Stat: Three Potential Futures For Covid-19: Recurring Small Outbreaks, A Monster Wave, Or A Persistent Crisis
As epidemiologists attempt to scope out what Covid-19 has in store for the U.S. this summer and beyond, they see several potential futures, differing by how often and how severely the no-longer-new coronavirus continues to wallop humankind. But while these scenarios diverge on key details — how much transmission will decrease over the summer, for instance, and how many people have already been infected (and possibly acquired immunity) — they almost unanimously foresee a world that, even when the current outbreak temporarily abates, looks and feels nothing like the world of just three months ago. (Begley, 5/1)

Politico: Former FDA Commissioner Warns Of New Fall Epidemic Amid 'Persistent Spread'
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned on Sunday that if states allow schools, workplaces and other public areas to “let their guard down," an explosion of new coronavirus cases could bubble up into a “new epidemic” or “large outbreak.” “The concerning thing here is that we’re looking at the prospect that this may be a persistent spread,” Gottlieb said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” (Cammarata, 5/3)

NBC News: The New COVID Normal: Most See A Long Slog
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed America over the past seven weeks, changing everything from work life and school life to travel plans. But in that short time, it's become clear that the virus's impact has changed as well. After an initial period of serious concern, Americans have settled into their new coronavirus-driven reality, according to surveys from Dynata, the world's largest first-party survey insights company. And they seem to be looking ahead to a long fight. (Chinni, 5/3)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Still Is A Global Health Emergency, W.H.O. Warns
The World Health Organization extended its declaration of a global health emergency on Friday amid increasing criticism from the Trump Administration about its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The move comes exactly three months after the organization’s original decision to announce a “public health emergency of international concern” on Jan. 30. At the time, only 98 of the nearly 10,000 confirmed cases had occurred outside China’s borders. But the pandemic continues to grow. More than 3.2 million people around the world are known to have been infected, and nearly a quarter million have died, according to official counts. (Sheikh, 5/1)

The New York Times: Trump Foresees Virus Death Toll As High As 100,000 In The United States
President Trump predicted on Sunday night that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country may reach as high as 100,000 in the United States, far worse than he had forecast just weeks ago, even as he pressed states to reopen the shuttered economy. Mr. Trump, who last month forecast that fatalities from the outbreak could be kept “substantially below the 100,000” mark and probably around 60,000, acknowledged that the virus has proved more devastating than expected. But nonetheless, he said that parks, beaches and some businesses should begin reopening now and that schools should resume classes in person by this fall. (Baker, 5/3)

Reuters: Trump Says Up To 100,000 Americans May Die From Coronavirus
“We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That’s a horrible thing,” said Trump, who as recently on Friday had said he hoped fewer than 100,000 Americans would die and earlier in the week had talked about 60,000 to 70,000 deaths. About half the states have now moved toward at least partial lifting of shutdowns as the number of new cases of the COVID-19 illness has begun to drop or level off and as citizens agitate for relief from restrictions that have sent the economy into a tailspin. (Bose and Schroeder, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Trump Wants To Switch Focus, Push For Economic Reopening
Anxious to spur an economic recovery without risking lives, President Donald Trump insists that “you can satisfy both” — see states gradually lift lockdowns while also protecting people from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 66,000 Americans. The president, fielding questions from Americans Sunday night in a virtual town hall from the Lincoln Memorial, acknowledged valid fears on both sides of the issue. Some people are worried about getting sick; others are reeling from lost jobs and livelihoods. (Superville and LeMire, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Trump Says It’s Safe To Reopen States As Governors Grapple With Loosening Restrictions
President Trump on Sunday sought to reassure Americans that it is safe for states to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, offering support to protesters who have railed against the lockdowns across the country. “I really believe that you can go to parks, you can go to beaches . . . [if] you stay away a certain amount,” Trump said during a Fox News Channel town hall at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (Sonmez, Kornfield and Mettler, 5/3)

Politico: Trump Uses Virtual Town Hall As An Appeal For Reelection 
He didn’t answer questions about how the federal government could aid a small business that didn’t qualify for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, beyond musing that he would take a look at it and “maybe there is something we can do.” He seized on a question about his bullying rhetoric and answers to the press by bullying the press, arguing that the vast majority of reporters are “hostile” despite, he said, his having “done more than any other president in the history of our country,” like creating a Space Force and combating terrorism. (McCaskill, 5/3)

The Hill: Trump Says Next Coronavirus Relief Bill Has To Include Payroll Tax Cut
President Trump on Sunday said he won't support another round of coronavirus stimulus legislation unless it includes a payroll tax cut, a measure that has muted support among lawmakers in Congress. Trump said during a Fox News virtual town hall that he would like to see a sizable infrastructure bill pass to help revive the economy, which has cratered amid the coronavirus pandemic. But he indicated his long-desired payroll tax cut would have to be part of any talks. (Samuels, 5/3)

Politico: Trump Launches A Coronavirus Recovery Tour Against A Grim Backdrop
President Donald Trump has always preferred to play cheerleader rather than the bearer of bad news. And he’s preparing to spend the coming weeks cheering for a swift economic bounce-back from coronavirus — launching new proposals to accelerate the recovery despite uneasiness among health care experts about the scale of testing, persistent worries from many workers and businesses and a death toll that keeps eclipsing his own expectations. (Cook, 5/4)

Los Angeles Times: As States Reopen, Coronavirus Outbreak Not Over, Experts Say
In recent weeks, Trump has frequently singled out individual states or governors for criticism over stay-at-home policies. He did so again Sunday, tweeting that “many complaints” were coming in about Maine’s stay-at-home orders. “Don’t make the cure worse than the problem itself,” he wrote on Twitter, citing the case of a Maine brewpub that lost its state health and liquor licenses after reopening its doors in defiance of state rules. (King, 5/3)

NBC News: Trump Warns Coronavirus Death Toll Could Reach 100,000
Continuing a key theme in Trump's coronavirus statements, Trump attacked China and suggested that the virus got into the community accidentally. "This should have been stopped in China. If we didn't do it, the minimum we would have lost is a million, two million, four million, five. That's the minimum," he said In the two-hour broadcast. "And my opinion is they've made a mistake, they tried to cover it, they tried to put it out. It's like a fire. You know, it's really like trying to put out a fire. They couldn't put out the fire." (Smith, 5/4)

Politico: Trump Contradicts Top Health Officials With Vaccine Timeline, Malaria Drug Claims
President Donald Trump claimed on Sunday that a coronavirus vaccine would be ready by the end of 2020 and returned to touting an unproven treatment for the disease — on both fronts contradicting his own health officials as well as companies developing and testing potential vaccines. “We think we'll have a vaccine by the end of this year and we're pushing very hard,” he said at a Fox News town hall at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. “We're building supply lines, we even have the final vaccine.” (Ollstein, 5/3)

The Hill: Trump Rips George W. Bush After He Calls For Unity Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 
President Trump on Sunday took aim at George W. Bush after the former Republican president issued a call to push partisanship aside amid the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. In a three-minute video shared on Twitter on Saturday, Bush urged Americans to remember "how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat..." In an early morning tweet on Sunday, Trump called out Bush for his failure to support him as he faced an impeachment trial earlier this year over his alleged dealings with Ukraine. He cited apparent comments from Fox News anchor Pete Hegseth, who asked why Bush didn't push for "putting partisanship aside" amid the trial. (Wise, 5/3)

The Hill: White House Signals Eagerness To Get Past Coronavirus Crisis 
President Trump is trying to return to business as usual amid the coronavirus pandemic. Trump, who has supplanted his daily coronavirus task force briefings for more controlled and structured appearances, is eager to get past the public health crisis that has dominated the news cycle since the end of February and allow businesses and American life to return to normal. (Chalfant and Samuels, 5/3)

The Washington Post: 34 Days Of Pandemic: Inside Trump's Attempts To Reopen America
The epidemiological models under review in the White House Situation Room in late March were bracing. In a best-case scenario, they showed the novel coronavirus was likely to kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans. President Trump was apprehensive about so much carnage on his watch, yet also impatient to reopen the economy — and he wanted data to justify doing so. So the White House considered its own analysis. A small team led by Kevin Hassett — a former chairman of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers with no background in infectious diseases — quietly built an econometric model to guide response operations. (Rucker, Dawsey, Abutaleb, Costa and Sun, 5/2)

Politico: In China, A Struggling America Looks Like ‘The Disaster Flick Of 2020’
In March 29, President Donald Trump stood in the Rose Garden and offered a coronavirus forecast: “If we have between 100,000 and 200,000 [deaths],” he told a reporter, “we all, together, have done a very good job.” The president meant it as self-congratulation; he’d been shown a projected American death toll as high as 2.2 million. But in China, the statement landed very differently. On Weibo, the country’s equivalent of Twitter, Trump’s declaration sounded like an astonishing statement of defeat by China’s major geopolitical rival. (Wertime, 5/4)

And a look at how the previous administration handled a potential outbreak —

Politico: ‘It Just Had To Do With Luck’: Inside Biden’s Struggle To Contain The H1N1 Virus
It was April 2009 and the three-month-old Obama administration was desperately grappling with the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression when homeland security adviser John Brennan arrived at the Oval Office to warn the president and Vice President Joe Biden of a new crisis: H1N1, the “swine flu,” was showing signs of rapid spread in Mexico, while cases were popping up in California and Texas. Brennan pointed out that the Spanish flu — the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history — was an H1N1 strain. “It made their eyebrows go up,” Brennan says now, recalling Biden’s reaction in particular. (Korecki, 5/4)

NPR: Trump Moves To Replace Watchdog Who Reported Medical Shortages
President Trump is moving to replace the Department of Health and Human Services watchdog whose office found severe shortages of medical supplies in hospitals as COVID-19 cases surged. In a Friday night announcement, the White House named Jason Weida as its nominee to take the permanent inspector general post currently occupied by Christi Grimm, who's been in that role in an acting capacity since January. (Slotkin, 5/2)

The New York Times: Trump Moves To Replace Watchdog Who Identified Critical Medical Shortages
The nomination was the latest effort by Mr. Trump against watchdog offices around his administration that have defied him. In recent weeks, he fired an inspector general involved in the inquiry that led to the president’s impeachment, nominated a White House aide to another key inspector general post overseeing virus relief spending and moved to block still another inspector general from taking over as chairman of a pandemic spending oversight panel. (Baker, 5/2)

CNN: Trump Names His Pick For HHS Inspector General After Criticizing Acting Official Over Coronavirus Report
Grimm's name appeared on a HHS OIG report last month that described a dire situation for front-line doctors and medical staff. The report found that the nation's hospitals are dealing with "severe" and "widespread" shortages of needed testing supplies and personal protective equipment, hampering their ability to test and respond to the coronavirus pandemic adequately and protect medical staff. The assessment was based on interviews with administrators from more than 300 hospitals across 46 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico. The report was not a review of HHS' response to the coronavirus crisis, but to help the agency in its efforts to support hospitals. (Stracqualursi, 5/2)

The Washington Post: Trump Replaces HHS Watchdog Who Found ‘Severe Shortages’ At Hospitals Combating Coronavirus
Trump laced into Grimm at a news conference in April, after her staff report found “severe shortages” of testing kits, delays in getting coronavirus results and “widespread shortages” of masks and other equipment at U.S. hospitals. The president demanded to know who wrote the report, calling the findings “wrong.” He then accused reporters of having withheld that Grimm had worked in the Obama administration. ... Grimm is a career investigator and auditor who joined the inspector general’s office, one of the federal government’s largest, in 1999 when Bill Clinton was president. She has served in Republican and Democratic administrations and is not a political appointee. She took over the inspector general’s office in an acting capacity in January from another acting official, who retired. (Rein, 5/2)

