus Tests
A New York hospital where some staffers said they could not get coronavirus tests even after a nurse died of the disease it causes has told workers that starting Tuesday it will provide tests to all employees who have developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19, according to an email obtained by NBC News. "Starting on Tuesday, April 7, if you develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19, we would like to test you for this viral infection using the PCR test with a nasopharyngeal swab within a few days of the onset of your symptoms," said the email Saturday from Senior Vice President Vicki R. LoPachin to all staffers of the New York City area's Mount Sinai hospital network. "This will provide guidance to you and to Employee Health Services regarding your clinical status and return to work." (Saliba and Rappleye, 4/5)

KQED: Most In-Home Caregivers Receive Low Pay And No Protective Gear 
The United Domestic Workers AFSCME local 3930 union represents (UDW) 117 thousand workers in 21 counties and helps negotiate these contracts. According to the union, IHHS providers make on average $13.43 an hour and only 9% get employee-sponsored healthcare. IHHS providers have been hit hard and are in a similar difficult position as other domestic workers. Like house cleaners and child care providers, a majority of IHHS workers are hired individually by the person receiving care. They're classified as contractors, so they do not have access to traditional unemployment benefits. (Harnett, 4/4)

The Washington Post: A Chicago Anesthesiologist’s Account Of Treating Coronavirus/Covid-19 Patients, One Of The Pandemic’s Most Dangerous Jobs
“It’s a powerless feeling, watching someone die”: An anesthesiologist on the frontline of coronavirus outbreak. (4/5)

The New York Times: With Virus Surge, Dermatologists And Orthopedists Are Drafted For The E.R.
One of the largest hospital networks in New York has given its doctors an ultimatum: either help deal with the coronavirus crush, or stay home without pay. At other hospitals, too, all hands are being called to deck. Neurosurgeons and cardiologists, orthopedic, dermatology and plastic surgery residents — all have been pulled into emergency rooms and intensive care wards. Receptionists who normally deal with billing are also being told they will be reassigned, to emergency rooms to help screen Covid-19 patients. (Sengupta, 4/3)

And some tips for DIY masks that won't exacerbate shortage for workers —

The New York Times: What’s The Best Material For A Mask For Coronavirus?
While a simple face covering can reduce the spread of coronavirus by blocking outgoing germs from coughs or sneezes of an infected person, experts say there is more variation in how much homemade masks might protect the wearer from incoming germs, depending on the fit and quality of the material used. Scientists around the country have taken it upon themselves to identify everyday materials that do a better job of filtering microscopic particles. In recent tests, HEPA furnace filters scored well, as did vacuum cleaner bags, layers of 600-count pillowcases and fabric similar to flannel pajamas. Stacked coffee filters had medium scores. Scarves and bandanna material had the lowest scores, but still captured a small percentage of particles. (Parker-Pope, 4/5)

The New York Times: Facebook Hampers Do-It-Yourself Mask Efforts
As health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic plead for personal protective equipment, volunteer efforts to create hand-sewn masks and deliver them to medical professionals have quickly sprung up across the internet. But those efforts were hampered by Facebook’s automated content moderation systems over the past week, according to sewing organizers who have used the social network to coordinate donation campaigns. (Isaac, 4/5)

The New York Times: Gaps In Amazon’s Coronavirus Response Fuel Warehouse Workers’ Demands
Jonathan Bailey, a 30-year-old Amazon warehouse employee in Queens, has a system for protecting himself from the coronavirus at work. He wears a medical mask with a bandanna tied over it. When he returns to the apartment he shares with his wife, he dumps his mask, work gloves, neon green Amazon safety vest and other clothes into a plastic trash bag. He’s not certain it really works, but he figures it’s better than nothing. “We’re very careful,” Mr. Bailey said. “We’re in the epicenter of it all.” As millions of Americans heed government orders to hunker down, ordering food and medicines and books and puzzle boards for home delivery, many of Amazon’s 400,000 warehouse workers have stayed on the job, fulfilling the crushing demands of a country suddenly working and learning from home. (Weise and Conger, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Grocery Workers Are Key During The Virus. And They're Afraid
Every day, grocery workers are restocking toilet paper, eggs, produce and canned goods as fast as the items fly off the shelves. They disinfect keypads, freezer handles and checkout counters as hundreds of people weave around them, sometimes standing too close for comfort amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some work for hours behind clear plastic barriers installed at checkout counters, bulwarks against sudden sneezes or coughs that can propel germs. (Vertuno, 4/6)

Politico: Food Goes To Waste Amid Coronavirus Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic is leading the food industry and regulators to change policies as they grapple with empty shelves, a glut of fresh produce and milk, and sudden shifts in consumer buying habits. The problem isn’t a shortage of food and commodities. If anything, food waste is becoming a bigger issue as traditionally big, bulk buyers — like college dorms and restaurant chains — suddenly stop receiving deliveries. As a result, millions of gallons of milk are being dumped, and farmers have no alternative but to turn fresh vegetables into mulch. (Behsudi and McCrimmon, 4/5)

The New York Times: Ignoring Expert Opinion, Trump Again Promotes Use Of Hydroxychloroquine
President Trump doubled down Sunday on his push for the use of an anti-malarial drug against the coronavirus, issuing medical advice that goes well beyond scant evidence of the drug’s effectiveness as well as the advice of doctors and public health experts. Mr. Trump’s recommendation of hydroxychloroquine, for the second day in a row at a White House briefing, was a striking example of his brazen willingness to distort and outright defy expert opinion and scientific evidence when it does not suit his agenda. (Crowley, Thomas and Haberman, 4/5)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump Pitches Drug Not Approved For Coronavirus
President Donald Trump is pitching a medicine for COVID-19 sufferers that science has not concluded is effective or safe for their use. “Take it,” he said of the drug. For people sick with the coronavirus, he said Sunday, “It can help them but it’s not going to hurt them.” In fact, it may or may not help some people, and it may or may not hurt them. His straight-ahead advocacy of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, is the latest and one of the most consequential examples of Trump and public-health authorities not being on the same page in the pandemic. (Yen, Tucker and Woodward, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Giuliani, A Familiar Voice In Trump’s Ear, Promotes Experimental Coronavirus Treatments
Rudolph W. Giuliani, who was in the center of the impeachment storm earlier this year as an unpaid private attorney for President Trump, has cast himself in a new role: as personal science adviser to a president eager to find ways to short-circuit the coronavirus pandemic. In one-on-one phone calls with Trump, Giuliani said, he has been touting the use of an anti-malarial drug combination that has shown some early promise in treating covid-19, the disease the novel coronavirus causes, but whose effectiveness has not yet been proved. (Helderman, Dawsey and Swaine, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: States Try Reducing Malaria-Drug Hoarding Amid Unproven Coronavirus Benefit
States across the U.S. are taking steps to prevent hoarding of decades-old antimalarial drugs for treatment of the new coronavirus, an effort to preserve supplies for other patients who rely on the medicines to remedy ailments such as lupus and arthritis. At least 20 states late last month began implementing emergency restrictions or guidelines to ease pressure on the supply of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for the autoimmune patients. Some states are limiting prescription sizes or asking pharmacists to make sure a patient tested positive for the coronavirus. (Hopkins, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead Accelerates Production Of Experimental Coronavirus Drug
Gilead Sciences Inc. GILD 1.60% has ramped up production of its experimental coronavirus drug, which has seen overwhelming demand amid a surge in cases around the world. The drugmaker said Saturday that it now has 1.5 million individual doses of its drug remdesivir on hand, an amount that could be enough to supply more than 140,000 patients. Gilead, which won’t charge for the supply, is making the drug available through clinical trials and special programs that allow doctors and hospitals to apply for access. (Wilde Mathews and Rockoff, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Patients Rush To Join Studies Testing Drug For Coronavirus
The new coronavirus made Dr. Jag Singh a patient at his own hospital. His alarm grew as he saw an X-ray of his pneumonia-choked lungs and colleagues asked his wishes about life support while wheeling him into Massachusetts General’s intensive care unit. When they offered him a chance to help test remdesivir, an experimental drug that’s shown promise against some other coronaviruses, “it did not even cross my mind once to say ‘no,’” said Singh, a heart specialist. Coronavirus patients around the world have been rushing to join remdesivir studies that opened in hospitals in the last few weeks. (Marchione, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: ‘You Pray That You Got The Drug.’ Ailing Couple Gambles On Trial For COVID-19 Cure
For 10 days last month, they lay in side-by-side isolation units in a Seattle-area hospital, tethered to oxygen and struggling to breathe as the coronavirus ravaged their lungs. After nearly 52 years of marriage, that was the hardest thing: being apart in this moment, too weak to care for each other, each alone with their anxiety and anguish. “I worried about my husband a lot,” recalled Josie Taylor, 74, who fell ill a few days before George, 76. “Yes, I was concerned about me, but I was more concerned about what was going to happen to him.” (Aleccia, 4/6)

