The New York Times: Supreme Court Divided Over Obamacare’s Contraceptive Mandate 
The Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about whether the Trump administration may allow employers with religious or moral objections to deny women free birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The case returned the court to a key battle in the culture wars, one entering its second decade and one in which successive administrations have switched sides. According to government estimates, about 70,000 to 126,000 women would lose contraceptive coverage from their employers if the Trump administration prevails. (Liptak, 5/6)

The Associated Press: Justices Wary Of 'Obamacare' Birth Control Coverage Changes
The Supreme Court’s four liberal justices suggested they were troubled by the changes, which the government has estimated would cause about 70,000 women, and at most 126,000 women, to lose contraception coverage in one year. Chief Justice John Roberts, a key vote on a court split between conservatives and liberals, suggested that the Trump administration’s reliance on a federal religious freedom law to expand the exemption was “too broad.” (Gresko and Sherman, 5/6)

Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court Wrestles With Obamacare Contraception Case
Liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer appeared to favor a similar approach. “I don’t understand why this can’t be worked out,” Breyer said. The contraceptive mandate under the law, which was signed by Obama in 2010 and has faced Republican efforts to repeal it ever since, requires that employer-provided health insurance include coverage for birth control with no co-payment. Previously, many employer-provided insurance policies did not offer this coverage. (Hurley, 5/6)

Politico: Supreme Court Questions Trump's Rollback Of Birth Control Coverage
Wednesday's oral arguments, conducted by conference call, marked the high court’s third review of the contentious coverage requirement, and its first since Trump judicial picks Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the bench. At issue was a Trump policy allowing virtually any employer to claim a religious or moral exemption to providing free birth control to women. (Luthi, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Vows To End Obamacare At Supreme Court Despite Pandemic
President Trump said Wednesday he will continue trying to toss out all of the Affordable Care Act, even as some in his administration, including Attorney General William P. Barr, have privately argued parts of the law should be preserved amid a pandemic. “We want to terminate health care under Obamacare,” Trump told reporters Wednesday, the last day for his administration to change its position in a Supreme Court case challenging the law. “Obamacare, we run it really well. . . . But running it great, it’s still lousy health care.” (Barrett, 5/6)

Vox: Trump Moves To Get Rid Of The Affordable Care Act Amid Coronavirus
Wednesday was the deadline for the Department of Justice to file a brief in the case, which will be heard by the US Supreme Court this October. DOJ’s brief agrees with the litigants and asks the Court to rule the entire law unconstitutional — instead of a more narrow request that the Court throw out only the law’s preexisting conditions as the Trump administration had asked for at one point in 2018. (Burns, 5/6)

Politico: Trump Will Urge Supreme Court To Strike Down Obamacare 
House Democrats in a filing to the Supreme Court on Wednesday said the pandemic showcased why justices should preserve the law. “Although Congress may not have enacted the ACA with the specific purpose of combatting a pandemic, the nation’s current public-health emergency has made it impossible to deny that broad access to affordable health care is not just a life-or death matter for millions of Americans, but an indispensable precondition to the social intercourse on which our security, welfare, and liberty ultimately depend,” their brief read. (Luthi, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court Split Over Religious Exemptions For Birth-Control Coverage
The administration’s lawyer, Solicitor General Noel Francisco, said most employers still would have to provide contraception coverage “but not the small number who have sincere conscientious objections.” He said that between 75,000 and 125,000 women would lose coverage based on their employers’ religious or moral positions. The states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey brought the legal challenge, arguing the exemption swept far beyond the government’s obligation to accommodate religious objections to federal law and improperly denied preventive health-care coverage to women. Lower courts in Philadelphia agreed and barred implementation of the Trump administration regulations, prompting the government’s appeal. (Kendall and Bravin, 5/6)

The Associated Press: AP Exclusive: Admin Shelves CDC Guide To Reopening Country
A set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day care centers and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic has been shelved by the Trump administration. The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. (Dearen and Stobbe, 5/7)