And in other news from the supply chain —

The Associated Press: NY Joining Six States To Buy Vital Coronavirus Gear In Bulk
New York is banding together with six nearby states to purchase equipment and supplies that sometimes have been hard to come by during the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Sunday. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is praising residents for mostly adhering to coronavirus social distancing rules during the warmest weekend of the spring, with police handing out only a few dozen summonses. (Sisak, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Trump Says It’s Safe To Reopen States, While Birx Finds Protesters With No Masks Or Distancing ‘Devastatingly Worrisome’
Earlier in the day, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx said protesters’ disregard of social distancing is “devastatingly worrisome.” Meanwhile, governors are outlining plans to reopen along widely varying timelines as federal officials defend the White House’s decision to let states decide. (5/3)

Politico: Birx Decries Michigan Protests: It's 'Devastatingly Worrisome'
While people have the right to protest, she added, “We need to protect each other at the same time we’re voicing our discontent.” The hundreds of conservative activists, some armed with assault weapons, stormed the state Capitol Thursday to decry the state’s stay-at-home orders from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. (Cammarata, 5/3)

The Hill: Birx: 'Devastatingly Worrisome' That Stay-At-Home Protesters Aren't Practicing Social Distancing 
Protests took place in at least 10 states over the weekend, with demonstrators calling on their governors to reopen businesses. Hundreds of protesters, some of them armed, demonstrated at the Michigan Statehouse on Thursday, eventually crowding inside to demand Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) allow public life to resume. (Budryk, 5/3)

CNN: Birx Said Michigan Protests Were 'Devastatingly Worrisome' 
Some carried signs about the governor's stay-at-home order, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued in March after a state of emergency was declared. Other demonstrators waved flags.The state of emergency was to expire at the end of Thursday. On Friday, Whitmer signed executive orders that terminated the old state of emergency and put in place a new one through May 28. Whitmer had previously extended the separate stay-at-home order through May 15. (Robertson and Duster, 5/3)

ABC News: Pompeo Says 'Enormous Evidence' For Unproven Theory That Coronavirus Came From Lab 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there are "enormous" signs that the novel coronavirus outbreak originated a biomedical laboratory in Wuhan, China -- the city where cases first exploded. "I can tell you that there is a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan," Pompeo said on ABC’s "This Week" Sunday. "Do you think they intentionally released that virus, or it was an accident in the lab?" Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz pressed. "I can't answer your question about that," he said, "because the Chinese Communist Party has refused to cooperate with world health experts." (Brown, Finnegan and Arnholz, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Pompeo Says There Is Evidence Coronavirus Came From Wuhan Lab
During a Fox News appearance Sunday night, President Trump suggested China engaged in a coverup because it was embarrassed. “I think they made a horrible mistake and they didn’t want to admit it,” he said. “We’re going to be giving a very strong report as to exactly what we think happened,” Mr. Trump said of questions about a Wuhan lab. “I think it will be very conclusive.” Mr. Trump previously said he has seen intelligence reports about China and the virus but declined to elaborate. (Viswanatha and Leary, 5/3)

The New York Times: Pompeo Ties Coronavirus To China Lab, Despite Spy Agencies’ Uncertainty
The theories are not mutually exclusive: Some officials who have examined the intelligence reports, which remain classified, say it is possible an animal that was infected with the coronavirus in the laboratory was destroyed, and a lab worker was accidentally infected in the process. But that is just one of many theories still being examined. Senior American officials, including those who have looked at intelligence and who favor the lab theory, have said in private that evidence pointing to a lab accident is mainly circumstantial and based on public material. Intelligence officers have told senior administration officials that they probably will not find proof of a lab accident. And among scientists and especially virologists, there is largely agreement that the chances that a lab accident sparked the outbreak are slim, while the probability that the new virus made the leap from an animal to a human in a nonlab setting in southern China is much higher. (Sanger, 5/3)

CNN: China Pushes Back Against US Claims That Coronavirus Originated From Wuhan Lab 
A nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party has dismissed claims by the Trump administration that the novel coronavirus originated from a laboratory, as the war of words over the pandemic escalates between Washington and Beijing. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday in an interview with ABC that there was "enormous evidence" Covid-19 originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first detected last December. He did not provide details to support the claim. (Gan, 5/4)

The Associated Press: DHS Report: China Hid Virus' Severity To Hoard Supplies
U.S. officials believe China covered up the extent of the coronavirus outbreak — and how contagious the disease is — to stock up on medical supplies needed to respond to it, intelligence documents show. Chinese leaders “intentionally concealed the severity” of the pandemic from the world in early January, according to a four-page Department of Homeland Security intelligence report dated May 1 and obtained by The Associated Press. (Weissert, 5/4)

Politico: DHS Report Accuses China Of Hiding Coronavirus Info So It Could Hoard Supplies
The report says that in January of this year, before sharing full details on the novel coronavirus outbreak with the World Health Organization, Beijing dramatically increased its imports and decreased its exports of medical supplies. In January, according to the report, China increased its imports of surgical facemasks by 278 percent, surgical gowns by 72 percent, and surgical gloves by 32 percent. Meanwhile, it slashed its global exports of a host of medical products: surgical gloves by 48 percent, surgical gowns by 71 percent, face masks by 48 percent, medical ventilators by 45 percent, intubator kits by 56 percent, thermometers by 53 percent, and cotton balls and swabs by 58 percent. (Swan, 5/3)

Reuters: Trump Administration Pushing To Rip Global Supply Chains From China: Officials
The Trump administration is “turbocharging” an initiative to remove global industrial supply chains from China as it weighs new tariffs to punish Beijing for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to officials familiar with U.S. planning. President Donald Trump, who has stepped up recent attacks on China ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election, has long pledged to bring manufacturing back from overseas. (Pamuk and Shalal, 5/4)

The New York Times: Masks Become A Flash Point In The Virus Culture Wars
As the nation edges away from lockdown and people once again share public spaces in the middle of a pandemic, wearing a face mask — or refusing to — has become a flash point in a moment when civic rules are being rewritten, seemingly on the fly. The result has been dirty looks, angry words, raw emotions and, at times, confrontations that have escalated into violence. In Flint, Mich., a security guard at a Family Dollar store was fatally shot on Friday afternoon after an altercation that the guard’s wife told The New York Times had occurred over a customer refusing to wear a face covering, which is required in Michigan in any enclosed public space. (Rojas, 5/3)

The Hill: Michigan Police Probing Reports That Store Shooting Stemmed From Argument Over Mask 
Police in Flint, Mich., are investigating after a security guard at a Family Dollar store was fatally shot on Friday, with reports on social media indicating that the altercation began over a customer not wearing a face mask. The Detroit News reported that a police spokesman confirmed at a press conference on Sunday that officials were investigating those reports. (Bowden, 5/3)

ABC News: Oklahoma City Reverses Face Mask Requirement Amid Threats Of Violence 
An Oklahoma city has reversed an emergency proclamation requiring shoppers to wear face masks due to threats of violence. Stillwater, located about 65 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, started to reopen businesses on Friday morning as part of the state's phased-opening program... The city had required customers to wear masks in stores and restaurants. But the mayor quickly amended that policy on Friday afternoon after employees were "threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse" in the span of three hours, Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement. (Deliso, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Stillwater, Oklahoma, Backs Off Mask Order After Threats To Store Employees, Mayor Will Joyce Says
Some officials are backing off requirements that people wear masks inside businesses, as cities, counties and states — left to devise their own guidelines — run into limits on their ability to maintain public health precautions with stay-at-home orders easing during the coronavirus pandemic. The issue pushed a small Oklahoma city into the national spotlight this weekend, after leaders quickly withdrew a mandate to don masks inside reopened stores and restaurants, citing threats of violence and physical abuse directed at employees. (Knowles and Iati, 5/3)

Reuters: Pence Says He Should Have Worn Face Mask At Mayo Clinic
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Sunday that he erred in not wearing a face mask during a visit with patients at the Mayo Clinic last month. The decision by Pence not to wear a mask was slammed by critics, who said it undermined efforts to slow the spread of the respiratory virus that has caused more than 67,000 deaths in the United States. Pence heads the Trump administration’s anti-coronavirus effort. (Schroeder, 5/3)

CNN: Pence Says He Should Have Worn A Mask At The Mayo Clinic 
The clinic had briefed Pence's team in the days leading up to his trip about their policy requiring face masks, a person involved in planning the visit previously told CNN. The briefing came after the White House reached out last week about a potential visit. The person said when the clinic told the White House about the policy, it wasn't clear whether Pence would wear a mask. (Robertson and LeBlanc, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Low-Quality Masks Infiltrate U.S. Coronavirus Supply
U.S. regulators and state officials are finding a significant number of imported N95-style masks fall short of certification standards, complicating the response to the coronavirus crisis and potentially putting some front-line workers at greater risk. Recent tests by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that about 60% of 67 different types of imported masks tested allowed in more tiny particles in at least one sample than U.S. standards normally permit. (Hufford and Maremont, 5/3)

The Associated Press: In A Time Of COVID-19, 'Obamacare' Still Part Of The Action
COVID-19 could have stamped a person “uninsurable” if not for the Affordable Care Act. The ban on insurers using preexisting conditions to deny coverage is a key part of the Obama-era law that the Trump administration still seeks to overturn. Without the law, people who recovered from COVID-19 and tried to purchase an individual health insurance policy could be turned down, charged higher premiums or have follow-up care excluded from coverage. Those considered vulnerable because of conditions such as respiratory problems or early-stage diabetes would have run into a wall of insurer suspicion. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/3)

In other insurance news —

The Wall Street Journal: Some Insurers Flex Balance Sheets To Help Hospitals, Doctors Amid Pandemic
With fewer claims to pay out, some health insurers are using their improved balance sheets to help struggling providers secure loans, pay claims earlier and, in some cases, underwrite patients’ outstanding bills. Many doctors, clinics and hospitals have suffered financially during the coronavirus pandemic because lucrative elective surgeries have been delayed and demand for nonemergency care has declined. The scenario has been particularly difficult for health-care providers that spent more to ramp up capabilities to treat Covid-19 but haven’t seen a surge in patients. (Trentmann, 5/3)

The Hill: Abortion Battle Threatens To Upend Health Insurance Push
A battle over abortion is threatening to scuttle a possible bipartisan deal on providing billions of dollars to help laid-off workers keep their health insurance. Republicans have expressed openness to a Democratic proposal to provide subsidies to help millions of people who are losing their jobs stay on their old employers' health insurance plans under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, commonly known as COBRA, according to congressional aides and others familiar with the talks. But Republicans say the new funding needs to include the Hyde Amendment or another restriction on federal money going toward health plans that cover abortion, an idea Democrats oppose. (Sullivan, 5/3)

The New York Times: How Remdesivir, New Hope For Covid-19 Patients, Was Resurrected
Remdesivir, an antiviral drug designed to treat both hepatitis and a common respiratory virus, seemed fated to join thousands of other failed medications after proving useless against those diseases. The drug was consigned to the pharmaceutical scrap heap, all but forgotten by the scientists who once championed it. But on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval for remdesivir as a treatment for patients severely ill with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Kolata, 5/1)

Stat: How Does Gilead's Drug Remdesivir Work Against The Coronavirus?
Remdesivir was originally created as a general antiviral and was later tested in Ebola patients, though it did not perform well in a landmark trial. Watch the explainer above to learn how remdesivir works against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19. (Hogan, 5/4)