CNN: Trump Doubles Down On Unproven Drug Hydroxychloroquine To Treat And Prevent Coronavirus 
President Donald Trump on Sunday again doubled down on an unproven therapy for the novel coronavirus: hydroxychloroquine. Without citing evidence, he said it's a "great" and "powerful" anti-malaria drug "and there are signs that it works on this, some very strong signs. "For people without heart problems, Trump recommended combining hydroxychloroquine with azithromycin, a common antibiotic. He said azithromycin "will kill certain things that you don't want living within your body." (Azad, Yu and Robertson, 4/6)

The Hill: Trump Promotes Use Of Drug For Coronavirus: 'I'm Not A Doctor. But I Have Common Sense' 
President Trump on Sunday forcefully touted the use of hydroxychloroquine as a potential means to combat or even prevent the onset of symptoms from the coronavirus, wading further into a medical debate that has put him at odds with some of his top health experts. Trump said the government has stockpiled 29 million pills of the drug, which is also used to treat lupus. For a second consecutive day, he suggested even those without coronavirus symptoms might consider taking the drug despite limited evidence about its efficacy in treating the virus. (Samuels, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Bill Gates To Spend Billions On Coronavirus Vaccine Development
Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates said his foundation will spend billions of dollars to fund the construction of factories for the most promising efforts to develop a vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus. Mr. Gates, a billionaire philanthropist who is one the richest people in the world, said the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will work with seven makers of a possible vaccine to build these factories. Mr. Gates, who announced the efforts in an appearance on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” Thursday, acknowledged that billions of dollars would be wasted on vaccines that won’t pan out. (Calfas, 4/5)

Meanwhile —

The New York Times: Can An Old Vaccine Stop The New Coronavirus?
A vaccine that was developed a hundred years ago to fight the tuberculosis scourge in Europe is now being tested against the coronavirus by scientists eager to find a quick way to protect health care workers, among others. The Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine is still widely used in the developing world, where scientists have found that it does more than prevent TB. The vaccine prevents infant deaths from a variety of causes, and sharply reduces the incidence of respiratory infections. The vaccine seems to “train” the immune system to recognize and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and parasites, experts say. (Rabin, 4/3)

Stat: This Tiny Federal Agency Was Built To Respond To A Crisis Like Coronavirus. Now That It’s Here, Is BARDA Ready?
It seems like an agency tailor-made for a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, was created to invest in drug development projects that private industry wouldn’t touch, such as anthrax vaccines and therapies for Ebola, Zika, or swine flu. Lawmakers were so confident that BARDA could help scientists develop a coronavirus vaccine, therapy, or even a diagnostic test that Congress has showered the agency with a $3.5 billion boost in funding, more than tripling its total budget. But consultants and experts in biotech and in academia told STAT they had serious concerns about BARDA’s preparedness to absorb the massive new workload it will take to identify targets for a coronavirus vaccine or therapy. (Florko, 4/6)

The New York Times: The Rising Heroes Of The Coronavirus Era? Nations’ Top Scientists
If it weren’t the age of social distancing, people would stop them on the street to take selfies. Instead, they get adoring messages on social media. Others appear on television daily. The new celebrities emerging across Europe as the coronavirus burns a deadly path through the continent are not actors or singers or politicians. Instead, they are epidemiologists and virologists who have become household names after spending most of their lives in virtual anonymity. (Stevis-Gridneff, 4/5)

The New York Times: How New Jersey’s First Coronavirus Patient Survived
On the evening of March 4, James Cai, a 32-year-old physician assistant, was languishing on a cot, isolated in a small, windowless room on the emergency-room floor of Hackensack University Medical Center, when the television news caught his attention. Before that moment, Cai had been in a strange medical limbo, starting midday on March 2, when he left a medical conference in Times Square because he had a bad cough. Instead of heading to his home in Lower Manhattan, he texted his wife that he was going to spend the night at his mom’s place in New Jersey. His mother was out of town, and if he had the flu, he could spare his wife and their daughter, a cheerful 21-month-old who clung to him when he was home, the risk of catching whatever it was. That was Cai: cautious, a worrier, overprotective, the kind of medical professional who liked to rule out the worst-case scenarios first. (Dominus, 4/5)

Kaiser Health News: Mysterious Heart Damage, Not Just Lung Troubles, Befalling COVID-19 Patients
While the focus of the COVID-19 pandemic has been on respiratory problems and securing enough ventilators, doctors on the front lines are grappling with a new medical mystery. In addition to lung damage, many COVID-19 patients are also developing heart problems — and dying of cardiac arrest. As more data comes in from China and Italy, as well as Washington state and New York, more cardiac experts are coming to believe the COVID-19 virus can infect the heart muscle. (Hawryluk, 4/6)

CNN: He Recovered From The Coronavirus And Now His Plasma Donation Could Save The Lives Of Others 
A California man who was diagnosed with the coronavirus and recovered has donated his plasma to help others fighting the potentially deadly virus. On March 6, Jason Garcia noticed he had a mild cough and some congestion. The 36-year-old aerospace engineer from Escondido, California, didn't think that much of it. But later while on a work trip, he noticed a headache had begun accompanying his cough. (Silverman, 4/6)

Politico: Clyburn: House Coronavirus Panel ‘Will Be Forward-Looking,’ Not Review Trump’s Early Response
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn said on Sunday that a new congressional panel intended to oversee the distribution of coronavirus relief funds “will be forward-looking” and not probe President Donald Trump’s widely criticized initial response to the ongoing public health crisis. “My understanding is that this committee will be forward-looking,” Clyburn told CNN’s “State of the Union.” (Forgey, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: White House Floated Limited Surprise Billing Proposal In COVID-19 Talks
The White House proposed a simple ban on surprise medical billing that left out controversial arbitration and payment benchmarking mechanisms during negotiations on Congress' third COVID-19 relief package, three sources familiar with the talks said. All surprise billing measures were ultimately left out of the final economic stimulus package after fierce lobbying by healthcare providers. Reports of patients being balance billed for services related to COVID-19 are already emerging. The White House declined to comment. (Cohrs, 4/3)

The Hill: Pelosi, McConnell Clash Over Next Coronavirus Bill 
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are publicly at odds over a potential fourth coronavirus package. The two leaders, whose public relationship has been tense in recent weeks, are taking different tactics on follow-up legislation and sparring through the media on next steps to address the devastating economic and health effects of the pandemic. The mixed messaging, which comes as lawmakers are out of town until at least April 20, underscores the looming challenge of keeping the congressional response to the coronavirus bipartisan. The first three bills passed with overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle. (Carney, 4/5)

The New York Times: U.S. Is Nowhere Close To Reopening The Economy, Experts Say
How long can we keep this up? It is still very early in the U.S. effort to snuff a lethal pandemic by shutting down much of the economy. But there is a growing question — from workers, the White House, corporate boardrooms and small businesses on the brink — that hangs over what is essentially a war effort against a virus that has already killed more than 9,000 Americans. There is no good answer yet, in part because we don’t even have the data needed to formulate one. (Tankersley, 4/6)

The New York Times: How Will We Know When It’s Time To Reopen The Nation?
Everyone wants to know when we are going to be able to leave our homes and reopen the United States. That’s the wrong way to frame it. The better question is: “How will we know when to reopen the country?” Any date that is currently being thrown around is just a guess. It’s pulled out of the air. To this point, Americans have been reacting, often too late, and rarely with data. (Carroll, 4/6)

Stat: The 'Certified Recovered' From Covid-19 Could Lead The Economic Recovery 
Re-opening a nightclub in New York seems crazy at this point, as that’s just the kind of setting in which Covid-19 can spread like wildfire. But it wouldn’t be crazy if all of the workers and patrons had previously had Covid-19 and recovered from it. (Edlin and Nesbitt, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Americans Hit By Economic Shocks As Confusion, Stumbles Undermine Trump’s Stimulus Effort
The Trump administration has stumbled in its initial push to implement the $2 trillion coronavirus aid package, with confusion and fear mounting among small businesses, workers and the newly unemployed since the bill was signed into law late last month. Small-business owners have reported delays in getting approved for loans without which they will close their doors, while others say they have been denied altogether by their lenders and do not understand why. (Stein, 4/5)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And Paid Sick Leave: A Quarantined Uber Driver's Quest
Zachary Frenette likes working as an Uber driver in Phoenix. He is a top-rated driver who often chats with his customers on their trips. During the outbreak of the coronavirus last month, business began to slow. Then, a possible exposure to the virus prompted Mr. Frenette, 29, to quarantine himself. Off the roads and worried about making his rent on time, he turned to Uber for help. (Fortin, 4/4)

The New York Times: Millennials, Burdened With Debt, Are Now Facing Their First Economic Crisis
The last time a serious economic downturn hit in 2008, Evan Schade was in high school and the crisis seemed like a news event that happened to other people. This time, as the coronavirus has brought the economy to its knees, it has become a personal affair. When nonessential businesses were closed last month in Kansas City, Mo., where he lives, Mr. Schade, 26, lost his job at a carpet store and almost all of the shifts in his second job at a coffee shop. His girlfriend, Kaitlyn Gardner, 23, was laid off from a different coffee shop. (Popper, 4/6)

NBC News: Falling Through The Cracks: Many Americans Won't Get Coronavirus Checks
For millions of Americans awaiting coronavirus cash, help is not on the way. Although the $2 trillion stimulus bill passed last month includes payments of up to $1,200 for everyone who makes less than the limit, many Americans will fall through the cracks. That includes most college kids, immigrants without Social Security numbers and some disabled adults. (Lederman, 4/6)