The New York Times: Trump’s New Message: Time To Move On To The Economic Recovery
Confronted with America’s worst public health crisis in generations, President Trump declared himself a wartime president. Now he has begun doing what past commanders have done when a war goes badly: Declare victory and go home. The war, however, does not seem over. Outside New York, the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is still growing, not receding. The latest death toll estimates have more than doubled from what Mr. Trump predicted just weeks ago. And polls show the public is not ready to restore normal life. (Baker, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Calls Americans 'Warriors' In Fight To Open Economy
His decision to expand the characterization to everyday Americans is a noticeable shift from his previous declarations that “one is too many” deaths. The toll from the illness surpassed 70,000 this week and seems on track to top 100,000 by the end of the month, numbers far larger than Trump recently predicted. Asked Wednesday if the nation needs to accept greater loss of life, Trump said “hopefully it won’t be the case, but it may very well be the case.” (Megerian, 5/6)

Politico: Trump Boosters: Don’t Believe The Coronavirus Death Toll
An increasing number of conservatives are convinced the medical community and the media are inflating the coronavirus death toll for political purposes, despite nearly all evidence indicating that, if anything, the figure is an undercount. The conspiracy theory started with those who argued the figure was being manipulated, before morphing into a more generalized suspicion about coronavirus modeling among Republicans. Fox News has begun to feature a constant drumbeat of doubt about the reliability of any model, and President Donald Trump on Sunday called the models “wrong from day one” and “out of whack,” but insisted on Tuesday he believed the government’s death toll. (Nguyen, 5/7)

Politico: Republicans Praise Trump's Pandemic Response With Senate Majority At Risk
Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job. The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy and shows no signs of abating. And Trump’s ineffective leadership is largely to blame, say Democrats who are growing optimistic they can seize the Senate after being relegated to the minority for six years. (Everett and Bresnahan, 5/6)

Reuters: Trump Calls Ousted Whistleblower Bright A 'Disgruntled Employee'
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday an ousted health official who filed a whistleblower’s complaint accusing the administration of retaliating when he voiced concerns about the coronavirus in January seemed to be a disgruntled person who wants to help Democrats. (Mason and Wolfe, 5/6)

The Hill: Trump Says Former Vaccine Chief 'Seems Disgruntled' 
Bright led the agency that was focused on helping fund potential treatments for infectious diseases, including COVID-19, until his ouster late last month. He filed a formal whistleblower complaint on Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, alleging he was moved to a lower position at the National Institutes of Health because of his efforts to "prioritize science and safety over political expediency." (Weixel, 5/6)

The Hill: Trump Backs Off Plans To Wind Down Task Force After Backlash 
President Trump on Wednesday said he backed off plans to dissolve the White House coronavirus task force after public outcry, saying he didn't realize how "popular" the group of medical experts and government leaders was. "I thought we could wind it down sooner," Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event recognizing National Nurses Day. "But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding down. ... It is appreciated by the public." (Samuels, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Says Task Force Will Focus On Reopening The U.S.
In tweets Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump praised Mr. Pence’s work on the task force. “Because of this success, the Task Force will continue on indefinitely with its focus on SAFETY & OPENING UP OUR COUNTRY AGAIN,” he wrote. He added that the task force’s membership could change. Mr. Trump has urged more states to open up and has said he plans to start traveling more around the country. Lockdowns in many states in the U.S. have begun to ease. (Ansari, Lin and Kalin, 5/6)

The Associated Press: In Reversal, Trump Says Virus Task Force To Stay But Evolve
The indecision on the fate of the expert panel was emblematic of an administration — and a country — struggling with competing priorities of averting more death and more economic suffering. Trump appears focused on persuading Americans to accept the price of some lives lost as restrictions are eased, concerned about skyrocketing unemployment and intent on encouraging an economic rebound ahead of the November election. (Miller, Colvin and Superville, 5/6)

Reuters: Trump To Refocus Coronavirus Task Force On Economic Revival, Concedes Risks
Asked later if Americans will have to accept that reopening will lead to more deaths, Trump told reporters: “You have to be warriors. We can’t keep our country closed down for years and we have to do something. Hopefully that won’t be the case, but it could very well be the case.” Governors have faced mounting pressure to ease stay-at-home orders and mandatory business closures that have ravaged the economy, throwing millions of Americans out of work, even as those measures succeeded in fighting the virus. (Mason and Chiacu, 5/6)