The Associated Press: FDA Allows Emergency Use Of Drug For Coronavirus
U.S. regulators on Friday allowed emergency use of an experimental drug that appears to help some coronavirus patients recover faster. It is the first drug shown to help fight COVID-19, which has killed more than 230,000 people worldwide. The Food and Drug Administration acted after preliminary results from a government-sponsored study showed that Gilead Sciences' remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by 31%, or about four days on average, for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. (5/1)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gilead Donates 1.5 Million Vials Of Breakthrough Drug For COVID-19 Patients
More than 1.5 million vials of remdesivir — the breakthrough antiviral drug shown to help COVID-19 patients recover faster — will go to the most critically ill patients in the nation early this week, said Daniel O’Day, CEO of Foster City’s Gilead Sciences, which created the drug. O’Day said the biopharmaceutical company donated its entire supply, enough for 100,000 to 200,000 treatments, to the federal government, which will determine where to send the drug in the coming days. (Sanchez, 5/3)

CNN: Remdesivir: US Government Will Decide Where Drug Goes Amid Coronavirus Pandemic, Gilead Says
In early results from a trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, remdesivir was found to shorten the duration of illness in patients with severe Covid-19, but it had no statistically significant effect on whether patients died. "We intend to get [remdesivir] to patients in the early part of this next week, beginning to work with the government, which will determine which cities are most vulnerable and where the patients are that need this medicine," O'Day said on CBS' "Face the Nation" this weekend. (Azad, 5/3)

CNBC: Coronavirus Remdesivir Update: Gilead CEO Says Drug Available To Patients This Week
Gilead released preliminary results from its clinical trial on its antiviral drug remdesivir last week, showing at least 50% of the COVID-19 patients treated with a five-day dosage of the drug improved. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases then released a study that showed Covid-19 patients who took remdesivir usually recovered after 11 days, four days faster than those who didn’t take the drug. (Fitzgerald, 5/3)

NPR: Remdesivir-Maker Gilead's Lobbying Hit New High In 1st Quarter
Gilead Sciences, the drugmaker behind the experimental COVID-19 treatment remdesivir, spent more on lobbying Congress and the administration in the first quarter of 2020 than it ever has before, according to federal filings. The pharmaceutical company spent $2.45 million on lobbying in the first three months of the year, a 32% increase over the $1.86 million it spent in the first quarter of 2019. (Lupkin, 5/2)

In other treatment news —

Politico: Coronavirus Gets A Promising Drug. MAGA World Isn’t Buying It.
Over three weeks ago, hydroxychloroquine was all the rage in MAGA world, despite flawed and scattered evidence about whether the drug could help cure coronavirus. Now there is another drug, remdesivir, with positive early scientific data. Much of MAGA world wants little to do with it. (Nguyen, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Researchers Explore Using Common Blood-Plasma Treatment To Fight Coronavirus
Researchers are investigating whether a common blood-plasma product used in treating immune-system disorders could also be effective in coronavirus patients and potentially shape future trials of new treatments specific to Covid-19. Already, some industry experts have raised concerns that new demand for the product, intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG, for experimental treatment of Covid-19 patients could lead to shortages for patients with conditions for whom the benefit is proven. (Cherney and Marcus, 5/3)

CNBC: Coronavirus Drug Approvals But Doubts Remain On Manufacturing Vaccine
There were several major developments over the last week with the medical community marking progress in all three critical areas: testing, treatments and vaccines. Experts have welcomed positive data on potential treatments and progress on testing, but warn that vaccine timelines look ambitious and argue more thought is needed on manufacturing. (Tatelbaum, 5/4)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: A New Hope In The Battle Against COVID-19
Julie Rovner, chief Washington correspondent for Kaiser Health News, participated in the Friday news roundup on “1A,” a program of WAMU and NPR. The program, hosted by Celeste Headlee, explored new study results suggesting that remdesivir may help some COVID patients, expectations for a vaccine, and the economic and health consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Guests on the show, who also included Yamiche Alcindor from PBS NewsHour and Jim Tankersley of The New York Times, also took questions from listeners. You can hear the discussion here. (5/1)

The New York Times: Profits And Pride At Stake, The Race For A Vaccine Intensifies
Four months after a mysterious new virus began its deadly march around the globe, the search for a vaccine has taken on an intensity never before seen in medical research, with huge implications for public health, the world economy and politics. Seven of the roughly 90 projects being pursued by governments, pharmaceutical makers, biotech innovators and academic laboratories have reached the stage of clinical trials. With political leaders — not least President Trump — increasingly pressing for progress, and with big potential profits at stake for the industry, drug makers and researchers have signaled that they are moving ahead at unheard-of speeds. (Sanger, Kirkpatrick, Zimmer, Thomas and Wee, 5/2)

The Associated Press: COVID-19 Vaccine Hunt Heats Up Globally, Still No Guarantee
Hundreds of people are rolling up their sleeves in countries across the world to be injected with experimental vaccines that might stop COVID-19, spurring hope — maybe unrealistic — that an end to the pandemic may arrive sooner than anticipated. About 100 research groups are pursuing vaccines with nearly a dozen in early stages of human trials or poised to start. It’s a crowded field, but researchers say that only increases the odds that a few might overcome the many obstacles that remain. (Neergaard, 5/4)

Politico: Fears Rise That Trump Will Incite A Global Vaccine Brawl
When global leaders gathered virtually last month at the behest of the World Health Organization to commit to distributing a future coronavirus vaccine in an internationally equitable way, the United States didn’t join in. On Monday, the European Union is hosting a gathering for countries to pledge funding for research into vaccines and treatments for Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But once again the U.S. government isn’t expected to participate. (Toosi and Bertrand, 5/3)

The New York Times: China’s Coronavirus Vaccine Drive Empowers A Troubled Industry
China wants to beat the world in the race to find a coronavirus vaccine — and, by some measures, it is doing just that. Desperate to protect its people and to deflect growing international criticism of how it handled the outbreak, it has slashed red tape and offered resources to drug companies. Four Chinese companies have started testing their vaccine candidates on humans, more than the United States and Britain combined. (Wee, 5/4)

NBC News: Oxford Scientist Says Its Vaccine Is Making Headway, Could Show Efficacy By June
British scientists developing a potential vaccine for the coronavirus hope to see a "signal" as to whether their vaccine candidate is working by June, an official involved in the effort said Sunday on "Meet the Press." Sir John Bell, the Regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, where one of the leading efforts to develop a vaccine is underway, said that the prospects for Oxford's candidate are "pretty good" and that "as every day goes by, the likelihood of success goes up." The researchers hope to have enough data from their phase-two trials that "we would get evidence that the vaccine has efficacy by the beginning of June." (Kamisar, 5/3)

Reuters: Global Pledging 'Marathon' Aims To Raise Billions For COVID-19 Vaccine
World leaders will hold an international pledging “marathon” on Monday to raise at least 7.5 billion euros ($8.2 billion) for research into a possible vaccine and treatments for the novel coronavirus, after rich countries promised a unified response. Organised by the European Union, non-EU states Britain and Norway, and Japan, Canada and Saudi Arabia, leaders aim to raise funds over several weeks or months, building on efforts by the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and wealthy individuals. (5/4)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Vaccine Update: Inside The Extraordinary Race To Invent A Coronavirus Vaccine
Ian Haydon, a healthy 29-year-old, reported to a medical clinic in Seattle for a momentous blood draw last week.“Oh yeah,” said the nurse taking his blood. “That is liquid gold.” Haydon is an obscure but important participant in the most consequential race for a vaccine in medical history. In early April, he was among the first people in the United States to receive an experimental vaccine that could help end the coronavirus crisis. (Johnson, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Maryland Plays An Outsized Role In Worldwide Hunt For A Coronavirus Vaccine
As the world anxiously awaits a coronavirus vaccine, a Maryland biotechnology company already has signed deals to do initial production of three candidates. If one of them works, the firm has a factory in place to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses a year. Emergent BioSolutions of Gaithersburg has long been preparing for a global disease outbreak. The firm got started making a vaccine against anthrax, and since then has produced candidates for the Ebola and Zika viruses. (McCartney, 5/4)

The New York Times: Anti-Vaccination Activists Are Growing Force At Virus Protests
The protest on Friday in Sacramento urging California’s governor to reopen the state resembled the rallies that have appeared elsewhere in the country, with crowds flocking to the State Capitol, pressing leaders to undo restrictions on businesses and daily life. But the organizers were not militia members, restaurant owners or prominent conservative operatives. They were some of the loudest anti-vaccination activists in the country. The people behind the rally are founders of a group, the Freedom Angels Foundation, which is best known in California for its opposition to state efforts to mandate vaccinations. (Bogel-Burroughs, 5/2)

Politico: Backlash To The Backlash: Governors, Medical Officials Wary Of Rush To Reopen
America’s governors indicated on Sunday that they were continuing to walk a fine line in dealing with a global pandemic and economic desperation, as well as pushing back against resistance to measures designed to curb the spread of Covid-19. Governors from both parties discussed a range of difficult choices that would have been almost unimaginable three months ago — as well as such peculiar side issues as having armed protesters march on their capitols or needing to use the National Guard to protect coronavirus testing kits. (Perez and Cohen, 5/3)

The Washington Post: As Washington Stumbled, Governors Stepped To The Forefront
The history of the United States has generally been written with the states in a subordinate role or cast in a negative light — but no longer. The story of America’s confrontation with the coronavirus pandemic is one in which states and their governors have been dominant. As Washington has stumbled, governors of both parties have acted to fill the void. States have pleaded with Washington for help, and sometimes have gotten it. As often, however, the tensions and disagreements between state leaders and the federal government — especially with President Trump — have come to define the crisis. (Balz, 5/3)

The New York Times: Leaders Are Crying On The Job. Maybe That’s A Good Thing.
Charlie Baker, the Republican governor of Massachusetts, broke down while speaking about the death of his best friend’s mother. Eric Garcetti, the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, choked back tears while discussing the coronavirus’s impact on his city. Mark Meadows, President Trump’s chief of staff, has been crying frequently in meetings with White House staff, while Andrew M. Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, has teared up on more than one occasion during his daily televised coronavirus briefings. (Bennett, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Lockdowns Ease, But Coronavirus Cases Still Rise In Some Places
U.S. states and countries world-wide advanced measures to relax lockdowns that have lashed their economies during the global pandemic, even as the number of new coronavirus cases rose in many locations. More than 26,500 new cases were reported across the U.S. in the 24 hours to 8 p.m. Saturday, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, bringing the total of confirmed infections to 1.13 million. More than 66,000 people have died. (Morris, Caldwell and Sylvers, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Georgia Officials Watch Coronavirus Infection Data After Reopening
A week into the most ambitious reopening in the U.S., Georgia officials are watching coronavirus infection rates for any aftershocks from lifting restrictions. Epidemiologists warned it was too soon to tell. The virus can incubate for two weeks before symptoms appear, and then it can take longer for tests to be taken and results reported. The state reported 1,000 new cases in 24 hours Friday, which was a jump from previous days, according to Department of Public Health data. The state attributed that to a doubling of testing in the past week. (Siddiqui and Donati, 5/3)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gov. Hogan Resists Pressure To Reopen Quickly As Coronavirus Deaths, Infections Rise Throughout Washington Region
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) on Sunday pushed back against pressure to lift his stay-at-home order, saying he respects the rights of demonstrators who gathered over the weekend to protest the restrictions but that it is too soon to safely reopen the state. Hogan pointed to the crowds of people gathered at the Mall and in other public spaces to enjoy the weekend's temperate spring weather as cause for concern — an example of why he is reluctant to immediately lift measures designed to contain the deadly coronavirus. (Marimow, Tan and Cox, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Surf’s Up—And So Are Tensions—After California Closes Beaches
Surfers walked right by law-enforcement officials telling them the beach was closed this weekend. Cyclists zipped across bike paths that were supposed to be off limits. Protesters shouted at police and passersby, denouncing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order to close the beaches in Orange County, the wealthy coastal enclave south of Los Angeles. Long a symbol of free-spirited life, Southern California’s beaches have been transformed into ground zero in the fight over coronavirus lockdown rules in the state. (Lovett, 5/3)