ABC News: Hobby Lobby Closes Its Stores After Defying Coronavirus Stay-At-Home Orders 
Hobby Lobby finally closed all of its stores in the U.S. after the craft supplies company received backlash for staying open in at least one state amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. Nearly all of the store employees will be furloughed, as well as a large portion of corporate and distribution employees, according to a statement from the company. (Torres, 4/4)

CIDRAP: What Can Firms Do Now In The Midst Of A Pandemic?
While US business owners may feel anxious or unsure amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they should resist institutional paralysis and use this time to prioritize operations, protect the health and mental wellbeing of employees, and plan for recovery, experts say. "Businesses can prioritize the services they provide if they are short-staffed or do not have all the supplies needed and identify alternative suppliers, if feasible," said Lisa Koonin, DrPH, MN, MPH, senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) pandemic response team and founder of Health Preparedness Partners in Atlanta. She said that planning for COVID-19 is "very similar" to planning for an influenza pandemic. (Van Beusekom, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Outpatient Care Gets Walloped By COVID-19 In March Job Losses
Dentists' offices, physicians' offices, home health providers and other outpatient healthcare sectors shouldered the brunt of healthcare's steep job losses in March as the novel coronavirus ravaged the economy and forced businesses to shed workers. The healthcare industry shed 42,500 jobs last month. The ambulatory sector, which typically captures most of the industry's job gains, in March comprised a whopping 96% of the losses, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Friday. Hospitals added a modest 200 jobs. (Bannow, 4/3)

The New York Times: Politics Through The Looking Glass: Virus Scrambles The Left-Right Lines
The 2020 edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., in February offered a theme-park version of what was to be President Trump’s re-election message: Under the banner of “America vs. Socialism,” the convention featured anti-Marx branded popcorn, an RV emblazed with the words “Socialism Takes Capitalism Creates” and a children’s book promoting personal freedom and private-property rights. Speeches included tirades against big government and “Medicare for all.” (Rutenberg, 4/5)

The New York Times: Progressives Built An Organizing Juggernaut For 2020. Then The Virus Hit.
When it became clear last month that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. would almost certainly win the Democratic nomination, many of the progressive Democrats who supported other presidential candidates were disappointed but not deterred. They quickly shifted their electoral focus to candidates lower on the ballot. The plan was straightforward: They would donate to a slew of insurgent congressional candidates, and a stable of grass-roots groups would be ready and waiting to organize for the general election and beyond. (Herndon and Philbrick, 4/5)

Politico: Dems Find A Rallying Cry: Trump Tanked The Economy
For most of the presidential campaign, the economy looked like the one thing that could overcome Donald Trump’s stubbornly low approval ratings and carry him to a second term. Even many Democrats acknowledged they had no cohesive economic message of their own. But now that the coronavirus has laid waste to the surging stock market and low unemployment, Democrats are discovering another obstacle — framing a coherent economic argument that all the party’s factions can rally around. (Siders and Schneider, 4/6)

The Hill: Campaigns Face Attack Ad Dilemma Amid Coronavirus Crisis 
A volley of political advertisements attacking the government's responses to the coronavirus pandemic has some strategists worried that going negative at a time of crisis will backfire. Most of the ads have so far come from Democrats and have been sharply critical of President Trump’s delayed response to the outbreak. (Greenwood, Manchester and Brufke, 4/5)

Politico: ‘It's A Sh-- Sandwich': Republicans Rage As Florida Becomes A Nightmare For Trump
The staggering unemployment exploding on President Donald Trump’s watch would worry any incumbent running for reelection, but troubles in Florida are injecting an added dose of fear into a jittery GOP. Already anxious about Trump’s chances in the nation’s biggest swing state, Republicans now are dealing with thousands of unemployed workers unable to navigate the Florida system to apply for help. And the blowback is directed straight at Trump’s top allies in the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott. (Fineout and Caputo, 4/3)

Reuters: Citing Coronavirus, Wisconsin Mayors Urge Postponement Of Tuesday's Election
Nine Wisconsin mayors, including those representing the state’s five largest cities, on Sunday urged the state’s top public health official to postpone Tuesday’s primary election due to the coronavirus pandemic. The mayors of Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay and six others asked Wisconsin Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm in a letter to use emergency powers under the state constitution to postpone in-person voting and avoid “putting hundreds of thousands of citizens at risk.” (Ax, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Wisconsin Legislature Comes Under Fire For ‘Unconscionable’ Decision To Hold Primary Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Two members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Sunday denounced the Republican-led legislature for moving forward with the state’s primary this Tuesday, warning that the move will put the lives of Wisconsin residents at risk amid the spiraling coronavirus pandemic. The two commissioners — Ann S. Jacobs and Mark L. Thomsen, both Democratic appointees — voiced their concerns in a letter to state House Speaker Robin Vos (R) and state Senate Republican leader Scott L. Fitzgerald. (Sonmez, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court To Weigh In On Wisconsin’s Absentee Ballots
The Supreme Court was poised Sunday to decide whether Wisconsin voters would have an extra six days to submit absentee ballots to compensate for the disruption imposed by the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday’s in-person primary election. While more than a dozen other states postponed spring election dates to avoid conflicting with public-health orders to minimize crowds and public gatherings, Wisconsin decided to proceed with its April 7 primary. (Bravin and Corse, 4/5)

ProPublica: Who Has Emergency Authority Over Elections? Nobody’s Quite Sure.
In each of the past seven years, Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has sought authority to revamp or reschedule elections in case of emergency. Every time, the legislature has blocked him. These rebuffs had repercussions in Westborough, a Boston suburb that was set to hold its town election last month. As COVID-19 cases rose across the state, the governor shut down gatherings of more than 25 people two days before ballots were to be cast, making it illegal for voters to congregate at the local polling place, a senior center, on election day, March 17. (Huseman, 4/6)

NBC News: Obamacare's Health Care Protections Face First True Test In Coronavirus Crisis
The Affordable Care Act turned 10 last month and is credited with helping 20 million more Americans get health insurance than before the law was enacted. But the coronavirus pandemic could be the first true test of how well "Obamacare" works at preventing significant coverage loss, experts say. For people stricken with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, coverage through the ACA could mean the difference between financial stability and bankruptcy that could cause lingering hardship long after the pandemic ends, industry experts say. (Stenson, 4/5)

Politico: How Trump Surprised His Own Team By Ruling Out Obamacare
As the coronavirus ran rampant and record jobless numbers piled up, the nation’s health insurers last week readied for a major announcement: The Trump administration was reopening Obamacare enrollment to millions of newly uninsured Americans. It was an announcement that never came. (Cancryn, Cook and Luthi, 4/3)

Kaiser Health News: As Coronavirus Spreads, Workers Could Lean On ACA Coverage Protection
Concerns about health care during the coronavirus pandemic are raising the profile of the federal Affordable Care Act, which can help those who have lost their jobs with an option to get insurance. Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, talked to WBUR’s “Here & Now” host Jeremy Hobson on Friday about efforts to get the federal government to let people have a special enrollment period for coverage plans sold on the ACA marketplaces, as well as the effect massive job layoffs will have on Medicaid. (4/3)

WBUR: Medicare For All Coronavirus Patients? But Who Exactly Qualifies? 
Millions of people who have lost their jobs in recent weeks also face the prospect of losing health coverage. Democrats have called on the Trump administration to open a special enrollment period for those people to sign up for health coverage under Obamacare. Instead, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said health care providers will be reimbursed for COVID-19 care "at Medicare rates," and they will be forbidden from billing patients for services directly on top of that. (Charles, 4/3)

Politico: How Public Health Failed Nursing Homes
The unfolding tragedy in American nursing homes, where patients are dying in clusters, is another consequence of the coronavirus testing debacle. While America wasn’t looking, family visitors, staff and other health professionals unknowingly brought the virus into long-term care facilities, spreading it among the population least likely to withstand it. On top of that, the shortages of protective gear for health workers exacerbated the situation because nursing homes, hospices and other outpatient settings have a tough time getting scarce equipment like masks and gowns, provider groups said. (Kenen, Roubein and Luthi, 4/6)

WBUR: Nursing Home Advocates Call For More Funds, Tests And Protective Equipment
In the past week, dozens of Massachusetts nursing home residents have tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 20 have died from the disease. Now, an industry group that represents hundreds of senior care facilities around the state says their members are facing a major a shortage of staffing, funds, and personal protective equipment like masks and gowns. (Ma, 4/5)

ABC News: Cut Off From Loved Ones In Nursing Care, Families Are Left Fearing The Unknown 
Jenn Hubbert was working from home on March 17 when her husband called out to her from across the house. “He was watching TV when he realized the breaking news was about my mother’s nursing facility,” said Hubbert, a real estate agent in Florida. “The first death from coronavirus had been reported, and I didn't even know there was a case there. I was in disbelief.” (Mosk, Romero, Pecorin and Freger, 4/6)