Politico: Trump Kicks Off A Day Of Whiplash Over Future Of Coronavirus Task Force
The task force will soon be dead. The task force will mutate. The task force will be replaced by multiple task forces. Over the last 24 hours, the White House rolled out a variety of shifting messages and confusing justifications about what would become of its coronavirus task force, some members of which have become the admired face of the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic. (Oprysko, Ehley, Roubein and Forgey, 5/6)

In other news —

The Hill: Fauci's Absence From Hearing Draws Bipartisan Rebuke From House Lawmakers 
A key House panel held a hearing Wednesday on the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic but had to do so without testimony from any members of the Trump administration. The absences of key figures in the battle against COVID-19 — including Anthony Fauci, the administration's top infectious diseases expert — prompted frustration from members of both parties. (Hellmann, 5/6)

The Hill: White House Accuses Democrats Of Not Acting 'In Good Faith' On Fauci Testimony 
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday defended the decision to prevent Anthony Fauci from appearing before a House panel and accused House Democrats of not acting “in good faith.” Questioned about the decision at an afternoon briefing, McEnany said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) did not provide a specific subject matter or purpose for the hearing in correspondence with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. (Chalfant, 5/6)

Politico: Democrats Demand Intel On Coronavirus Origins
Top Democratic lawmakers say the Trump administration should share with Congress the allegedly “enormous” evidence showing that the coronavirus sprang from a Chinese lab. Otherwise, they warn, the administration should quit hyping questionable information. The demands come as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo push the theory that Covid-19 somehow emerged from a Chinese lab that studied such viruses. Their claims are leading some critics to draw comparisons to the misleading way the administration of George W. Bush argued the case for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. (Toosi and Bertrand, 5/6)

ABC News: Pompeo Says No 'Certainty,' But 'Significant Evidence' Virus Came From Chinese Lab 
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo doubled down on his assertion that there's "significant evidence" the novel coronavirus first infected a human in a biomedical laboratory in China, even after other senior U.S. officials such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, have said scientific evidence suggests otherwise. Pressed on his comment on ABC's "This Week" this past Sunday that the U.S. has "enormous evidence" supporting the lab theory, the top U.S. diplomat lashed out at reporters and said his position was "entirely consistent" with Fauci and others -- instead, a difference in "confidence." (Finnegan, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Casts Deep Chill Over U.S.-China Relations
Relations between the U.S. and China, strained for years, have deteriorated at a rapid clip in recent months, leaving the two nations with fewer shared interests and a growing list of conflicts. The Trump administration has moved to involve much of the U.S. government in a campaign that includes investigations, prosecutions and export restrictions. Nearly every cabinet and cabinet-level official either has adopted adversarial positions or jettisoned past cooperative programs with Beijing, an analysis of their policies showed. (O'Keeffe, Bender and Wong, 5/6)

NPR: U.S. Was Behind On Payments To WHO Before Trump's Cutoff
In mid-April, when President Trump declared, "Today I'm instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization," Jimmy Kolker did a double take. "We were already in arrears before he said anything," says Kolker, who was an assistant secretary for global health affairs during the Obama administration. (Welna, 5/7)

CNN: Nation's Stockpile Proves No Match For The Coronavirus Pandemic 
As complaints about dire shortages of protective gear for medical workers on the frontlines of the Covid-19 crisis began to stream in, President Donald Trump was quick to point the finger of blame at his predecessor, Barack Obama. It was Obama and other administrations, he said, who left the shelves of the nation's Strategic National Stockpile bare of the items needed to combat the coronavirus. To an extent, the President was right. The Obama administration did use and then failed to replace items from the stockpile to fight the 2009 H1N1 "swine flu" pandemic. But Trump hadn't replaced those items either, despite repeated warnings that the country was ill-prepared for a pandemic, stockpile experts said. (Murray and Glover, 5/6)