NPR: Orange County Beaches Shut Down, But Legal Battle Still Making Waves
Two Orange County cities' attempt to legally challenge Calif. Gov. Gavin Newsom's beach shutdown order failed for now, but the battle between local and state officials over the shoreline will continue. Huntington Beach, Dana Point and various local private businesses in Orange County requested a temporary restraining order in Orange County Superior Court on Friday that would have blocked Newsom's executive beach closure order and kept beaches open in those cities. (Hagemann, 5/3)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Some California Businesses Reopen In Defiance Of Orders
As Californians prepare to enter the seventh week of stay-at-home restrictions, signs of fatigue are becoming evident. From the high desert to the beach enclaves of Orange County, a growing number of businesses deemed nonessential are choosing to reopen in defiance of orders from local and state authorities. In Victorville, 24-hour fitness studio the Gym reopened Friday with an 8-by-10-foot printout of the Constitution posted by the front door. (Wigglesworth, 5/3)

ABC News: NYC Doctor Worries About Reopening: 'We Can't Let Our Guard Down' 
Dr. Sujana Chandrashaker, a top ear, nose and throat specialist in New York and northern New Jersey, started reading about COVID-19 in medical journals and began tracking the virus clinically in early March. She was shocked and scared by what she saw... Chandrashaker said the battle between politics and medicine is hurting society, but she understands the push to reopen. (Schneider, 5/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Smart Or Lucky? How Florida Dodged The Worst Of Coronavirus
When the coronavirus pandemic swept toward Florida, public-health professionals nationally warned of a potentially devastating wave of infections that could imperil the state’s large senior population. But so far, the state seems to have dodged that fate, despite not following advice to impose measures such as an early, blanket lockdown to minimize spread. With Gov. Ron DeSantis preparing to start reopening the state on Monday, epidemiologists and others are asking: What happened? Was Florida smart or lucky? (Campo-Flores and Leary, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Florida Joins Gradual Coronavirus Reopening 
Florida is joining the U.S. states and countries around the world starting to reopen, as the global number of confirmed cases from the coronavirus pandemic crossed 3.5 million with nearly a quarter-million deaths. The first phase of Florida’s reopening plan calls for restaurants and shops in most parts of the state to operate at 25% of their indoor capacity starting Monday. But schools, bars, gyms and salons will remain closed. (Ping, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Florida Beaches Stayed Open As Medical Examiner Warned Officials About Coronavirus Deaths
Beaches in Florida’s St. Johns County remained open to record crowds through most of March, despite mounting concerns raised by the county’s medical examiner and residents. While many states were issuing directives to residents to stay home in March, officials in St. Johns County, home of St. Augustine, kept beaches open, even as the county’s medical examiner repeatedly said the county couldn’t handle a deadly outbreak, according to emails obtained by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation and reviewed by The Washington Post. (Kornfield, 5/3)

The Associated Press: American Public Space, Rebooted: What Might It Feel Like?
And the American people returned to the American streets, bit by bit, place by place. And in the spaces they shared, they found a world that appeared much the same but was, in many ways, different — and changing by the day. And the people were at turns uncertain, fearful, angry, determined. As they looked to their institutions to set the tone, they wondered: What would this new world be like? (Anthony, 5/4)

The New York Times: Balmy Weekend Presents A Challenge: New Yorkers Rushing To Parks
On the second day of May, New Yorkers were greeted with sunny skies and the warmest weekend so far this spring. People got up off their couch, put on their shoes, donned their face coverings, and left their cramped houses and apartments for the nearest park — desperate for fresh air and a little exercise. After weeks spent almost entirely indoors to avoid the coronavirus, they seemed to be drawn outside as much by the balmy weather as by their hopes that New York City was slowly, cautiously, starting to emerge from the crisis that has kept it locked down since mid-March. (Goldstein and Kilgannon, 5/2)

Reuters: Warm Weather Draws Crowds In Some Cities As Parts Of U.S. Start Easing Coronavirus Lockdowns
On Saturday, thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington to view a U.S. Navy flyover to honor healthcare workers and others battling the pandemic. In New York City, the warmest weather yet this spring caused picnickers and sunbathers to flock to green spaces in Manhattan, including crowded conditions at the Christopher Street Pier in Greenwich Village, according to photos on social media. (Chiacu and Allen, 5/3)

NBC News: Seeking Relief From Coronavirus Lockdowns, People Head Outside Across U.S.
With the weather warming across the U.S., people sought relief over the weekend after weeks of coronavirus restrictions. In some states, governors had begun easing those rules, even as confirmed cases and deaths attributed to the virus continued to rise. In others, lockdown orders remained in place. (Stelloh, 5/3)

NPR: People Are Social Distancing Less, Cellphone Data Show
State leaders are considering reopening economies and allowing people to leave their homes, but more and more Americans appear to be doing so on their own. Emerging data suggest that though people dramatically altered their habits to stay at home during the first month of America's response to the pandemic, that cooperation has since leveled off and — eventually — decreased. This could point to long-term challenges for state governments asking citizens to cooperate with extended stay-at-home policies. (McMinn and Talbot, 5/1)

The Washington Post: Cellphone Surveillance Spreads With Coronavirus Epidemic
A smartphone app in Turkey asked for Murat Bur's identity number, his father's name and information about his relatives. Did he have any underlying health conditions, the app wondered, presenting him a list of options. How was he feeling at the moment, it asked. It also requested permission to track his movements. None of this felt intrusive to Bur, a 38-year-old personal trainer. The app, which he had voluntarily downloaded, had helpfully warned him that his neighborhood was a coronavirus hot spot. (Fahim, Kim and Hendrix, 5/2)

The New York Times: Italians Find Promise Of Antibodies Remains Elusive, For Now
Cooped up, stir crazy and desperate for their lives back, many Europeans and Americans have seized on antibodies and their promise of potential immunity to the coronavirus as the golden ticket to reopen societies and economies. Not long ago, politicians in Italy — which, as the epicenter of Europe’s contagion, is further in the pandemic’s cycle than other Western nations — proposed issuing licenses to those who had beaten the virus and developed the right antibodies to get back to work. Researchers and politicians in China, the United States, Germany, Britain and beyond have latched onto antibodies as a potential solution to the virus and an outlet from containment measures. (Horowitz, 5/3)

Boston Globe: Massachusetts Researchers Are On Front Lines Of Coronavirus Antibody Testing
Scientists and doctors across Massachusetts are mobilizing to address two of the most baffling questions of this pandemic: How widely has the coronavirus spread — and if you’ve been infected, do you have lasting immunity? The answers lie in the antibody test — a pinprick of blood that captures the body’s immune response. Researchers say such testing is the foundation upon which policymakers can determine when the Commonwealth can safely, fully reopen. (Ostriker, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Roche Coronavirus Antibody Test Wins FDA Approval For Emergency Use
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared for emergency use an antibody test from diagnostics giant Roche Holding AG, the company said Sunday, a move that could add significant capacity to efforts to determine the wider spread of Covid-19. Roche’s test, which identifies antibodies made by the body to fight off the new coronavirus, is designed to tell people whether they have been infected in the past. For many diseases, antibodies remain in the blood for weeks, months or even years after infection. Antibody tests are performed on a blood sample and are different from the swab tests used to diagnose a current infection. (Roland, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Georgia Deploys 3D Printers, Guard Units In Testing Scramble
Seeing a chance to help amid a shortage of kits to test people for the coronavirus, Dr. Jeffrey James dedicated a 3D printer at the dental college where he teaches to churning out nasal swabs at a rate of 300 per day. Then Georgia officials working with Gov. Brian Kemp heard about the project. They asked James if he could crank up swab production even more — to 5,000 daily.“I said yes,” James recalled, “then I left the meeting and had a panic attack.” (Collins and Bynum, 5/4)

Boston Globe: Somerville And L.A. Are Offering Coronavirus Testing For Everyone. But What Does That Mean, And Why Isn’t Boston Doing It? - The Boston Globe
When the mayor of Los Angeles announced this week that the city would be making COVID-19 testing available to all its residents, regardless of whether they were symptomatic, the announcement left some in Boston scratching their heads. Why could a sprawling city of roughly 4 million people offer universal testing, while Boston cannot? As scientists have learned more about asymptomatic carriers who spread the coronavirus even when they don’t know they have it, widespread testing and subsequent isolation of people who test positive has been touted as essential to containing and ending this crisis. (Greenberg, 5/2)

Kaiser Health News: Testing In California Still A Frustrating Patchwork Of Haves And Have-Nots
Months into the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, widespread diagnostic testing still isn’t available, and California offers a sobering view of the dysfunction blocking the way. It’s hard to overstate how uneven the access to critical test kits remains in the nation’s largest state. Even as some Southern California counties are opening drive-thru sites to make testing available to any resident who wants it, a rural northern county is testing raw sewage to determine whether the coronavirus has infiltrated its communities. (Barry-Jester, Hart and Bluth, 5/4)

And some warn about limitations of contact tracing technology —

ABC News: ‘A Distraction’? Experts Warn Of Limitations Of Tech For Contact Tracing 
The fight against COVID-19 has been marked in part by the development of emerging technologies and leaders eager to embrace them. But as the private sector races to develop a digital system for contact tracing, a key weapon in the battle to rid the virus, experts say the time-honored human approach is still the best. (Bruggeman, 5/4)

ABC News: What It Takes To Be A COVID-19 Contact Tracer In NYC 
Out-of-work New Yorkers looking to secure employment as New York City COVID-19 contact tracers -- tracking the spread of the virus in an effort to contain it during the city's recovery phase -- will need what some might see as a surprising prerequisite. According to the job posting, qualified candidates must have the "ability to understand the concepts of institutional and structural racism and bias and their impact on underserved and underrepresented communities." (Schumaker, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Faced With 20,000 Dead, Care Homes Seek Shield From Lawsuits
Faced with 20,000 coronavirus deaths and counting, the nation’s nursing homes are pushing back against a potential flood of lawsuits with a sweeping lobbying effort to get states to grant them emergency protection from claims of inadequate care. At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors’ orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. And in the case of New York, which leads the nation in deaths in such facilities, a lobbying group wrote the first draft of a measure that apparently makes it the only state with specific protection from both civil lawsuits and criminal prosecution. (Condon, Mustian and Peltz, 5/4)

ABC News: Advocates Demand Stronger Federal Action As Nursing Homes Engulfed By Pandemic 
As authorities revealed the latest mass casualty event to strike an American nursing home amid the pandemic, advocates for the elderly decried an inadequate federal response to the crisis. Nursing homes have been especially devastated by COVID-19. A nationwide review by ABC News found more than 10,000 long-term care residents have died of the virus in just the 28 states that responded to a request for figures. In some states, deaths in nursing homes account for as many as half of all coronavirus-related fatalities. On Friday, officials acknowledged that the novel coronavirus had claimed the lives of 98 residents at a single New York City nursing home, a loss that Mayor Bill de Blasio called “absolutely horrifying.” (Mosk, Pecorin, Romero and Freger, 5/2)