Boston Globe: Residents And Families Angry And Helpless As Coronavirus Overwhelms Nursing Homes 
COVID-19 has ripped through many of the state’s 800 or so nursing homes and assisted living facilities with astonishing speed. At Charlwell, three staffers told the Globe they believe the virus contributed to 21 deaths in less than two weeks, although not all of those people were tested. When the mail arrived Friday, there were 20 greeting cards for patients who had recently died. (Weisman and Krantz, 4/4)

Boston Globe: Half The Rhode Islanders Who Have Died From The Coronavirus Lived In Nursing Homes 
As Governor Gina M. Raimondo announced her daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths Friday, she pointed out a disturbing fact: Half of the Rhode Islanders who have died lived in nursing homes, and 21 percent of the positive test results have been among staff and residents of those homes.And that daily tally was grim: 54 more cases, two more deaths, both women in their 70s. (Milkovits, 4/3)

 Houston Chronicle: More Than 80 Residents Of Texas City Nursing Home Test Positive For New Coronavirus
Samuel Quinn didn’t find out his mother had coronavirus until after he visited her at a Texas City nursing home Friday morning. Quinn said he was given a mask and gown upon entering The Resort at Texas City, a 135-bed long-term care facility, and asked nurses if his mother, Peggy Smith, had tested positive for the virus. They said she had not. (Powell and Lewis, 4/3)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: State Provides First Accounting Of Outbreaks In Senior Care Facilities
Georgia Friday evening made public the names of 47 nursing homes and other senior care facilities that have had coronavirus outbreaks, providing the public with the most complete accounting to date of the virus’s spread in facilities for the elderly since the first reported case became public on March 16. The list of facilities identified by the Georgia Department of Public Health reflects known outbreaks as of Wednesday afternoon. By Friday afternoon, the total number of senior communities that had residents who tested positive for COVID-19 had climbed to 60, underscoring how rapidly the disease is spreading in facilities that serve thousands of the state’s most vulnerable adults. (Schrade and Teegardin, 4/3)

The Wall Street Journal: As Coronavirus Piles Pressure On Families, Domestic Violence Concerns Surge
Authorities and women’s groups are racing to find ways to protect women against domestic abuse as the coronavirus pandemic confines families to their homes. In much of Europe, officials are quickly deploying new programs, as a surge in abuse reports around a region that has been locked down for weeks presages what could be a similar increase in the U.S. In some parts of the U.S., women’s groups say they have already seen an increase in domestic violence calls, as stress, isolation and the financial pressure of lost jobs and income threaten to take a heavy toll on some women and children. (Bisserbe and Lmobardi, 4/5)

ABC News: Answering The Call: Working A Coronavirus Hotline
In a time of so much uncertainty, no one has all the answers, but COVID-19 hotlines across the country have assembled to try to answer some of the thousands of questions Americans are pondering right now. While hotlines cannot provide clinical advice as a doctor can, the staff can still answer questions regarding novel coronavirus testing, symptoms and prevention. (Krall, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: How Environmental Movement Plans To Leverage The Coronavirus Pandemic
One hopeful development arising from the coronavirus pandemic: Global air quality is improving dramatically as the outbreak sends many countries into lockdown, climate scientists say. The improvement comes as demand for fossil fuels plummeted with flights grounded, factories and offices closed and people confined to their homes. (McFarlane, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Lockdowns Clear The Air, But The Green Effect Could Be Fleeting
The Los Angeles smog has lifted, water in Venice’s canals has cleared and China’s factory emissions have fallen so dramatically the change can be seen from space. International travel restrictions and city lockdowns designed to slow the spread of coronavirus have led to swift and sometimes surprising environmental benefits. The long-term implications are unclear but many climate scientists now expect greenhouse gas emissions to fall for the first time since the financial crisis more than a decade ago, when they dropped by 7%. (Condie, 4/5)

The Associated Press: After Virus, How Will Americans' View Of The World Change?
A thick thread of the American experience has always been to hold the rest of the world at arm’s length, whether in economics, technology or cultural exchange. The truth is, this nation has always been a bit of an island, a place where multilingualism, or even holding a passport, is less common than in many other lands. Now, the notion of a virus that came from a distant “elsewhere” stands to carve deeper grooves into that landscape. (Anthony, 4/6)

The New York Times: Periods Don’t Stop For Pandemics, So She Brings Pads To Women In Need
Dana Marlowe was preparing her family’s home for quarantine, stocking up on food and school supplies, when she received an unexpected phone call: Would she trade a box of tampons for 36 homemade matzo balls? Her friend making the request was desperate. She had scoured all the pharmacies in her neighborhood for tampons and pads, but the shelves were picked clean. For Marlowe, who runs the nonprofit I Support the Girls, which collects donations of feminine hygiene products and bras for shelters, prisons and people in need, the plea set off alarm bells. (Goldberg, 4/5)

NBC News: Coronavirus Pandemic A Perfect Storm For LGBTQ Homeless Youth
Finding a secure place to live has not been easy for Nez Marquez, 23, who has experienced homelessness for the past five years. Born in Mexico and raised in New York, he left home at 18 because his family did not accept his gender identity and sexual orientation, he said. Marquez is staying at Sylvia's Place, an emergency shelter for LGBTQ young adults on the bottom floor of a Manhattan church. (Kuhr, 4/5)

NBC News: 'Awful And Beautiful': Saying Goodbye To Coronavirus Victims Without A Funeral
Lorena Borjas dedicated her life to helping others as an activist for the transgender community in New York City, bailing people out of jail, fighting against transphobia and championing the rights of human trafficking victims. But when she died this week from COVID-19, the people who loved her the most could not come together to mourn her. (Lozano, 4/5)

Boston Globe: A Scramble To Continue Care For People With Addiction Amid Deep Fears For The Most Vulnerable 
Such encounters, now permitted under regulations newly loosened for the coronavirus crisis, have become routine for Taylor, as the pandemic transforms addiction care in ways never seen before. In a matter of days — in some cases literally overnight — services for people with addiction in Massachusetts have morphed from office visits to phone calls, from meeting rooms to laptops, from drop-in centers to street outreach. (Freyer, 4/3)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Farmworkers At Risk For Coronavirus Also Don't Have Access To Doctors
While picking strawberries in Florida the past few weeks, migrant worker Angelica Martinez often crouched only 3 feet away from her co-workers, shuffling along the narrow rows of plants. That’s half the minimum distance experts say people should keep from one another to avoid catching or passing on the coronavirus. But on the farm, Martinez said, the virus gripping the nation did not prompt improvements in basic worker protection. No one trained them to fight the virus’ spread, she said, and her employer never offered health insurance or paid sick leave. (Perez, 4/5)

Kaiser Health News: ‘Staying Away From Grandma’ Isn’t An Option In Multigenerational Homes
The Walker family never thought having an age range of 3 to 96 under the same roof would be risky. That was before the coronavirus pandemic. Wilma Walker’s now nonagenarian mom moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home about 15 years ago. Their party of three turned into a household of six when the Walkers’ now 30-year-old daughter, Andre’a Walker-Nimrod, moved back in with her young son and a daughter on the way. (Anthony, 4/6)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Inflicts Its Own Kind Of Terror
The coronavirus has created its own form of terror. It has upended daily life, paralyzed the economy and divided people one from another. It has engendered fear of the stranger, of the unknown and unseen. It has emptied streets, restaurants and cafes. It has instilled a nearly universal agoraphobia. It has stopped air travel and closed borders. It has sown death in the thousands and filled hospitals with wartime surges, turning them into triage wards. People gird for the grocery store in mask and gloves, as if they were going into battle. (Erlanger, 4/6)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Scammers: Another Thing To Fear
The white banner with images of red crosses had been hastily erected in front of two pop-up tents at a convenience store parking lot in central Louisville, Ky. “Covid-19 testing here,” it read. A clutch of workers in white hazmat suits swabbed the mouths of drivers, who had each forked over $240 to learn whether they had been infected with the coronavirus. “I have managed hospitals for years,” a man in charge told journalists and skeptical community activists at the scene on Wednesday. “We are doing things the right way.” (LaFraniere and Hamby, 4/5)

ProPublica: Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted And Died Of Coronavirus At An Alarming Rate 
The coronavirus entered Milwaukee from a white, affluent suburb. Then it took root in the city’s black community and erupted. As public health officials watched cases rise in March, too many in the community shrugged off warnings. Rumors and conspiracy theories proliferated on social media, pushing the bogus idea that black people are somehow immune to the disease. And much of the initial focus was on international travel, so those who knew no one returning from Asia or Europe were quick to dismiss the risk. (Johnson and Buford, 4/3)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: African Americans In Milwaukee Hit Hard By Coronavirus
Death arrived in Milwaukee two weeks ago, carried by an invisible enemy. In three days, the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 claimed three lives: all African American men in their 50s and 60s with underlying health conditions. Since then, the losses have continued to mount. Of the 25 people confirmed to have died from complications of COVID-19 in Milwaukee County as of late Friday morning, 20 have been African American, two have been Latino and three have been white. (Spicuzza, Luthern and Dirr, 4/3)

Kaiser Health News: Long-Standing Racial And Income Disparities Seen Creeping Into COVID-19 Care
The new coronavirus doesn’t discriminate. But physicians in public health and on the front lines said they already can see the emergence of familiar patterns of racial and economic bias in the response to the pandemic. In one analysis, it appears doctors may be less likely to refer African Americans for testing when they show up for care with signs of infection. (Farmer, 4/6)