ABC News: Muir Presses Trump On What He's Done To Restock 'Empty Shelves' He Blames On Obama 
President Donald Trump told ABC News anchor David Muir in an exclusive interview that when his administration came into office in January 2017, there were no ventilators, medical equipment or testing to help it combat the COVID-19 pandemic currently gripping the U.S. "The cupboard was bare. ... The last administration left us nothing," Trump told the "World News Tonight" anchor during an interview Tuesday, claiming that his administration had worked to build an "incredible" stockpile. (Francis and Castillejo, 5/6)

CNN: Trump Contradicts Nurse He's Honoring Over PPE Availability 
President Donald Trump contradicted a nurse he was honoring in the Oval Office on Wednesday, insisting there are no personal protective equipment shortages in the US despite her account that availability could be "sporadic..." Despite her firsthand experience, Trump disputed Thomas' account. "Sporadic for you but not sporadic for a lot of other people," the President told her. (Carvajal, 5/6)

In other news —

Reuters: WHO Guidelines For Frontline PPE Use Designed To Protect People, Conserve Gear
As the coronavirus began to spread around the world, a global shortage of masks and other protective equipment emerged, especially for frontline medical staff. How those supplies are used is crucial, experts say. Based on current evidence, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is most frequently transmitted between people via droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes, and can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles. (5/7)

The Hill: USAID Issues New Restrictions For NGOs On Buying PPE Amid Pandemic 
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has notified some grant recipients that they can't use donor dollars to purchase personal protective equipment (PPE) necessary to protect against COVID-19, hurting key operations abroad. USAID has put a “pause” on allowing NGOs to use U.S. funds to buy PPE, including a wide range of filtering respirator masks, like N95 masks, surgical masks and surgical gloves, according to an email from a USAID officer to NGOs operating abroad that was obtained by The Hill. USAID grantees were advised they can continue to purchase sanitizing products like bleach, soap and hand sanitizer, the email said. (Kelly, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Immigrant Detainee Becomes First Covid-19 Casualty In ICE Facility
A 57-year-old man became the first person to die from Covid-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus, in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to people familiar with the matter. Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia was born in El Salvador but spent most of his life in the U.S. He was taken into ICE custody about four months ago, said Alex Mensing, an organizer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant-rights organization in Oakland, Calif. (Hackman, 5/6)

The Washington Post: ICE Detainee In California Is First In U.S. Immigration Custody To Die Of Coronavirus Disease
ICE officials did not respond to a request for comment about the fatality late Wednesday. The detainee who died Wednesday was identified by his sister as Carlos Escobedo Mejia. Mejia came to the United States decades ago with his family after war broke out in his home country of El Salvador. ICE agents arrested him in January and authorities placed in him in the Otay Mesa facility. (Hernandez, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: San Diego Detainee Is First In ICE Custody To Die Of COVID-19
As of Tuesday afternoon, 202 people in custody there had tested positive — 136 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees and 66 U.S. Marshals Service inmates — according to facility records obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune. Detainees have complained that the facility was not adequately protecting them from the coronavirus. Erik Mercado said he met Escobar Mejia in segregated housing — also known as solitary confinement — when Escobar Mejia was brought in for participating in a hunger strike over the facility’s conditions. (Morrissey, 5/6)

The Associated Press: Esper, In First Trip Since March, Defends Antivirus Efforts
Defense Secretary Mark Esper is traveling beyond Washington for the first time in nearly two months as he looks to highlight and defend a Pentagon approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic that some Senate Democrats have criticized as slow and disjointed. Esper was flying Thursday to the headquarters of U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to meet with Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, who is spearheading the military’s support for civilian agencies combating the virus. It is Esper’s first trip beyond Washington since he visited Norfolk, Virginia, in late March to join President Donald Trump in sending off a Navy hospital ship. (Burns, 5/7)

The Hill: Military Not Accepting New Recruits Who've Recovered From COVID-19 
The Pentagon may no longer accept new recruits who have recovered from COVID-19, according to multiple reports. A memo released by the United States Military Entrance Processing Command that is circulating on Twitter states that a history of COVID-19 confirmed by a laboratory test or clinical diagnosis is “permanently disqualifying.” A Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed to Military Times, which first reported on the new policy, that the memo is authentic. (Klar, 5/6)