Modern Healthcare: Independent Commission To Review Nursing Homes' COVID-19 Response
CMS will form an independent commission to assess how nursing homes have responded to the pandemic, upping the scrutiny on the facilities that have become COVID-19 hot spots. The commission will primarily focus on nursing home residents' safety, strengthening regulations to stem the spread of COVID-19 and enhancing federal and state enforcement strategies to improve compliance with infection-control policies, the agency announced late Thursday. It also aims to better coordinate efforts between federal, state and local authorities as well as identify best practices that may be incorporated into a larger regulatory framework, CMS said. (Kacik, 5/1)

Boston Globe: Nursing Home Social Worker Dies Of Coronavirus After Working 10 Days Straight
A social worker at a Chelmsford nursing home who died from the coronavirus last week is being remembered by family members for her unwavering devotion to her patients and their families — even volunteering to work 10 days straight while the disease spread across the state. Catherine Drouin, 69, of Methuen, who worked for more than two decades as a social worker at the Palm Center nursing home, died April 27 at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, family members said Sunday. (Hillard, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Batters Veterans Homes In New Jersey And New York
Veterans homes in New Jersey and New York are struggling to contain growing coronavirus outbreaks as the disease continues to pummel facilities for older residents across the nation. At New Jersey’s state-run Paramus Veterans Memorial Home, 189 residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and 62 people have died, according to the state. In New York, 56 people have died from Covid-19 at the Long Island State Veterans Home, and 67 more residents are infected. (De Avila, 5/2)

Politico: Disabled, Elderly Going Without Home Care Amid Shortage Of Protective Gear And Tests
Millions of high-needs home care patients and their low-wage caregivers face enormous risks as the coronavirus crisis reveals deep gaps in government oversight and resources for this often-overlooked branch of the health system. While institutions like hospitals and nursing homes are still struggling to get enough testing and personal protective equipment, the problem is far worse for home care, which is spread out and behind closed doors. (Ollstein and Kenen, 5/3)

Kaiser Health News: COVID-Plagued California Nursing Homes Often Had Problems In Past
When Jorge Newbery finally got through to his 95-year-old mother, Jennifer, on a video call April 18, she could barely talk or move and her eyes couldn’t focus. It was the first time he had seen her since California nursing homes shut their doors to visitors a month earlier. Immediately after the video chat, Newbery called the front desk in a panic. “I said, ‘You gotta get her out, you gotta call 911,’” he recalled. “She’s looking like she’s about to die.” (Rau and Almendrala, 5/4)

Kaiser Health News: As COVID-19 Lurks, Families Are Locked Out Of Nursing Homes. Is It Safe Inside?
Families are beset by fear and anxiety as COVID-19 makes inroads at nursing homes across the country, threatening the lives of vulnerable older adults. Alarmingly more than 10,000 residents and staff at long-term care facilities have died from COVID infections, according to an April 23 analysis of state data by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But often facilities won’t disclose how many residents and employees are infected with the coronavirus that causes the disease, citing privacy considerations. (Graham, 5/4)

CNN: New York Coronavirus Crisis: How America's Largest City Is Dealing With Its Dead 
In his final moments, Ananda Mooliya reassured his wife and two sons that he was fine, though they could hear his labored breathing from the next room, over the sound of the TV... On the day Mooliya died, there were 799 Covid-19 deaths in the state of New York, a one-day high. To date, the state has recorded more than 24,000 deaths, most of them in New York City. Among the many ways life has changed is how America's largest city deals with its dead. (Sanchez, 5/3)

Boston Globe: Mass. Death Toll From Coronavirus Crosses 4,000; 1,824 New Cases Reported
Massachusetts passed a grim milestone in the COVID-19 crisis on Sunday, as fatalities from the disease passed 4,000 ― highlighting the toll of a disease that has quickly become one of the state’s leading causes of death. The state Department of Public Health reported 158 new deaths from the new coronavirus, bringing the overall toll to 4,004. In all, there were 1,824 new cases across Massachusetts, increasing the total number of cases the state has seen since the start of the outbreak to 68,087. (Rosen, 5/3)

Boston Globe: How Do You Socially Distance On A Beach? Summer Uncertainty On The Cape, Islands
Mary Ann Paquette’s family has been going to the Cape every summer for more than 25 years. The last few seasons, the fear of sharks has kept them out of the water. But this year, the coronavirus pandemic could keep them at home. Paquette, 80, of Paxton, is hopeful that she and her four children, 14 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and extended family will be able to spend a week in early August at the pristine four-bedroom house they’ve rented in East Orleans since 1997. But the virus has her concerned. (Johnston, 5/3)

ABC News: Man Arrested 3 Times In 1 Day Under CA's Coronavirus-Based Zero-Bail Policy 
Officers in Los Angeles County arrested and released a suspect three times in one day after he was repeatedly let go based on the zero-bail policy that California has put into effect due to the coronavirus pandemic, police said. The policy is intended to keep the jail population lower due to COVID-19 concerns, officials say. (Deliso, 5/3)

Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: Mississippi High Court Won't Halt Evictions Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Mississippi Supreme Court says no to halting evictions and garnishments during the coronavirus pandemic. In a ruling Thursday, the state high court said it was beyond the court's authority to halt eviction and garnishment judicial proceedings. (Gates, 4/30)

Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: Coronavirus In Mississippi: Coroners Can't Get COVID 19 Testing
As the number of coronavirus deaths in Mississippi continues to grow, coroners across the state warn the number could be far higher, with several in larger counties saying they can't get tests for those who die at home. At least one coroner of a large Mississippi county says he fears that the actual number of coronoavirus deaths could be double what's currently being reported, with another "guaranteeing" that every county has seen a COVID-19 death. (Fowler, 4/30)

Mississippi Clarion-Ledger: Mississippi Coronavirus: Disease Spreads Among Chicken Plant Workers
Mississippi poultry workers say they went weeks without protective measures for coronavirus and saw other employees come to work with symptoms in facilities where social distancing is not possible. Now they are getting sick and spreading the disease to their families. (Zhu and Bologna, 5/1)

The San Francisco Chronicle: SF Could Permanently Lose Half Its Restaurants To Coronavirus Pandemic, Group Says
Half of San Francisco restaurants could close permanently because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to an estimate from the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. Laurie Thomas, the association’s executive director, emphasized that the figure was highly uncertain. “Let’s hope that I’m wrong,” she said, adding that the association is conducting further research to get a clearer picture. (Galbraith, 5/3)

Kaiser Health News: As Lawmakers Reconvene, Not Everyone Agrees On COVID-Only Agenda
California lawmakers return to the Capitol this week to begin what they describe as necessary but painful negotiations to keep the state running and redirect dwindling funds to the costly coronavirus pandemic. Leaders of the state Senate and Assembly have asked them to pursue only COVID-related or “essential” bills. But many legislators say they aren’t letting go of their pre-COVID agendas. They’re pushing ahead with measures to tax soda, ban flavored tobacco products, reform mental health care and expand public insurance to undocumented immigrants age 65 and up, arguing that the virus’s devastating reach underscores just how badly California needs to bolster its public health system. (Young, 5/4)

Dallas Morning News: Dallas County Reports A New Daily High Of 234 Coronavirus Cases; Tarrant County Reports 4 Deaths
Dallas County reported 234 new coronavirus cases Sunday, marking a new single-day high. The county also reported the coronavirus-related death of a Dallas woman in her 70s who had been hospitalized. The new record for cases reported in a single day comes two days after the previous high of 187. So far, there have been 4,133 cases in the county since testing started. (Hoyt and Smith, 5/3)

Dallas Morning News: ‘We’re Trying To Survive’: As Texas Reopens, Dallas Business Owners, Customers Test New Social Rules
North Texans cautiously emerged from their homes Friday, seeking a semblance of normalcy at restaurants, golf courses — even the gun range — as Texas allowed its first wave of businesses to reopen after they were shuttered to slow the spread of the coronavirus. In Dallas, shoppers and diners treaded carefully after more than a month under stay-at-home orders. Business owners and workers saw quiet days for their shops as many people stayed home. Some wondered whether Texas was lifting restrictions too soon. Others reveled in a glimmer of what life looked like before the virus took hold. (5/1)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Coronavirus In Georgia: Malls Poised To Reopen As Atlantans Hit Parks
Sunbathers on blankets dotted the Piedmont Park meadow Sunday and some state parks were so busy that rangers would only let in one car for each vehicle that left. Outside a Decatur church, worshippers lifted their hands to the azure sky and sang. Bishop James Morton thanked congregants, some seated in their cars, for offerings to keep the church running. (Trubey, Capelouto and Poole, 5/3)

Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus Numbers Continue To Climb With 43,754 Cases, 4,049 Deaths
The state health department reported the lowest number of single-day deaths Sunday since March, with 29 deaths confirmed since Saturday. The statewide death toll is now at 4,049 as of Sunday, according to data from the state health department. The number of Michiganders affected by the novel coronavirus continues to increase, with 43,754 cases reported since the beginning of the outbreak as of Sunday. This is an increase of 547 cases since Saturday. (Marini, 5/3)

Des Moines Register: Twice Denied Hospital Admission, Iowan Dies Of COVID-19
If life were fair, Kyle Brown and Pamela Dennen deserved more time together. The Marshalltown couple had spent years overcoming personal obstacles and the physical distance between them, Dennen told the Des Moines Register. They celebrated three years of marriage in February. About two months later, in mid-April, Brown worked his final shift as a maintenance technician at TPI Composites in Newton. Brown, 54, died 12 days later, on April 29, at a Des Moines hospital from COVID-19 complications. (Cannon, 5/2)

Des Moines Register: Coronavirus: Some Churches Reopen For First Sunday Services Since COVID-19 Reached Iowa
“Let’s all share: What’s been something you’ve missed most since this quarantine started?” Chris Peterson asked a group of 14 people scattered Sunday throughout the pews at Trinity Baptist Church, each sitting a safe distance from the others. Among the answers shouted back to Peterson, 28, the son of Trinity Baptist Pastor Dudley Peterson: going to stores and restaurants, visiting friends and seeing family.“Being in church,” Fran Lehnhoff said. Being back at church Sunday “felt like coming home.” (Opsahl, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Senate Set To Re-Open As Virus Risk Divides Congress
The Senate will gavel in Monday as the coronavirus rages, returning to an uncertain agenda and deepening national debate over how best to confront the deadly pandemic and its economic devastation. With the House staying away due to the health risks, and the 100 senators convening for the first time since March, the conflicted Congress reflects an uneasy nation. The Washington area remains a virus hot-spot under stay-home rules. (Mascaro, 5/4)

ABC News: Senate's Return Sets Stage For Showdown Over Coronavirus Relief Package 
Senators have not been in the Capitol in full force since March 26, but when they make their return Monday evening, lawmakers will be facing a full slate of coronavirus-related priorities. Unlike previous legislative pushes during the pandemic -- remarkable for the rare shows of bipartisanship and speed -- the battle over the next phase of coronavirus aid is already marked by political acrimony, which is sure to slow legislative action. (Pecorin and Turner, 5/4)