Meanwhile, a look at how other demographics are playing a role —

CNN: Why The Coronavirus Kills Some Young People 
When 30-year-old Ben Luderer started to feel sick, he wasn't that surprised. Just a few days earlier, his wife, Brandy, had tested positive for coronavirus, but there wasn't much to it... For Ben, however, his symptoms quickly became more severe. He had more shortness of breath, and by the last Friday in March, he told Brandy it was time to go to the emergency room. (Gupta, 4/6)

GMA: Healthy 18-Year-Old Speaks Out After Contracting COVID-19: 'It Can Happen To Anyone' 
An 18-year-old student who said he tested positive for the novel coronavirus wants the world to know that regardless of age, the respiratory illness does not discriminate. Dimitri Mitchell, a freshman at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has had no prior health complications and began showing symptoms for COVID-19 on March 13... "It's the most sick I've ever been and I told my mom I felt like I was hit by a truck," he said. (Pelletiere, 4/6)

The Washington Post: All Across The United States, The Coronavirus Is Killing More Men Than Women, Data Show
As New York City erupts in coronavirus infections and deaths, Kaedrea Jackson has noticed something peculiar during her shifts inside the emergency department at Mount Sinai Morningside hospital. “It seems there are more men coming in with really severe illness,” said Jackson, an emergency physician. “In general, I’ve seen more male patients. And when they do come in, they are at a sicker state.” (Mooney, Kaplan and Dennis, 4/4)

The New York Times: Does Covid-19 Hit Women And Men Differently? U.S. Isn’t Keeping Track
As the novel coronavirus sweeps the world, sickening hundreds of thousands of people and killing at least 50,000 individuals to date, scientists have learned more and more about it. We know that older adults — aged 60 and above — are at greater risk of dying from it. And, based on data from China, Italy and South Korea, we also know that men seem to have higher fatality rates. But in the U.S., where ramped-up testing is churning out reams of data by the minute, there’s one thing we’re not monitoring: the sex breakdown. How many women are infected versus men? Are men and women equally likely to get infected? What is the fatality rate for each sex? Are symptoms exactly alike for men and women? (Gupta, 4/3)

South Bend Tribune: Details On COVID-19 Cases Often Scant; Officials Point To Privacy Laws
As the number of COVID-19 infections climbs throughout the Midwest and the rest of the nation, state and county health officials are typically releasing broad information and statistics on infections, despite a hunger from residents for more details on the spread of the virus in their communities, or even their neighborhoods. (Sheckler, 4/6)

Politico: Virus Hot Spots In South Poised For Disproportionate Suffering
St. John the Baptist Parish, just southeast of Baton Rouge, La., has a population of just over 43,000 — and the highest per capita coronavirus mortality rate in the nation. Frantic local officials instituted an overnight curfew just this week and are begging residents to stay home. But in largely rural Southern states like Louisiana — where social distancing has been spotty, widespread testing is unavailable and hospitals are poorer and farther apart — the response may be coming too late to avoid a public health crisis as bad as the one now engulfing New York. (Goldberg and Ollstein, 4/3)

ABC News: With Coronavirus Apex Still To Come, Some US Hospitals Reeling From Capacity Crunch 
Already told to boost patient capacity by as much as 100%, many hospitals in New York state, the nation's top hot zone for the coronavirus, reached overcapacity on Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said... As the coronavirus crisis sweeps across the nation, hospitals administrators say their medical personnel are struggling to keep up with a flood of infected patients -- and the apex of the pandemic could still be days and possibly weeks away. (Hutchinson and Margolin, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Crisis Puts Bankrupt Hospitals Back In Demand
From small-town Vermont to Los Angeles, local governments are commandeering shut-down hospitals to add space amid the coronavirus pandemic—a trend that could revamp the market for health-care facilities. Just months ago, St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles and Astria Regional Medical Center in Yakima, Wash., were closed, unable to bring in enough revenue to stay afloat. Both are poised to reopen with the help of state funds and, in the case of St. Vincent, $135 million from the family foundation of Patrick Soon-Shiong, the billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times. (Brickley, 4/6)

NBC News: What Does It Take To Convert A Hotel Bedroom Into A COVID-19 Care Room?
As hospitals around the country prepare for an increased number of coronavirus patients and potential bed shortages, local officials seek hotel rooms and dorms as alternative housing for coronavirus patients with less severe symptoms... But how do you turn a hotel room into a health care room? The first step is understanding that the coronavirus is primarily spread by respiratory droplets. (Garcia-Hodges, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Home Healthcare Agency To Take COVID-19 Referrals From Hospitals
The Visiting Nurse Service of New York is accepting COVID-19 referrals from local hospitals. The goal is to offset some of the burden. The approach comes with challenges, however."We want to do everything possible to alleviate the strain on the New York metro area's hospital system," said Michael Bernstein, executive vice president and chief administrative officer at VNSNY. (Henderson, 4/2)

CNN: Trump On USNS Comfort: 'If We Need It For The Virus, We'll Use It For That' 
President Donald Trump said Sunday night that the USNS Comfort, docked in New York, could be used for coronavirus patients if needed. "That was not supposed to be for the virus at all and under circumstances. It looks like more and more we'll be using it for that," Trump told reporters at a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. "The ship is ready and if we need it for the virus, we'll use it for that." The USNS Comfort had originally been designated as a space for non-coronavirus patients to alleviate the pressure from New York hospitals. (Robertson, 4/5)

The New York Times: Chinese-Americans, Facing Abuse, Unite To Aid Hospitals In Coronavirus Battle
Dr. Peter Lee, an emergency room doctor from Montville, N.J., was close to an emotional breakdown by the time he took to WeChat, the social media app, last month. He was under siege on all fronts. At work, he was constantly dodging exposure to the coronavirus. At home, he was worried about infecting his pregnant wife and young daughters. And in his everyday life, he was suddenly navigating a new bias against Chinese-Americans. (La Gorce, 4/5)

Kaiser Health News: ‘You’ve Been Served’: Wisconsin Hospitals Sued Patients Even During Pandemic
When her doorbell rang Sunday night, Blanche Jordan was just starting a new Game of Thrones puzzle on her living room floor. Jordan, 39, is a breast-cancer survivor who is taking social distancing seriously, so she put on a mask before opening the door. A woman handed Jordan a paper and said: “You’ve been served.” (Sable-Smith, 4/3)

Modern Healthcare: Chicago Adding Another Field Hospital As COVID-19 Cases And Deaths Soar
A new field hospital is being planned for Chicago to address an expected surge in patients as COVID-19 spreads. In addition to McCormick Place, one of the nation's largest convention centers, which is being turned into a makeshift hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers, a not-for-profit that provides relief during disasters intends to establish at least one mobile field hospital in Chicago. (Goldberg, 4/3)

Crain's Detroit Business: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan Paying Employees To Volunteer At Field Hospital
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is offering to pay the salaries and benefits of employees with medical training who volunteer to work in the coronavirus field hospital being constructed inside TCF Center in downtown Detroit. Michigan's largest health insurance company sent employees a memo Wednesday announcing the plan to grant full paid leaves of absence to any employee with a background in nursing or medicine to help the state staff the 1,000-bed hospital the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is constructing. (Livengood, 4/3)

Politico: Judges Balk At Mass Release Of California Prisoners Over Virus Danger
A panel of federal judges has rebuffed a bid to order a mass release of California prison inmates in an effort to reduce the danger posed by the coronavirus. The three-judge panel did not rule out the possibility that lawyers for inmates could eventually win a court-ordered reduction in the state’s prison population of roughly 120,000 to allow more social distancing, especially for elderly prisoners and those with pre-existing medical conditions. Proponents of slashing California’s prison rolls took their request to three judges who, in 2009, ordered the state not to exceed 137.5% of the intended capacity of its prisons. (Gerstein, 4/5)

ABC News: 'We Need Help': Inmates Describe Prison System Unprepared For Coronavirus 
Some inmates at Alabama state prison facilities asking for help amid the novel coronavirus pandemic highlighted what they described as broader threats inside the U.S. prison system. "It’s fixin’ to be a mass grave site," one prisoner said in exclusive footage obtained by ABC News. (Doherty and Cannon, 4/5)

NBC News: 1st Federal Inmate To Die Of Coronavirus Wrote Heartbreaking Letter To Judge
In the months before the coronavirus infiltrated the U.S., a 49-year-old inmate began drafting a letter inside the walls of a federal prison in Louisiana. The man, Patrick Jones, had been locked up for nearly 13 years on a nonviolent drug charge. He hadn't seen his youngest son, then 16, since the boy was a toddler. (Schapiro, 4/5)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Attorney General Barr Orders Shift To Home Confinement At Coronavirus-Plagued Louisiana Prison
With the coronavirus cases skyrocketing at the Federal Correctional Institution at Oakdale, U.S. Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons to give highest priority to the Louisiana prison complex, where five inmates have died and more than a dozen others remain hospitalized. (Rechdahl, 4/4)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Coronavirus Found In Wisconsin Prisons Where Spread Is Hard To Avoid
Two weeks after Gov. Tony Evers ordered Wisconsinites to stay at home and avoid close contact with people outside their own households, the first Wisconsin prisoner has tested positive for coronavirus. Of about 23,000 inmates in Wisconsin’s prisons, 66 have been tested, according to corrections spokeswoman Anna Neal.Forty-two of those tests came back negative. The department continues to wait on the results of the other 23. (Barton, 4/4)