The Washington Post: As The Coronavirus Spreads, U.S. Military Attempts To Secure ‘No-Fail’ Missions 
In late February, Brig. Gen. Pete Fesler prepared about 130 troops under his command to mobilize for a new mission, one that would take them away from their families and involve extensive precautions to keep service members safe. Tapping his experience from deployments in Asia and the Middle East, the former fighter pilot made plans for adapting the unit’s sensitive mission to new hazards over an unknown period of time, as authorities scrambled to anticipate the moves of an unpredictable adversary. (Ryan, 5/5)

The Washington Post: America's Coronavirus Divide Is Reflected In Two New Mexico Mayors. One Asked For A Lockdown. The Other Defied Orders.
Louie Bonaguidi had been mayor of this tiny city set among high desert buttes and Native American reservations for just a matter of hours last week when the governor called. “I want to congratulate you on your election,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told him. “And give my condolences, because we’re locking your city down.” Bonaguidi was not disappointed to hear that state troopers would be deployed to blockade all roads into Gallup. He was relieved: This was the only way, he believed, to stop local hospitals from spinning out of control during a novel coronavirus outbreak that already had overwhelmed them. (Klemko and Witte, 5/6)

The New York Times: Most States That Are Reopening Fail To Meet White House Guidelines
More than half of U.S. states have begun to reopen their economies or plan to do so soon. But most fail to meet criteria recommended by the Trump administration to resume business and social activities. The White House’s guidelines are nonbinding and ultimately leave states’ fates to governors. The criteria suggest that states should have a “downward trajectory” of either documented cases or of the percentage of positive tests. (Collins and Leatherby, 5/7)

NPR: Is Your State Testing Enough To Contain Its Coronavirus Outbreak?
To safely phase out social distancing measures, the U.S. needs more diagnostic testing for the coronavirus, experts say. But how much more? The Trump administration said on April 27 the U.S. will soon have enough capacity to conduct double the current amount of testing for active infections. The country has done nearly 248,000 tests daily on average in the last seven days, according to the nonprofit Covid Tracking Project. Doubling that would mean doing around 496,000 a day. (Stein and Wroth, 5/7)

Reuters: New York Governor Says Some States Are Making A Mistake By Reopening
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday that he believed states reopening their economies while seeing growing rates of infections from the novel coronavirus were making a mistake. “You have states that are opening where you are still on the incline,” Cuomo told a daily briefing. “I think that’s a mistake.” (5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Poll Finds Majority Of Tri-State Residents Think It’s Too Soon To Reopen
A majority of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut residents think it is too soon to reopen their states and said officials should instead prioritize curbing the spread of the coronavirus, according to new polling. More than 50% of tri-state residents said it would take a few months or longer before lifting restrictions on businesses is safe, according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University. Fewer than 40% of residents said the region should reopen immediately or in the next few weeks, according to the poll. (De Avila, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Arizona Halts Partnership With Experts Predicting Coronavirus Cases Would Continue To Mount
Hours after Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, accelerated plans to reopen businesses, saying the state was “headed in the right direction,” his administration halted the work of a team of experts projecting it was on a different — and much grimmer — course. On Monday night, the eve of President Trump’s visit to the state, Ducey’s health department shut down the work of academic experts predicting the peak of the state’s coronavirus outbreak was still about two weeks away. (Stanley-Becker and Weiner, 5/6)

Reuters: WHO Warns Against Rushed End To Coronavirus Lockdowns
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Wednesday that countries emerging from restrictions to halt the new coronavirus must proceed “extremely carefully” or risk a rapid rise in new cases. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said countries needed to ensure they had adequate measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory disease like tracking systems and quarantine provision. (Revill and Farge, 5/6)

Detroit Free Press: Republican Lawmakers Sue Gov. Whitmer Over Emergency Powers
The Republican leaders in the House and Senate filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, alleging her Thursday extension of the state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic was unlawful. The law in Michigan is "very clear," House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, said at a Capitol news conference. "Only the Legislature has the power to extend the state of emergency." (Egan, 5/6)