The Washington Post: White House And Congress Clash Over Liability Protections For Businesses As Firms Cautiously Weigh Virus Reopening Plans
Congressional leaders are girding for a huge fight over the reentry of millions of Americans to the workplace, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) insisting that employers be shielded from liability if their workers contract the coronavirus. He appears to have the backing of top White House officials. Democratic leaders have declared they will oppose such blanket protections, putting Washington’s power brokers on opposite sides of a major issue that could have sweeping implications for health care and the economy in the coming months. (Werner and Hamburger, 5/3)

The Hill: Obstacles Mount For Deal On Next Coronavirus Bill 
Lawmakers are set to start returning to Washington on Monday nowhere near an agreement on the next coronavirus relief bill. Instead, they are facing a quick pile up of potential obstacles to a deal as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offer “red lines” and competing priorities for the next piece of legislation. GOP senators are signaling that they don’t expect a quick agreement as they work to fine tune the implementation of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus package passed in late March. (Carney, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: McConnell, Pelosi Decline Rapid Coronavirus Testing For Congress
The two top leaders in Congress declined a Trump administration offer to send rapid-result coronavirus tests to Capitol Hill, which lacks the equipment to test lawmakers when they return to work next week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D. Calif.) in a joint statement said the tests are needed at medical facilities that are treating people who have contracted Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Hughes, 5/2)

The New York Times: How Bailout Backlash And Moral Hazard Outrage Could Endanger The Economy
The United States economy is in free fall, with tens of millions of people unemployed and countless businesses at risk of collapse. Congress has already allocated nearly $3 trillion to contain the crisis, and it is widely understood that it will need to do more. Yet with stunning speed, the political conversation has pivoted from whatever-it-takes determination toward a different feeling: outrage. Increasingly, lawmakers, media coverage and ordinary voters are focused not on preventing a potential depression, but on litigating which recipients of federal rescue are morally worthy and which are not. (Irwin, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers In Congress Press For Changes In Small-Business Aid Program
The federal government’s $670 billion program to aid small businesses will come under a spotlight when Congress rolls back into action, with many lawmakers planning to target what they say are shortcomings in the program. Proposals include extending the number of weeks that small businesses can spend money from the government’s forgivable loans under the Paycheck Protection Program, and allowing businesses to use more of the funds for overhead costs. (Omeokwe, 5/3)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Ask Congress For Another $100 Billion COVID-19 Bailout
Hospital groups are asking Congress to forgive more than $100 billion in loans the Trump administration has handed out to help providers maintain cash flow during the COVID-19 pandemic. Provider lobbyists successfully secured $175 billion in grant funds over the last two COVID-19 relief packages, but they are arguing that isn't enough. As Congress gears up for another major legislative push, providers are asking lawmakers to forgive or relax terms on another $100 billion in Medicare accelerated and advance payments that the Trump administration has already sent out. (Cohrs, 5/1)

The New York Times: J. Crew Files For Bankruptcy In Virus’s First Big Retail Casualty
J. Crew, the mass-market clothing company whose preppy-with-a-twist products were worn by Michelle Obama and appeared at New York Fashion Week, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. It is the first major retailer to fall during the coronavirus pandemic, though other big industry names including Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney are also struggling with the toll of mass shutdowns. J. Crew announced that its parent company, Chinos Holdings, had filed for Chapter 11 protection in federal bankruptcy court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (Friedman, Maheshwari and de la Merced, 5/3)

Meanwhile —

Reuters: White House Blocks Fauci From Testifying To Congress On Coronavirus Response
The White House issued an emailed statement after a spokesman for the House of Representatives committee holding the hearing said the panel had been informed by Trump administration officials that Fauci had been blocked from testifying. “While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.” (Mason and Cowan, 5/1)

ABC News: Fauci To Testify Before Senate After White House Blocked Him From Appearing Before Congress 
After the White House blocked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the government's coronavirus task force, from testifying before House lawmakers next week, he will appear before the GOP-led Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions on May 12, a spokesperson for for Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. "Chairman Alexander looks forward to hearing from Dr. Fauci and other administration officials at the Senate health committee’s second hearing back, which will be on Tuesday, May 12," the statement read. (Siegel, 5/2)

The Hill: House Committees Move Toward Virtual Hearings For COVID-19 Era 
House committees are taking steps to make virtual hearings a reality as Congress seeks to work through a coronavirus pandemic that has kept lawmakers from returning to the Capitol. Multiple House committees have begun holding virtual forums and roundtables in the last week, including Homeland Security, Education and Labor, Natural Resources, and Veterans’ Affairs. While none of the events were official hearings, they served as a test run for how committees could start conducting business remotely. (Marcos, 5/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Pandemic Could Push Politics To The Left, Progressives Hope
Six months ago, government-sponsored income and health care sounded like pipe dreams from failed presidential candidates. In a post-coronavirus world, progressives hope, they aren’t so far-fetched. The pandemic has already brought bipartisan support to left-wing policies that would have been off the table before 2020, including direct stimulus payments to Americans, an expansion of unemployment coverage and a requirement that many companies offer paid sick leave.Now progressives see an opportunity to build on those gains, potentially pushing policy to the left for the long term. (Kopan, 5/3)

The New York Times: After The Virus: California Liberals Say Returning To Normal Won’t Be Enough
Housing for the homeless. Criminal justice reform. Addressing the digital divide for schoolchildren in rural areas. Propelled by the urgency of the coronavirus crisis, and despite severe economic headwinds, liberal Californians see this moment as an opening to push through an agenda that addresses some of the state’s most intractable and long-debated problems. (Arango and Fuller, 5/4)

Politico: Progressives Struggle To Wield Power In Coronavirus Fight
Shortly before the House voted to funnel another $500 billion in federal funds to coronavirus relief, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the chamber’s floor and ripped into Republicans. “It is a joke when Republicans say that they have urgency around this bill,” Ocasio-Cortez shouted into the microphone, mask in hand, as she pointed toward the GOP side of the aisle. “If you had urgency, you would legislate like rent was due on May 1.” (Ferris and Caygle, 5/4)

The New York Times: For A.O.C., ‘Existential Crises’ As Her District Becomes The Coronavirus Epicenter
The dash to overnight millennial celebrity can take abrupt detours. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the democratic socialist from the Bronx, was propelled from an anonymous existence as a bartender after her upset victory in 2018 straight onto magazine covers, late-night TV and the top of every partisan love-hate list in America. It made her perhaps the most exposed and fixated-on House freshman in history. Today, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress — known simply as A.O.C. — owns another distinction, this one far grimmer: She represents the nation’s most devastated hot zone of the coronavirus outbreak. (Leibovich, 5/4)

The New York Times: Native American Tribes Sue Over Coronavirus Stimulus Aid
A group of Native American tribes is suing the Treasury Department for failing to provide billions of dollars in coronavirus relief allocated for tribes in the $2.2 trillion stimulus package, setting off one of the most significant legal battles between tribal governments and the United States in years. The human and economic toll of the pandemic has been particularly devastating for tribes across the country, which were already struggling with inadequate federal resources and are now among the most vulnerable and hardest hit by the virus. (Walker and Cochrane, 5/1)

The Hill: Underfunded Native Nations Battle Coronavirus Outbreaks 
Native American health systems are stretching to a breaking point under a growing number of coronavirus cases flooding into rural clinics and hospitals that are unprepared for the case load. At least 3,600 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed by the Indian Health System. The vast majority of those cases are in Navajo Nation, where more than 2,200 people are sick. (Wilson, 5/3)

The New York Times: Both Parties Wonder: How Much Do Conventions Even Matter Anymore?
Political conventions have been a balloons-and-bunting mainstay of American campaigns since the Republican Party gathered in Baltimore to nominate Henry Clay for president in 1831. But this year, they may join the list of crowded events — concerts, baseball games, movies and Broadway shows — forced off the stage because of the coronavirus. And it may not matter. Some Democratic leaders are discussing replacing their convention with a virtual gathering, and some Republicans are unsure about holding the big spectacle that President Trump wants. (Nagourney and Flegenheimer, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Skip Convention Donations Amid Coronavirus, Partisan Tensions
American Airlines Group Inc. contributed $1 million to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia four years ago, but the world’s biggest airline by traffic doesn’t intend to contribute any cash to either party’s August gathering. Harley-Davidson Inc., the iconic motorcycle maker headquartered 3 miles west of the Milwaukee arena where the Democratic convention is set to take place, said it has no plans to write a check. (McCormick and Glazer, 5/3)

The New York Times: The Covid-19 Riddle: Why Does The Virus Wallop Some Places And Spare Others?
The coronavirus has killed so many people in Iran that the country has resorted to mass burials, but in neighboring Iraq, the body count is fewer than 100. The Dominican Republic has reported nearly 7,600 cases of the virus. Just across the border, Haiti has recorded about 85. In Indonesia, thousands are believed to have died of the coronavirus. In nearby Malaysia, a strict lockdown has kept fatalities to about 100. (Beech, Rubin and Maclean, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Isolated By Oceans: Hawaii, Other Islands Tamp Down Virus
Flying to a faraway beach might seem like the perfect way to escape a pandemic, but for isolated Pacific islands, controlling the coronavirus means cutting off tourism. Hawaii has among the lowest COVID-19 infection and mortality rates in the U.S. As cases rose in March, Gov. David Ige did something no other state can — effectively seal its borders. People who do come face a two-week quarantine, stopping the flow of tens of thousands of tourists who typically arrive every day. (Jones, 5/4)

The Washington Post: With Coronavirus Under Control, Australia And New Zealand May Form A Travel 'Bubble'
With their coronavirus outbreaks under control, New Zealand and Australia are discussing forming a "travel bubble" that would allow people to resume international journeys across the Tasman Sea without quarantine restrictions. The move, which is still weeks if not months away, would enable both countries to take a step toward normality and help their tourism industries, while serving as a potential template for other governments as they emerge from the crisis. (Fifield, 5/4)

Stat: Covid-19 Has Shuttered Labs. It Could Put A Generation Of Researchers At Risk
Scientists are skilled at tackling unexpected problems that threaten the integrity of their experiments — it comes with the territory. But the coronavirus pandemic poses a new — and entirely unprecedented — challenge. The global health emergency has shut down scientific research labs across the country in a crisis that has left some scientists scrambling to save their work — and has left others grieving the loss of experiments they had dedicated months or even years to carrying out. Many are grappling with an overwhelming sense of uncertainty about how they’ll continue their work. (Chen, 5/4)

The Hill: Terrorist Threats Rise Amid Coronavirus Pandemic 
Government officials and researchers are warning world leaders not to lose focus on global security threats as extremist groups and terrorist organizations exploit the coronavirus pandemic to increase their operations. Top lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic and the European Union’s anti-terrorism chief have issued warnings in recent days that bad actors are threatening global security and growing their influence as countries address the impacts of the pandemic. The increased warnings come as governments, including the U.S., will have to balance their national security budgets as they pour resources into reviving their economies and into public health. (Kelly, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Kills People An Average Of A Decade Before Their Time, Studies Find
People dying of Covid-19 could have expected to live on average for at least another decade, according to two studies that help fill in the developing picture of the human cost of the coronavirus pandemic. The findings show the virus isn’t just carrying off the elderly or infirm a few months before their time. “Some people think that these people dying would have died this year anyway,” said Andrew Briggs, a professor of health economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led one of the studies. “That’s simply not the case.” (Douglas and Michaels, 5/2)