WBUR: Mass. High Court Rules Some Prisoners Will Be Eligible For Release Due To COVID-19 
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that some prisoners can be released from state jails and prisons in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19. The 45-page ruling says pre-trial detainees not charged with certain violent offenses and those held on technical probation and parole violations are eligible for hearings to determine if they can be released. The ruling does not affect those who have been sentenced. (Becker, 4/3)

Boston Globe: Walsh Recommends Curfew For Boston, Asks All To Wear Masks Outside Home
Mayor Martin J. Walsh on Sunday said he is asking everyone in Boston to observe a curfew and to wear masks when they are outside their homes, as the number of COVID-19 cases in the city and the state rises toward a peak that could test the region’s public health infrastructure in coming days. Walsh said the recommended curfew will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting Monday and running at least through May 4. (Rosen, 4/5)

Boston Globe: State’s Largest Construction Union Calls For A Monday Walkout Over Coronavirus Concerns 
Members of the region’s largest construction workers union are set to walk off the job Monday over mounting worries about coronavirus safety at building sites. The North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters is directing its roughly 10,000 members in Massachusetts to stop working, effective Monday, saying it’s essentially impossible to keep construction sites safe from the spread of COVID-19. (Logan, 4/3)

Boston Globe: 24 More Coronavirus-Related Deaths, More Than 1,300 New Confirmed Cases In Mass.; Hospital Executive Pledges Salary To Lowest-Paid Workers
The state reported two dozen additional deaths attributed to the coronavirus Saturday, as the numbers of residents in long-term care facilities infected with the disease continued to grow, and the federal government prepared to send more ventilators to Massachusetts. While front-line health care workers face the growing numbers of patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, some are stepping up. (Hilliard, 4/4)

Boston Globe: Homeless Facing ‘A Disaster For Families’ 
On any given night, roughly 3,700 families, or about 12,000 people, are without homes across Massachusetts. Most are living in shelters — temporary apartments or dorm-style rooms. Now, with the state plunged into a deep freeze to halt the coronavirus, these homeless families are struggling to secure basic necessities. Crowded facilities make social distancing nearly impossible. Food pantries are desperately strained, and with schools shut down and people out of work, homeless families are pinned down in rooms that are not their own, facing weeks that threaten to stretch into months of uncertainty. (Gay and Greenberg, 4/3)

Boston Globe: Amid Pandemic, State Moving Infected And Non-Infected Alike From Chelsea Soldiers’ Home
Amid a deadly cluster of coronavirus cases, state officials have begun transferring veterans out the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home, including those who aren’t infected but are at high risk — a move that has all but emptied the facility of confirmed cases, officials said Friday. The decision comes as officials are also grappling with another outbreak at the state Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, where they have launched an investigation into how several deaths went unreported for days and at least 15 veterans have died after contracting the virus. Officials there plan to move as many of 20 veterans who’ve tested negative to a local hospital. (Stout, 4/3)

Boston Globe: Marijuana Companies Are Making Hand Sanitizer To Donate To Local Hospitals 
Revolutionary Clinics, one of the state’s largest cannabis providers, recently completed the first 100-gallon batch of hand sanitizer produced at its Fitchburg facility, and had it packaged and ready to be donated to local hospitals on Monday. The delivery is part of a larger movement within the state’s cannabis industry, which kicked into gear after John Hillier, a board member of the Commonwealth Dispensary Association (CDA), brought the feasibility of the project to the association’s attention. (Slane, 4/3)

Stateline: Some Shelters Shutter To Protect Homeless, Staff 
Like Harbor House, other homeless shelters around the country are being pushed to the brink by the pandemic. Even in the best of times, some 568,000 people live in shelters, on the streets or in a car. And now, shelters in at least 17 states plus Washington, D.C., have been forced to close, suspend services or otherwise limit their operations, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. (Wiltz, 4/6)

ProPublica: 'Dead On Arrival': A N.Y. Fire Chief’s COVID Journal
Simon Ressner is a battalion chief with the Fire Department of New York based in central Brooklyn. Twenty-five years ago, the department, nicknamed New York’s Bravest, took on the added role and responsibility of responding to emergency medical calls. Today, firefighters make some 300,000 runs a year. Last week, we asked Ressner, 60, to keep an informal diary of his latest 24-hour shift, a tour of duty that began at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 3. (4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Texas Gets Double Punch From Coronavirus And Oil Shock. ‘There’s No Avoiding This One.’
Texas had one of the best economic records of any U.S. state after the 2008 financial crisis. In this crisis, it faces the prospect of a deep and prolonged downturn. The Lone Star State is exposed to many of the pandemic and shutdown’s economic ill consequences, with three cities—Austin, Houston and Dallas—home to an abundance of service-sector jobs, especially at risk. A downturn in the oil industry and other businesses big in Texas, including airlines and ports, will likely amplify its pain. Industry analysts expect the oil downturn to outlast the current viral outbreak. (Eaton and Hilsenrath, 4/5)

Houston Chronicle: Feds Could Cut 25% Of Houston’s FEMA Funding For Coronavirus Test Sites 
Federal authorities are expected to slash 25 percent of Houston’s funding to administer the city’s coronavirus testing sites and relocate six site workers. Mayor Sylvester Turner and U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, both warned about the cuts at press conferences Sunday. (Wu and Deam, 4/5)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Unions Irate As Texas Workers Brought In For Coronavirus Convention Center Jobs 
Some local union leaders are angered that dozens of workers have been brought in from Texas to help convert the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center into a medical facility to deal with the coronavirus crisis, at a time when hundreds of their members are out of work. The order to convert the convention center into a facility to provide up to 3,000 beds for spillover COVID-19 patients was made by Governor John Bel Edwards two weeks ago. (McAuley, 4/4)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: 'I've Never Seen This': Because Of Coronavirus, Makeshift Morgues Set Up In Metro New Orleans
Coroners offices and funeral homes throughout the New Orleans area are scrambling to store bodies and hold funeral services as deaths from the novel coronavirus continue to mount. State officials on Sunday reported the biggest daily jump in deaths from the relentless pandemic, with fatalities rising by 68 to 477. (Hassell and Stole, 4/5)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Nursing Homes With Coronavirus Clusters Won't Be ID'd Anymore, Officials Say 
The state announced Friday that 60 residents of nursing homes and other long-term senior care facilities have died of the novel coronavirus, but in a reversal of previous practice said it would no longer publish a list of such facilities identified as clusters of the contagion. Instead, the state Department of Health said it would begin publishing a tally of homes where there are confirmed cases, residents who had tested positive and the number who have died. (Roberts III, 4/3)

The Hill: Tiger At Bronx Zoo Tests Positive For Coronavirus 
A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the coronavirus, while several other animals are being monitored for similar symptoms. In a press release, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which operates the zoo, said that the animals were likely infected by an asymptomatic carrier of the disease. It's the first known case of the virus being detected in an animal in the U.S. as well as the first confirmed case in a tiger anywhere in the world. (Bowden, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Tourist Towns Say, ‘Please Stay Away,’ During Coronavirus Lockdowns
Resort towns rely on visitors as their economic lifeblood, but as the new coronavirus pandemic rages, many are asking nonresidents to stay away. More than 12,000 residents of Cape Cod, Mass., signed a petition this week asking authorities to turn away visitors and nonresident homeowners from the two bridges that are the only access points to the Boston-area summertime playland. (Barrett, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Creates Conflict For Churches, Where Gatherings Can Be Dangerous But Also Provide Solace
Pastor Dan Ostring promised parishioners that, as Christians began marking their holiest week on this Palm Sunday, the Rivers of Living Water Church would be open for the fellowship, song and sermon that they have always celebrated together. He kept his public pledge, despite receiving hate mail all week warning that he would “burn in hell” if he opened the cross-covered doors of his tiny church. A few miles away, across the wide American River, a church more than 100 times larger than Ostring’s was shuttered late last month after scores of parishioners and a senior pastor tested positive for the novel coronavirus. (Wilson, Boorstein, Hernandez and Rozsa, 4/5)

KQED: California Coronavirus Testing Backlog Cut By Two-Thirds 
California has cut its COVID-19 testing backlog by more than two-thirds, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday, but has still managed to test less than one half of 1% of the state’s nearly 40 million residents. (Beam and Nguyen, 4/5)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan GOP And Dems Divided Over Extending Whitmer's Emergency Order
Michigan's state of emergency should be extended until May 1 — not for the 70 days requested by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, House Speaker Lee Chatfield said in a Saturday letter. The shorter extension, which Chatfield, R-Levering, wants to vote on during a legislative session planned for Tuesday at the Capitol in Lansing, "will allow the governor to continue her important work while still giving local residents hope that they will have a real plan presented to them sooner than the end of June." (Egan and Gray, 4/5)