WBUR: Michigan Legislature Sues Gov. Whitmer, Seeking To End Coronavirus Emergency Orders 
The Republican-led Michigan Legislature is suing Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, ratcheting their dispute over COVID-19 restrictions to a new level as lawmakers seek to force an end to orders that have closed down many nonessential businesses and largely confined residents to their homes. The legislators say the governor is acting illegally and overstepping her authority; Whitmer says she is protecting citizens from a global pandemic. (Chappell, 5/6)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Coronavirus Closure Orders Violate Civil Liberties, Some Say 
Across Nevada and the nation, questions are being raised about the emergency powers state governors have enacted — and the ensuing enforcement interpretations, which has led to violence, arrests and fines in some states. New York officials are investigating an officer who allegedly beat a man during an arrest for failing to social distance, according to news reports. (Kane, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Maryland Reopens Golf Courses, Beaches To Ease Coronavirus Shutdown
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday that the state would slowly begin to ease his stay-at-home order, granting permission for certain outdoor activities and allowing doctors to schedule some elective surgeries. The small step toward reopening came as state Schools Superintendent Karen B. Salmon announced that public school campuses would remain shuttered for the rest of the academic year. (Cox, Nirappil, Vozzella and Cox, 5/6)

The Hill: Supreme Court Declines To Lift Pennsylvania COVID-19 Health Order 
The Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request to halt an order Pennsylvania's governor entered in March to close businesses in response to the coronavirus pandemic. The petitioners, a conservative political action committee and several businesses, told the justices that Gov. Tom Wolf's (D) executive order "has and is continuing to cause irreparable harm." The court’s denial of the request, issued without comment, means fewer than five of the nine justices supported the petition. (Kruzel, 5/6)

Boston Globe: Baker Aims For Some Business To Start Reopening May 18, But Coronavirus Numbers Are Still Fluctuating
If encouraging downward trends in key coronavirus indicators continue, state officials hope to allow some businesses to reopen when a shutdown order expires May 18, Governor Charlie Baker said Wednesday.But for the first time in about a week, the daily statistics released by the state Department of Public Health appeared to leave little room for optimism. (Andersen, Fincuane and Reiss, 5/6)

The Washington Post: People In The U.S. Are Slowly Going Out More Since The Coronavirus Peak. Here’s Where And Why. 
If you’re still at home, you’re not alone. After a peak week of sheltering in place in early April, U.S. residents began to inch out of their homes, according to new cellphone data. But even as states begin to “open up,” more Americans appear to be staying put than sprinting out the door. (Schaul, Mayes and Berkowitz, 5/6)

CNN: Schools Reopening After Coronavirus Outbreak: What's The Risk? 
Moves by countries to reopen schools that were shut to prevent the spread of coronavirus could risk a second wave of infections, some studies suggest. Most cases of Covid-19 in children are mild, but studies suggest kids may play a major role in transmitting the virus to each other and to vulnerable adults -- and that keeping schools closed for longer may help stop the spread of the coronavirus. One study conducted in China and published in the journal Science last week suggested that keeping schools closed could reduce infections and delay the epidemic. (Reynolds, 5/6)

WBUR: A Few Schools Reopen, But Remote Learning Could Go On For Years In U.S.
May 7th is the date that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, a Democrat, declared it was safe to open up schools. The state has had fewer than 500 reported cases of coronavirus as of this week. But according to the state's Office of Public Instruction, just a few school districts, in small towns, have taken the governor up on the offer. That gap, between a state executive proclaiming schools OK to open, and the reality of tiny groups of students gathering in just a few schools, shows the logistical challenges educators and state officials around the country face in any decision to reopen. (Kamenetz, 5/7)

The Associated Press: Face Masks Make A Political Statement In Era Of Coronavirus
The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus. While not yet as loaded as a “Make America Great Again” hat, the mask is increasingly a visual shorthand for a debate pitting those willing to follow health officials’ guidance and cover their faces against those who feel it violates their freedom or buys into a threat they think is overblown. (Weissert and Lemire, 5/7)