The Associated Press: ‘We Don’t Know How It Will End’: Hunger Stalks Amid Virus
When all this started — when the coronavirus began stalking humanity like an animal hunting prey, when she and her husband lost their restaurant jobs overnight as the world shut down to hide, when she feared not being able to feed her family — Janeth went outside with a red kitchen towel. It was Passover. Her pastor had told her about the roots of the Jewish holiday, about Israelites smearing a lamb’s blood on their doors as a sign for the plagues to pass them by. So Janeth, an immigrant from Honduras, reached up to hang the red towel over the door of her family’s apartment on the edge of the nation’s capital. It was close enough, she figured, “to show the angel of death to pass over our home.” (Knickmeyer and Martin, 5/4)

Stat: Routine Cancer Screenings Have Plummeted During The Pandemic
As it became clear in March that the coronavirus was tearing through the U.S., federal health officials and cancer societies urged Americans to delay their routine mammograms and colonoscopies. The public has heeded those recommendations — and that’s helped lead to an apocalyptic drop in cancer screenings, according to a white paper released Monday by the electronic medical records vendor Epic. (Robbins, 5/4)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Amplified Ageism, Discrimination Against Older People
On the good days, Bonnie Reed believes that, for the first time in a long time, just about everyone is united in a common cause: to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens against the coronavirus. On the bad days, the Sherman Oaks senior is stunned by the carelessness she sees around her. She sees it in the unmasked young people who saunter toward her and her husband, Alton, with little regard for social distancing. She sees it in the decisions of some governors to reopen economies despite dire warnings from public health officials. (Newberry, 5/1)

Kaiser Health News: Always The Bridesmaid, Public Health Rarely Spotlighted Until It’s Too Late
The U.S. is in the midst of both a public health crisis and a health care crisis. Yet most people aren’t aware these are two distinct things. And the response for each is going to be crucial. If you’re not a health professional of some stripe, you might not realize that the nation’s public health system operates in large part separately from the system that provides most people’s medical care. (Rovner, 5/4)

KQED: Researchers Offer Caution On Cough Syrup And COVID-19 
An ingredient found in everyday cold medicine appears to promote infection from the coronavirus, according to a new lab study looking at the impact of over-the-counter and prescription drugs on the coronavirus, led by virus experts at UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes. Researchers found that dextromethorphan — found in most over-the-counter cough syrups tablets and gel capsules — caused SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to grow more in a lab setting. (Stark, 4/30)

The New York Times: Therapists And Patients Find Common Ground: Virus-Fueled Anxiety
On a good day, New York City is awash in its neuroses, a tightly wound place where a wide assortment of sky-scraping anxieties can build to an almost comic crescendo. But with the coronavirus pandemic grinding on, that angst has reached new heights. Many New Yorkers are cloistered in their homes, often jammed tight with family or roommates; others must report to work in a contaminated city. They are dealing with isolation and fear; some have lost their jobs. Others are sick or in grief. It can be overwhelming, even for the mental health professionals tasked with easing such problems. (Nir, 5/3)

CNN: Getting To The Pediatrician During A Pandemic 
It was after midnight when Leslie Rowe woke up on April 11. Her 9-year-old son, Zaiden, was in tears, saying he had an intense pain in his groin. At any other time, said Rowe, who lives in Collierville, Tennessee, she would have headed straight to the emergency room. "He was crying, he was in pain," Rowe said. "I was scared." (Smith, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Offers A Clear View Of What Causes Air Pollution
The coronavirus shutdowns are giving scientists an opportunity they never thought they would have: to see what would happen to the planet if the world’s economy went on hiatus. The result has been drops in air pollutants to levels not seen in at least 70 years, easier breathing for people with respiratory ailments and consistently clear views of landmarks often obscured by smog, such as the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles and the Manhattan skyline. (Carlton, 5/3)

Stat: Crisis Counselors Wage Wrenching Battle On Coronavirus Front Lines 
The most iconic images of the coronavirus pandemic are, by now, familiar: the exhausted doctors peering from behind a 3D-printed face protector; the nurses covered in garbage bags; the brave first responders who arrive, sirens blaring, to help yet another person who is gasping for air. But there is a much less visible group of professionals, people like Lauren Ochs, who are on the frontlines of a mental health crisis every bit as wrenching as medical battles waged every day in hospitals. (Glaser, 5/4)

The New York Times: 3 Hospital Workers Gave Out Masks. Weeks Later, They All Were Dead.
They did not treat patients, but Wayne Edwards, Derik Braswell and Priscilla Carrow held some of the most vital jobs at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens. As the coronavirus tore through the surrounding neighborhood, their department managed the masks, gloves and other protective gear inside Elmhurst, a public hospital at the center of the city’s outbreak. They ordered the inventory, replenished the stockroom and handed out supplies, keeping a close count as the number of available masks began to dwindle. By April 12, they were all dead. (Hong, 5/4)

Modern Healthcare: Nurses At Tenet Health Hospital Claim Staff Cuts Leading To Unsafe Care
Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass., claim the decision by parent company Tenet Healthcare Corp. to reduce staff amid the coronavirus pandemic is leading to subpar care. Tenet announced in early April that it would furlough staff due to lower patient volumes as a result of the cancellation of elective procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The furloughs wouldn't have an "impact on COVID-care or care provided to patients with other urgent medical needs," a St. Vincent spokesperson said, but the Massachusetts Nurses Association, which represents the hospital's 840 nurses, claims that hasn't been the case. (Castelluci, 4/30)

Politico: Coronavirus Poses A Tough Question: Did NYC Essential Workers Die In The Line Of Duty?
The illness infected both parents in its stampede through New York City last month, killing the 43-year-old NYPD detective and turning a 37-year-old stay-at-home mom into a shell-shocked widow. Her husband, like all coronavirus victims, has not been granted "line of duty" status that would provide health insurance to his family. So instead of planning trips to Disney World, Abear is now figuring out how to pay for her daughter’s next vaccine. “My husband had 19 years on the job, so he was going to retire next year and every day he would talk about his retirement,” she said in a recent interview. “He was so looking forward to spending time with his family, especially his kids. Now it’s just going to be so different.” (Goldenberg, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Call It Hero Pay Or Hazard Pay, Essential Workers Want More Of It
As businesses across two dozen states start to reopen after coronavirus shutdowns, some companies are reassessing the bonus pay for hourly employees who have been going into work through the pandemic. Companies boosted wages for grocery workers and other employees in recent months to recognize their efforts and ensure attendance when millions of Americans were asked to stay home. Some employees have welcomed the money, while others say it isn’t enough to mitigate the risks they face on the job as the coronavirus spreads in the U.S. (Chen and Sayre, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Donor Gives Employees At Hospital $1 Million For Bonuses
Around the country, there’s a lot of gratitude for medical providers these days, and in Santa Cruz, California, a recent anonymous note to the local hospital was no exception. “Thank you for standing up (and staying up!) to care for our community,” it said. “This humankindness is what makes you heroic.” It was the donation that came with that note — $1 million — that has hospital employees cheering. The gift was designated entirely for employees — nurses, cleaning staff, lab techs, medical records, even mailroom staff and security guards who have worked at Dominican Hospital for at least a year are getting a bonus check. Full-time staff get $800, part-timers receive $600. (Mendoza, 5/4)

ProPublica: 'Similar to Times of War': The Staggering Toll of COVID-19 on Filipino Health Care Workers
When Alfredo Pabatao told his family that he had helped move a suspected coronavirus patient through the hospital where he’d worked as an orderly for nearly 20 years, he didn’t make a big deal out of it. “My parents are the type of parents who don’t like to make us worry,” his youngest daughter, Sheryl, recalled. But Sheryl was concerned that her father’s vulnerabilities weren’t being given more consideration as he toiled on the pandemic’s front lines in hard-hit northern New Jersey. “Why would they let a 68-year-old man with an underlying heart condition … transport a suspected COVID patient when there’s younger transporters in the hospital who could do it?” (Martin and Yeung, 5/3)

CNN: More Than 370 Workers At A Pork Plant Tested Positive For Coronavirus But Were Asymptomatic 
373 employees and contract workers at Triumph Foods in Buchanan County, Missouri, have tested positive for coronavirus. All of them were asymptomatic, according to a press release from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services... It is just one of dozens of meat packing plants and food processing facilities across the country that have seen outbreaks of the virus, forcing shutdowns and sparking concerns of possible food shortages. (Silverman, 5/4)

NPR: Singapore Was Praised For Controlling Coronavirus. Now It Has The Most Cases In Southeast Asia
Early on in the coronavirus pandemic, Singapore was praised as a shining example of how to handle the new virus. The World Health Organization pointed out that Singapore's aggressive contact tracing allowed the city-state to quickly identify and isolate any new cases. It quickly shut down clusters of cases and kept most of its economy — and its schools — open. Through the beginning of April, Singapore had recorded fewer than 600 cases. (Beaubien, 5/3)

The Associated Press: Pandemic Eases In Parts Of Europe But Worsens In India
There were signs Monday that the coronavirus pandemic was easing significantly in some parts of Europe but getting worse in India and Russia. Meanwhile, pressure to reopen kept building in the U.S. — which has only seen a slight drop in reported daily new cases — as tens of millions have lost their jobs in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. While people around the world started taking advantage of an easing in lockdowns to enjoy the outdoors, health experts warned of a potential second wave of infections unless testing is expanded dramatically. (Perry and D'Emilio, 5/4)

The Associated Press: With Testing, Iceland Claims Major Success Against COVID-19
Winter storms isolated the northern village of Hvammstangi from the rest of Iceland. Then spring brought the coronavirus, isolating villagers from each other. Now, as summer approaches, residents hope life is getting back to some kind of normal. High schools, hair salons, dentists and other businesses across Iceland are reopening Monday after six weeks of lockdown, after this North Atlantic nation managed to tame its coronavirus outbreak. (Bjarnason, 5/4)

Reuters: 'Once Upon A Virus': China Mocks U.S. In Lego-Like Animation
Washington and Beijing are locked in a war of words over the origins of the disease which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has spread to become a global pandemic. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to describe the evidence. In the animation posted online by China’s official Xinhua news agency, red curtains open to reveal a stage featuring Lego-like figures in the form of a terracotta warrior wearing a face mask and the Statue of Liberty. (5/2)

The Associated Press: Freedom! In France, A Nursing Home Takes On COVID And Wins
As the coronavirus scythed through nursing homes, cutting a deadly path, Valerie Martin vowed to herself that the story would be different in the home she runs in France. The action she took to keep COVID-19 at bay, to stop it from infecting and killing the vulnerable older adults in her care, was both drastic and effective: Martin and her staff locked themselves in with the 106 residents. For 47 days and nights, staff and residents of the Vilanova nursing home on the outskirts of the east-central city of Lyon waited out the coronavirus storm together, while the illness killed more than 9,000 people in other homes in France. (5/4)

Reuters: Global Coronavirus Cases Surpass 3.5 Million Amid Underreporting Fears
Global coronavirus cases surpassed 3.5 million on Monday and deaths neared a quarter of a million, according to a Reuters tally, concerning experts who fear substantial underreporting even as the rate of fatalities and new cases slows. (Wardell, 5/3)

The New York Times: Blue Bell Pleads Guilty In 2015 Ice Cream Listeria Outbreak
The former chief executive of Blue Bell Creameries was charged with conspiracy in connection with his repeated efforts to cover up what became a deadly outbreak of listeria in some of the company’s products in 2015, federal prosecutors said on Friday. In addition, the company pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products and agreed to pay a total of $19.4 million in fines, forfeitures and civil payments — the second-largest amount ever paid to resolve a food safety case, officials said. (Mele, 5/1)