WBUR: Kansas Gov. Says Federal Government Had A 'Late Start' On Stockpiling Medical Supplies
Senior adviser Jared Kushner sparked backlash at a Thursday press conference for saying the national stockpile of medical supplies does not belong to the states. Now, governors are pushing back. One of them is Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, whose state has only seen 620 cases but is preparing for more. (Hobson, 4/3)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In NJ: The Nurse Was Holding Up. Then Her 3 Close Relatives Were Brought In
Twelve doctors at her hospital and the chief executive were sickened with the coronavirus. A colleague had died. Patients as young as 19 were being placed on ventilators. But Michele Acito, the director of nursing at Holy Name Medical Center, in the hardest-hit town in New Jersey’s hardest-hit county, felt like she was holding up.Then her mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law arrived. (Tully, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Hackathons Challenge Developers To Tackle COVID-19 With Tech
Health groups and technology companies are teaming up to challenge developers to apply their skills to problems linked with the novel coronavirus. Datavant last weekend hosted more than 2,000 engineers, software developers, data scientists and other technology folks to develop tools that help those in the health sector better understand or mitigate the spread of COVID-19. It was part of the healthcare data company's hackathon event, which it called the Pandemic Response Hackathon. (Cohen, 4/3)

Stat: The Covid-19 Pandemic Forces Comcast's Health Tech Startup To Adapt
When telecom giant Comcast and health insurer Independence Blue Cross teamed up to found Quil in 2018, the health tech company’s goal was clear: give people simple, step-by-step guidance to help them navigate big health events, from pregnancies to hip replacements. But today, the joint venture finds itself in a very different place, as the coronavirus pandemic has forced physicians to put off routine appointments and postpone elective surgeries. Everyday health care is, in some ways, being put on hold — and startups like Quil are racing to adapt. (Brodwin, 4/6)

Modern Healthcare: Telemedicine Regulatory Barriers Continue To Drop For COVID-19
For years, telemedicine advocates have pushed to make it easier for patients to access care remotely. Many, but not all, of the barriers they had been fighting fell last month as lawmakers and government officials rushed to make telemedicine more available in the wake of the novel coronavirus. Telemedicine has been cited as a promising avenue to reduce the spread of COVID-19, letting patients receive care at home without visiting a crowded emergency department, and minimizing the need for providers to use personal protective equipment that is in short supply. (Cohen, 4/3)

Stat: Digital Health Startups Scored A Critical Cash Infusion At The Start Of This Year
As much of the world prepares for the possibility of a coronavirus-driven recession, a new report suggests that some digital health startups scored a critical infusion of cash just in the nick of time. Rock Health — a digital-health-focused venture fund — released a report Monday showing that startups in its portfolio raised a record-breaking $3.1 billion from investors between January 1 and March 31, 2020. The funding, which took place over roughly 100 deals, is more than double the total first quarter funding seen in any previous year. (Brodwin, 4/6)

The New York Times: Boris Johnson Hospitalized As Queen Urges British Resolve In Face Of Epidemic
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized on Sunday evening after 10 days of battling the coronavirus, unnerving a country that had gathered to watch Queen Elizabeth II rally fellow Britons to confront the pandemic and reassure them that when the crisis finally ebbed, “we will meet again. ”The British government said that Mr. Johnson would be undergoing tests and that he would continue to carry out his duties. But the uncertainty generated by his persistent illness underscored the sense of crisis that led the queen to address the country in a rare televised speech that evoked the darkest days of World War II. (Landler, 4/5)

The Associated Press: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson Hospitalized With Virus
In a message Friday, a flushed and red-eyed Johnson said he said he was feeling better but still had a fever. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people, but for some, especially older adults and the infirm, it can cause pneumonia and lead to death. U.S. President Donald Trump offered encouragement to Johnson as he opened a White House briefing on the pandemic Sunday. "All Americans are praying for him," Trump said. (Lawless, 4/6)

Reuters: British PM Johnson Still In Hospital With Persistent Coronavirus Symptoms
The prime minister is doing well and will undergo routine tests on Monday but will continue to lead the government, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said. “He’ll stay in hospital as long as he needs to do that, but I’ve heard that he’s doing well and I very much look forward to him being back in Number 10 as soon as possible,” Jenrick said. (Faulconbridge, James and Piper, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Britain's Queen Elizabeth Addresses Coronavirus; Boris Johnson To Hospital
The news of his hospitalization broke an hour after the queen broadcast her prerecorded message to the United Kingdom and Commonwealth — only the fifth such speech in her 68-year reign. “We should take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return,” she said. “We will be with our friends again, we will be with our families again, we will meet again.” (Booth, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson Hospitalized For Coronavirus Tests
The monarch, in a prerecorded address from Windsor Castle, thanked health care workers and focused on the difficulties of being isolated from loved ones. She cited a radio address she made as Princess Elizabeth, along with her sister, Princess Margaret, 80 years ago, as children were being evacuated from cities to avoid bombing attacks. “We, as children, spoke from here at Windsor to children who had been evacuated from their homes and sent away for their own safety. Today, once again, many will feel a painful sense of separation from their loved ones. But now, as then, we know, deep down, that it is the right thing to do,” she said. (Fidler, 4/5)

Politico: British Health Secretary: Follow Coronavirus Rules Or We’ll Ban Outdoor Exercise
U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned that the government will ban people from leaving their homes to exercise if too many people flout social distancing rules. "If you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home, then you've got to follow the rules," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. (Wax, 4/5)

The New York Times: China Pushes For Quiet Burials As Coronavirus Death Toll Is Questioned
Liu Pei’en held the small wooden box that contained his father’s remains. Only two months ago, he had helplessly clutched his father’s frail hand as the elderly man took his last breath, and the pain was still raw. He wept. But there was little time, or space, for Mr. Liu to grieve. He said officials in the central Chinese city of Wuhan had insisted on accompanying him to the funeral home and were waiting anxiously nearby. Later, they followed him to the cemetery where they watched him bury his father, he said. Mr. Liu saw one of his minders taking photos of the funeral, which was over in 20 minutes. (Qin and Li, 4/3)

Reuters: China Sees Rise In Asymptomatic Coronavirus Cases
Mainland China reported 39 new coronavirus cases as of Sunday, up from 30 a day earlier, and the number of asymptomatic cases also surged, as Beijing continued to struggle to extinguish the outbreak despite drastic containment efforts. (Zhang and Munroe, 4/5)

The New York Times: In Italy, Going Back To Work May Depend On Having The Right Antibodies
There is a growing sense in Italy that the worst may have passed. The weeks of locking down the country, center of the world’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, may be starting to pay off, as officials announced this week that the numbers of new infections had plateaued. That glimmer of hope has turned the conversation to the daunting challenge of when and how to reopen without setting off another cataclysmic wave of contagion. To do so, Italian health officials and some politicians have focused on an idea that might once have been relegated to the realm of dystopian novels and science fiction films. (Horowitz, 4/4)

The New York Times: Italy’s Virus Shutdown Came Too Late. What Happens Now?
Italy underestimated the spread of the virus at first. These maps show why the country’s nationwide lockdown came too late to contain it. (McCann, Popovich and Wu, 4/5)

The New York Times: A German Exception? Why The Country’s Coronavirus Death Rate Is Low
They call them corona taxis: Medics outfitted in protective gear, driving around the empty streets of Heidelberg to check on patients who are at home, five or six days into being sick with the coronavirus. They take a blood test, looking for signs that a patient is about to go into a steep decline. They might suggest hospitalization, even to a patient who has only mild symptoms; the chances of surviving that decline are vastly improved by being in a hospital when it begins. (Bennhold, 4/4)

The Washington Post: Alzheimer's Treatments And Cures: A Frustrating Trail Of Failures
In February, pharmaceutical companies Roche and Eli Lilly announced that two experimental drugs they had developed for Alzheimer’s disease had failed in clinical trials. Roche’s drug, gantenerumab, and Eli Lilly’s solanezumab joined more than 100 other potential Alzheimer’s drugs that have flopped, including aducanumab, a much-heralded drug from Biogen. In March 2019, Biogen announced that it had halted two clinical trials of the drug early after an interim analysis showed they weren’t working, but the company has since changed course, saying it intends to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration based on a new analysis of the data. (Aschwanden, 4/4)

Stat: The Latest Failure In Alzheimer's Casts Doubt On Biogen's Ostensible Success
The prevailing theory of how to treat Alzheimer’s disease endured its 1,001st cut on Thursday, as results from a lengthy clinical trial showed that reducing toxic plaques in the brain had no effect on slowing cognitive decline. While the disappointing result is only the latest in a metronomic series of failures, it could have implications for the drug industry’s only ostensible success: a plaque-targeting treatment from Biogen soon to undergo Food and Drug Administration review. (Garde, 4/2)

Stat: On Immunotherapy, We've Mastered The Foothills But The Summit Lies Ahead
The Nobel Prize-winning discovery of immune checkpoint inhibitors has changed how cancer is treated. These drugs “unblock” the immune system’s normally protective pathways that prevent T cells from overreacting and potentially harming healthy cells. Immune checkpoint inhibitors work by “uninhibiting” a cancer patient’s T cells to attack his or her tumor. (Davis and Flechtner, 4/6)