ProPublica: The TSA Hoarded 1.3 Million N95 Masks Even Though Airports Are Empty And It Doesn’t Need Them
The Transportation Security Administration ignored guidance from the Department of Homeland Security and internal pushback from two agency officials when it stockpiled more than 1.3 million N95 respirator masks instead of donating them to hospitals, internal records and interviews show. Internal concerns were raised in early April, when COVID-19 cases were growing by the thousands and hospitals in some parts of the country were overrun and desperate for supplies. (McSwane, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Dennis Ruhnke, Retired Kansas Farmer, Honored For Sending N95 Mask To Cuomo For Health-Care Worker
Dennis Ruhnke had a mask to spare. He had found five of them while digging through some old farm equipment — five of the coveted, medical-grade N95 respirators that nobody could seem to get their hands on, not even the federal government. Before he retired from farming, he would wear them while cleaning out the grain bins. (Hawkins, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Releases Contract In Coronavirus Mask Deal
Gov. Gavin Newsom released details on Wednesday of a secretive $1-billion deal to purchase protective masks from a Chinese electric-car maker that revealed the company must reimburse the state $247.5 million by the end of the week. The release of the contract came amid growing questions over the administration’s refusal to provide details about the deal. Just two days earlier, officials had refused to divulge more information after The Times filed a Public Records Act request. (Myers, Gutierrez and Elmahrek, 5/6)

CalMatters: California Wired $456.9 Million To A Fledgling Company To Pay For Masks. Within Hours The Deal Was Dead 
On March 26, as the coronavirus pandemic was mounting and governors across America scrambled to secure medical supplies, the state of California wired almost a half-billion dollars to a company that had been in business for just three days. The recipient: Blue Flame Medical LLC, a Delaware-based company headed by two Republican operatives who jumped into the medical supply business on March 23. The pair — Mike Gula from Washington, D.C., and John Thomas of Southern California — had vowed, in their words, to help “fight COVID-19 with the industry’s broadest product selection from hundreds of suppliers.”Within hours of the enormous wire transfer, the deal was dead and California was clawing its money back — $456.9 million, nearly half of what the Legislature had allocated for the state’s pandemic response. (Rosenhall, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. May Require Coronavirus Masks When You Leave Home
Los Angeles leaders are exploring whether to require Angelenos to have masks or other facial coverings whenever they leave their homes, a proposal championed by Councilman Paul Koretz as a way to prevent new infections. “The last thing we need is another spike in cases to set us back as we’re trying to move forward,” Koretz said. (Reyes, 5/6)

WBUR: From Rules To Cleaning, Everything To Know About Masks And The Mass. Order To Wear Them 
As of Wednesday, people in Massachusetts must wear a face mask or covering in public if they cannot practice proper "social distancing" from others. In other words, if you cannot stay 6 feet away from strangers in public, you're now required to cover your mouth and nose with a mask, cloth or other covering. The rules, ordered by Gov. Charlie Baker, do not apply to children under the age of 2 or people who cannot cover their faces due to medical conditions. (Fleming, 5/6)

NPR: Nursing Home Association Asks For $10 Billion In Federal Coronavirus Relief Funds
With more than 11,000 resident deaths, nursing homes have become the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis. Now, they're asking the federal government for help — $10 billion worth of help. The American Health Care Association, the trade organization for most nursing homes, called the impact on long-term care facilities "devastating." In a letter sent this week to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, they ask for the federal government to designate relief funding from the CARES Act for nursing homes the way it has for hospitals. (Jaffe, 5/6)

ABC News: Businesses, Nursing Homes Seek Liability Protections As Country Reopens 
Can a business be held responsible if an employee or customer gets the coronavirus? The question is at the center of a brewing debate across the country as states begin reopening their economies as they seek to balance support for businesses with protections for workers and consumers. (Siegel, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Sagepoint, Potomac Valley Maryland Nursing Homes Lacked Coronavirus Testing, PPE
Caitlin Evans can pinpoint the first day she and other nurses believe they exposed residents of Sagepoint Senior Living Services to the novel coronavirus. The 26-year-old nurse spent a half-hour on March 27 preparing a man with a bad cough to go to a hospital for a medical procedure. Neither she nor other nurses who helped him to the ambulance wore masks or other protective gear. Despite their pleas, they said, managers told them that such protections were unnecessary. (Tan and Chason, 5/6)