CNN: Blue Bell Agrees To $19 Million Fine Over Ice Cream Linked To 2015 Listeria Outbreak
In a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Blue Bell agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of distributing adulterated ice cream products and pay a criminal fine of $17.25 million. Blue Bell also agreed to pay $2.1 million to settle civil claims regarding ice cream products manufactured under insanitary conditions and sold to federal facilities. Blue Bell ice cream was linked to 10 listeria cases in four states, including three deaths in Kansas. Listeria could have spread through a drainage system at an Oklahoma plant, Blue Bell told federal inspectors. (Liao, 5/2)

Austin Statesman: Former Blue Bell CEO Charged With Conspiracy
Paul Kruse, who retired from Blue Bell three years ago, was behind a cover-up to hide “potential and/or confirmed listeria contamination in Blue Bell products from certain Blue Bell customers,” according to the U.S. Justice Department, which charged him with criminal conspiracy Friday in U.S. District Court in Travis County. Kruse’s lawyer said his client denies the charges. (Schler, 5/1)

The New York Times: In The Race For A Coronavirus Vaccine, We Must Go Big. Really, Really Big. 
The Covid-19 virus has killed over 200,000 people, overwhelmed health systems and confined billions of people in their homes. Large sections of the world economy have been locked down. We are desperate for a vaccine, and research is underway around the world toward that goal. However, the challenge facing us has been underestimated. Vaccines often take 10 years to bring to market. We want a new vaccine as fast as possible, where each month matters. (Susan Athey, Michael Kremer, Christopher Snyder and Alex Tabarrok, 5/4)

Stat: Using Bayh-Dole March-In Rights Would Slow Covid-19 Innovation 
Scientists across America are working hard to develop treatments for and vaccines against the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Unfortunately, several activist groups are making their jobs harder. (Fred Reinhart, 5/4)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And The Sweden 'Herd Immunity' Myth
For countries battling the coronavirus pandemic, Sweden sets a seductive example. While the world’s biggest economies have shut down, one small, well-governed Scandinavian country has allowed most businesses to stay open. The strategy apparently relies on “herd immunity,” in which a critical mass of infection occurs in lower-risk populations that ultimately thwarts transmission. But the reality is not so simple for Sweden. Government authorities there seem to be for this strategy, then against it, then for it again if the data look promising. (Ian Bremmer, Cliff Kupchan and Scott Rosenstein, 5/4)

Stat: Time Well Spent: Maintaing Research Productivity During Covid-19
Years of my cancer research work came to a grinding halt on March 13. I certainly wasn’t alone. Researchers across the country had to shutter their labs when universities suspended research that was considered “non-essential” to follow social distancing and help slow the spread of Covid-19. (Deborah Watkins Bruner, 5/1)

The Hill: Missing From America's Fight Against COVID-19: Vision And Boldness 
Here’s a mind-boggling plan to safely open the economy and deal with a COVID-19 surge in the fall. Within six months, ramp up testing to 30 million Americans a week and create a giant COVID Community Healthcare Corps to do massive contact tracing. That’s at the core of a “National Covid-19 Testing Action Plan” proposed by experts assembled by the Rockefeller Foundation. (Gregory J. Wallance, 4/29)

The Washington Post: How The Coronavirus Is Creating Other Threats For Addicts 
Fear, economic distress and isolation could trigger anxiety and depression in anyone. For people who have opioid use disorders, the coronavirus pandemic is a tinderbox of potential triggers and double binds. Disjointed, often punitive approaches to assistance could leave many addicts at heightened risk of relapse or greater exposure to the virus. For more than a decade, I led a double life, fueled by heroin and mental illness. There was nothing recreational about my use — no dinner parties with pairings of Dilaudid (hydromorphone) and Chilean sea bass, no afternoons of shooting up and playing Ultimate Frisbee. I lost a lot of friends to overdoses and tried many times to stop before I finally got sober 12 years ago. (David Poses, 5/1)

Los Angeles Times: The Trauma That Comes After Surviving COVID-19
Since nearly half of all patients with severe respiratory failure who are placed on a ventilator die, we tend to declare victory if a COVID-19 patient comes off the machine alive. But the reality is that many survivors of severe respiratory failure and other forms of critical illness fare poorly, even if they do beat their underlying disease. Their likelihood of developing PTSD, depression or anxiety is similar to that of soldiers returning from combat. (Marissa Wagner Meryman, 5/4) 

The New York Times: What One Doctor’s Suicide Taught Us 
In the months and years ahead, we’re going to have to train ourselves to be especially attentive to the mental health needs of our first responders to this pandemic. In the aftermath of a disaster, they’re at a far greater risk for post-traumatic stress, substance abuse and major depression than the average civilian. Yet seeing themselves as vulnerable is disruptive — antithetical, even — to their self-concept. They’re the healers in this equation, not the ones who need to be healed. It wasn’t just my friend who taught this to me. Last week NBC ran an interview with the sister of Lorna M. Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital who died by suicide on April 26. (Jennifer Senior, 5/3)

The Hill: Bring Back The Nurse Corps To Fight Coronavirus
Almost 80 years ago, America faced an enormous health crisis. The conflagration of World War II was spreading across the globe, creating a dire need for nurses. In response, we created a program called the Nurse Corps. From 1943 to 1948, 124,000 nurses got expedited training to provide life-saving care to soldiers, sailors, and civilians worldwide. Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is creating another nightmare shortage of front-line health care workers. It’s time to revive the Nurse Corps for the modern age. (Ivy Love, 5/3)

Los Angeles Times: America's Bad Food System Made Worse By The Pandemic
Last Tuesday, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to “take all appropriate action . . . to ensure that meat and poultry processors continue operations.” Although technically the executive order neither forces plants to open nor compels workers to show up, it reveals the president’s utter disregard for plant workers who could face a high risk of contracting COVID-19 from workplaces contaminated with the coronavirus. (Margot J. Pollans, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Grading The State Virus Response 
The government response to the coronavirus has been a tale of 50 states as much as Washington, but most media attention focuses on the White House. Readers therefore might appreciate a comparative look at how state governors have handled the pandemic and especially as they reopen their economies at different times and ways. The ratings come from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and were put together by economist Art Laffer, Steve Moore of the Heritage Foundation, market analyst Phil Kerpen and journalist John Fund. The results will be released Monday but we got an early look. (5/3)

The Washington Post: The Path To Reopening Is Clear. Our National Strategy Is Not. 
May Day brought expiration of the federal social distancing guidance, and as more than half the states began to lift their restrictions, the United States plunged forward in the pandemic without a national strategy. Instead, we have an uneven patchwork of local decisions and a population divided, fatigued, wary and still highly susceptible to the novel coronavirus while suffering massive economic losses. This is a moment to remember what we know, what works and the right way forward. What works is social distancing to break the chains of transmission of a virus that leaps from person to person. We know it works because the early, explosive growth of new infections has slowed. But new infections and deaths are not yet on a downward slope. Every day, 2,000 lives are being lost. It is too soon to return willy-nilly to crowded places or to drop vigilance about masks, hand-washing and discretionary travel. (5/2)

The Washington Post: Trump Can’t Blame China For His Own Coronavirus Failures
The 1918 influenza epidemic, which killed 50 million to 100 million people around the world, is now known as the “Spanish flu.” But it most likely started in Haskell County, Kan., and it was spread around the world by U.S. soldiers initially infected at Camp Funston in Kansas. It should be known as the “American flu” or “Kansas flu.” The influenza became a global pandemic in no small part because U.S. officials failed to warn their own citizens — or the world. (Max Boot, 5/3)

CNN: While George W. Bush Pleads For Unity, Donald Trump Plays Coronavirus Victim
On Saturday, former President George W. Bush released a short, heartfelt video offering words of support for a nation rocked by a staggering loss of lives and livelihoods during the coronavirus pandemic... Come Sunday morning, President Donald Trump shared his view on the video in which he, true to form, made it all about himself and his grievances. (Deal Obeidallah, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: The Cruel Covid ‘New Normal’
The Covid-19 epidemic continues to expand in some 20 states. The number of new cases in New York City is slowing, but the picture is different elsewhere in the nation. America has hovered around 30,000 new daily infections and 2,000 deaths for almost a month. Yet the number of days it takes for infections to double has improved, from less than a week in hot spots to almost a month nationally. This represents progress. But everyone thought we’d be in a better place after weeks of sheltering in place and bringing the economy to a near standstill. Mitigation hasn’t failed; social distancing and other measures have slowed the spread. But the halt hasn’t brought the number of new cases and deaths down as much as expected or stopped the epidemic from expanding. (Scott Gottlieb, 5/3)

NBC News: Trump's Coronavirus Testing Blueprint Isn't Enough. Let's Fix This Before We Open America.
On April 26, the White House presented a "testing blueprint," an addendum to the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again announced two weeks ago. It came after weeks of pressure from public health experts and state leaders asking for a national testing strategy. The plan is an important step — in fact, it's the first comprehensive acknowledgment by President Donald Trump and his coronavirus task force that we need to do better on testing. But just like the earlier guidelines, it falls short on the details. (Dr. Ashish Jha, 5/4)

Stat: Ventilators Will Sit Unused Without A National Data-Sharing Plan 
In Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s book “Poverty and Famines,” he argues that famines arise not from a lack of food, but from a system that promotes unequal distribution of existing food. That logic easily applies to shortages of ventilators and other medical supplies for fighting Covid-19. (Jayson Marwaha, John D. Halamka and Gabriel Brat, 5/4)

Boston Globe: Federal Government Needs To Change How It Releases Unemployment Data 
In the sweeping economic crisis fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, women and people of color are being hit particularly hard. Industries that disproportionately employ them — restaurant, hospitality, and services — were among the first to face large-scale layoffs. Statistics from 17 states show that during the first weeks of the coronavirus crisis, in all 17 states women became the majority of employment seekers. (Susan Smith Richardson and Xanthe Scharff, 4/30)

The New York Times: Covid-19’s Race And Class Warfare
People — mostly white, sometimes armed, occasionally carrying Confederate flags or hoisting placards emblazoned with a Nazi slogan from the Holocaust — have been loudly protesting to push their state governments to reopen business and spaces before enough progress has been made to contain the coronavirus. This is yet another illustration of the race and class divide this pandemic has illuminated in this country.For some, a reopened economy and recreational landscape will mean the option to run a business, return to work, go to the park or beach, or have a night on the town at a nice restaurant or swanky bar. But for many on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, it will only force them back into compulsory exposure to more people, often in occupations that make it hard to protect oneself and that pay little for the risk. (Charles M. Blow, 5/3)

CNN: The Pandemic Offers Chance To Transform The US' Cruel Policies Toward Poor People
Out of the wreckage of World War II, the United States worked with other countries to proclaim, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that "freedom from fear and want" are people's highest aspirations. Seventy-two years later, with a pandemic laying waste to lives and livelihoods, the world is again gripped by fear and want. In the United States, the world's wealthiest nation, the coronavirus is laying bare the dire consequences of policies that have led to widespread poverty and inequality. (Alston, Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharis, 4/30)

The Hill: COVID-19 Has Exposed The Interlocking Risks Of Mass Incarceration
The rapid spread of COVID-19 among the nation’s prison populations presents us with three interlocking, and to some degree, conflicting risks: Prison health, public health and public safety. Reducing prison population density is urgently needed to address the first two challenges while the third might be aggravated by prematurely releasing individuals who pose a risk to the community. Fortunately, we have assessment tools that, if properly used, could substantially mitigate safety concerns while protecting the lives of inmates and correctional staff and limiting the impact on already strained health systems. (Brent Orrell and Grant Duwe, 4/30)