The Washington Post: Foot-Dragging GOP Governors Are Imperiling The Whole Country
President Trump likens the struggle against the pandemic to a war that will yield a colossal toll in human lives, but refuses to urge states uniformly to issue stay-at-home orders. The president’s equivocations have produced an uncoordinated jumble of policy subverted by foot-dragging governors who treat the coronavirus less as a national emergency and more as a political annoyance. They are guilty of an abdication of leadership whose consequences will be measured in body bags. (4/4)

Bloomberg: To Beat The Global Pandemic, Empower Local Leaders
While many Americans are watching the daily news conferences by President Donald Trump and some governors, the action behind the scenes is being led by the elected officials who are closest to the public, and who are directly managing the crisis in their communities: mayors.As we listen to public health experts, including doctors Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, we should also be listening to America’s mayors, who are best positioned to identify problems as they arise and act swiftly to address them — if they have the resources and authority to do so. (Michael R. Bloomberg, 4/5)

NBC News: Trump Enables Jared Kushner's Coronavirus Task Force, Revealing The Dangers Of Nepotism
According to President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence is in charge of America's response to the coronavirus crisis. This choice was, in itself, controversial since Pence has no real experience in this area and his one attempt at dealing with a public health problem as governor of Indiana turned out very poorly. But what many Americans don't know is that an equally unqualified if apparently even more loyal Trump adherent is secretly running his own coronavirus task force, leaving a series of ethics issues in wake. (Jordan Libowitz, 4/6)

The New York Times: The Real Tragedy Of Not Having Enough Covid-19 Tests 
President Trump said last week that he hadn’t “heard about testing in weeks.” But right now — let’s face it — tests are being rationed in many parts of the country. Of course, the seriously ill and essential front-line personnel like doctors, nurses and policemen require and deserve to go to the front of the line for testing.But there are hundreds of thousands more people who should have been tested at this point, if more tests were available. Testing them would have vastly changed their behavior, their self-care at home, and (perhaps most importantly) our understanding of Covid-19, so that when it flares locally we would know how to respond in a more nuanced way, rather than shutting society down. As of this writing I know nearly a dozen people who are “presumed Covid.” None of them were tested, because they were not sick enough to be admitted to a hospital — though all were quite symptomatic. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: Queen Elizabeth Nails Her Coronavirus Speech
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth on Sunday joined the chorus of world figures weighing in on the COVID-19 pandemic. In a rare televised speech, she offered no bluster, no drama, no scolding reminder that only six feet of distance stand between you and possible death. Nor were there any of the claims of accomplishment and ascriptions of blame that have become a staple on these shores. Instead, she offered comfort, gratitude to her nation’s health workers, a belief that life will go back to normal, and this simple poetic coda:“We will meet again.” (Carla Hall, 4/5)

The New York Times: Has Anyone Found Trump’s Soul? Anyone?
Do you remember President George W. Bush’s remarks at Ground Zero in Manhattan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks? I can still hear him speaking of national grief and national pride. This was before all the awful judgment calls and fatal mistakes, and it doesn’t excuse them. But it mattered, because it reassured us that our country’s leader was navigating some of the same emotional currents that we were. Do you remember President Barack Obama’s news conference after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 people, including 20 children, dead? I do. (Frank Bruni, 4/6)

CNN: Stelter: Federal Response To Pandemic Is A 9/11-Level Failure 
There's a lot of revisionist history being written right now. Lots of digging of the so-called memory hole. Pro-Trump media outlets are trying to bury the Trump White House's failures to fully protect the country from this pandemic. They're trying with all their might to shift the blame to mayors and governors. (Brian Stelter, 4/6)

The Washington Post: In Singapore, A Quarantine Offers Surprising Lessons
The rest of the time, I will be alone, confined to the 230-square-foot hotel room the Singapore government has ordered me not to leave for two weeks. I do not have the coronavirus — not as far as I can tell. But I am part of the government’s new initiative to combat a recent uptick in coronavirus cases, which was announced the day before I boarded the last Singapore Airlines flight from New York to Singapore for some time on March 25. (Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, 4/3)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Health And Financial Catastrophe Looms, But Trump Won't Ease Obamacare Access 
For 10 years now, Republicans have been trying to kill the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s program extending health care coverage to millions of uninsured Americans. ... It was difficult to imagine this obsessive GOP campaign to deny health coverage to vulnerable Americans sinking any lower, but now it has: The White House is refusing calls to reopen the Obamacare exchanges outside their normal operating dates, which could ease the health and financial woes of millions of people whose lives have been upended by the coronavirus pandemic without having to set up a new government program. (4/4)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Lowered Auto Emissions Standards Threaten Americans' Health — And The Planet's
Even as America battles a virus that attacks the lungs, the Trump administration is pressing ahead with an environmental sabotage campaign that would ultimately make it harder for all Americans to breathe. The administration on Tuesday finalized its plan to weaken Obama-era automobile emissions standards — rolling them back to a point that even some automobile makers say is too far — in a move that promises to worsen air pollution and global warming in years to come.The administration says the move will save money for consumers, and has even suggested it could save lives. The first claim is highly debatable, the second, ridiculous. This unnecessary and irresponsible step backward will cost lives. (4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Bet Big On Treatments For Coronavirus
Some imagine that the coronavirus will run its tragic course in the spring, with the direst results avoided by intense social-distancing and other mitigation efforts, and then our lives can more or less return to normal in the summer. But that isn’t realistic. Even if new cases start to stall in the summer heat, the virus will return in the fall, and so will fresh risk of large outbreaks and even a new epidemic. People will still be reluctant to crowd into stores, restaurants or arenas. Schools may remain closed. The public’s fears won’t relent simply because there are fewer new cases. We’ll be running an 80% economy. (Scott Gottlieb, 4/5)

The New York Times: Healthcare Workers Are Begging For Masks. Is The President Listening?
Health care professionals are still going to work each day without sufficient masks, gloves, gowns and other supplies, and are begging for proper personal protective equipment (P.P.E.). In a country that spends more on health care than anywhere else on the planet, masks are being rationed or reused, and some hospital workers are even using novelty rain ponchos to protect themselves. Health care workers around the country are falling ill and dying — The Brooklyn Hospital Center estimated a third of its doctors and nurses are home sick with the virus. Meanwhile, President Trump has openly accused health care workers of being wasteful and hoarding masks. (Sanya Dosani, 4/6)

Boston Globe: Why I Don’t Feel Safe Wearing A Face Mask 
I thought I could use one of my old bandanas as a mask. But then my voice of self-protection reminded me that I, a Black man, cannot walk into a store with a bandana covering the greater part of my face if I also expect to walk out of that store. The situation isn’t safe and could lead to un-intended attention, and ultimately a life-or-death situation for me. For me, the fear of being mistaken for an armed robber or assailant is greater than the fear of contracting COVID-19. (Aaron Thomas, 4/5)

The Washington Post: How Long Will We Doctors Last? 
There are tents outside our hospitals. Every time I see them, I stop, startled. Their drab and dirty flaps seem so out of place against the grand facades of world-class hospitals. Desperate times, desperate measures. The last time I worked in a tent was West Africa in 2014, during the Ebola outbreak. In those same tents, I saw too much pain, loneliness and death. People dying alone. I never thought I’d have to see or experience that ever again. I never wanted to. Once was painful enough. (Craig Spencer, 4/3)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus: 884 Hidden Deaths Are Revealed, And More To Come
In one day last week, France’s official death toll from Covid-19 rose by a staggering 1,355. The cause was not just the severity and speed of a coronavirus disease that has infected more than 1 million people and killed 50,000 around the world, but also the brutality of fresh data. The new tally included 884 deaths in nursing homes that had gone uncounted since the start of the crisis. While that should stoke concerns over the quality of the statistics the general public and policy makers are poring over every day — and on the likely under-counting of deaths — it should also alert us to an unfolding tragedy happening on the pandemic’s front lines. It’s not just hospitals that need help, but all institutions that care for the frail and infirm. (Lionel Laurent, 4/6)

CNN: How The Very Rich Are Different In The Covid-19 Fight
I have spent two decades reporting on people at the nexus of money, power and culture. I've written books about corruption among the country's wealthiest 1%, Wall Street greed and the ruthlessness of New York real estate titans. So these past few weeks I have been on the phone to many people who are not stuck, like me, in a New York City apartment, where we are on constant alert for the ominous sound of sirens puncturing the silence with increasing frequency. (Vickey Ward, 4/6)

The New York Times: Will The Virus Trigger A Second Arab Spring?
On a recent visit to Libya, I met a family living in an improvised shelter in a displaced persons camp east of Tripoli. One of the tens of thousands Libyan families uprooted by war, the family of seven was living in a room barely 20 paces long and half as wide. A clothesline, a pile of mattresses, a hot plate and the stench of body odor filled the room. Outside, they faced a shortage of potable water and abusive taunts from locals. The spread of the novel coronavirus will have a devastating effect on the Middle East’s communities of refugees and migrants. The pandemic may also bring into focus the legitimacy and governance deficit of increasingly troubled Middle Eastern regimes. (Frederic Wehrey, 4/6)