Arizona Republic: Republic Files Lawsuit To Reveal COVID-19 Data At Nursing Homes
Arizona news organizations are suing the Arizona Department of Health Services to release information about coronavirus cases in nursing homes. Outbreaks in nursing homes may be the deadliest setting for the pandemic within the state. In Maricopa County, residents of long-term care facilities account for about two-thirds of the deaths so far. Yet state health officials have refused to share the information they collect about which facilities have outbreaks, citing patient privacy. (McGlade and Ryman, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Critics Assail Law Shielding Nursing Homes, Hospitals From Liability During Crisis 
As coronavirus casualties climbed last month, the Baker administration moved swiftly to shield health care providers and employees from a feared torrent of lawsuits stemming from their work on the front lines of the pandemic. But a new Massachusetts law giving liability protection to institutions and workers — including volunteers — who are pivotal to battling COVID-19 is drawing criticism from plaintiffs’ lawyers and advocates for seniors. They say it extends blanket immunity to parties that should be held to account for their actions in the public health emergency. (Weisman, 5/6)

Boston Globe: Same Company, Same City, Two Coronavirus Outbreaks At Separate Medford Nursing Homes
In the final days of her mother’s life, Marilyn Roche listened regularly to Courtyard Nursing Care Center conference calls, which described COVID-19′s sweep through the Medford facility in increasingly stark terms. One day, test results for 39 of 55 patients came back positive for the virus. During another call, Roche learned about the death of four patients in the same wing where her mother, Joan Bretta, 90, lived. On another call, the staff shared information about end-of-life care. (Crimaldi and Murphy, 5/6)

Modern Healthcare: Illinois Nursing Home Workers Offered Raise Ahead Of Planned Strike
The Illinois Association of Health Care Facilities said today that it will offer higher wages and COVID hazard pay to nursing home workers, who have threatened to go on strike May 8 over issues regarding pay, staffing and a lack of personal protective equipment to guard against COVID-19. Under the offer, certified nursing assistants would see a $2 raise in their base wages, plus an additional $2 in bonus pay for the remainder of the pandemic. (Asplund, 5/6)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Reverses Course, Will Name Nursing Homes With Coronavirus On May 18 
Louisiana will resume publicly naming nursing homes with confirmed cases of coronavirus, a state official said during a legislative hearing Wednesday. (Roberts, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: 'We’re Vulnerable': On The Navajo Nation, A Rush To Curb The Coronavirus
Road closures, mask mandates and weekend curfews have not stopped a troubling upward trajectory of coronavirus-related deaths on the Navajo Nation, a high desert landscape with underfunded hospitals and overburdened doctors stretching across three states. As more states begin to ease stay-at-home orders, a desperate attempt to halt coronavirus cases is underway on the country’s largest reservation, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. But such efforts have proved difficult, because of the remoteness of the reservation and the lack of electricity and running water in some homes. (Lee, 5/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: In Northeast Georgia, A New COVID-19 Hot Spot Emerges
A new coronavirus hot spot has emerged in northeast Georgia, stirring fears the region could see the devastating human toll already experienced in the state’s opposite corner. The number of new cases in the Gainesville area increased exponentially each week during April, according to state data. By Tuesday, nearly four dozen patients had died in the area’s dominant hospital system. (Judd, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News: How The Pandemic And An Anti-Vax Health Official Are Roiling A Montana Community
Even as Montana begins a gradual easing of stay-at-home restrictions intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the political schism it highlighted is creating reverberations in one community in the northwestern corner of the state. A Flathead County health board member who led a movement to disparage the protective safety orders and downplay the virus is now the subject of two competing petitions — one to expel her from office and another to keep her. (McLaughlin, 5/7)

KQED: Chinatown Housing Group Feeds Vulnerable SRO Tenants – By Reviving Legacy Restaurants 
To prepare meals for her family these days, San Francisco Chinatown resident Tina Yu keeps a careful watch outside of her single room occupancy unit, or SRO, on Stockton Street. Yu monitors how many of her neighbors are in the building’s communal kitchen at one time: If there are more than two people inside, she will hold off cooking and wait. (Lei, 5/6)

KQED: Track Us Better: Overlooked Pacific Islanders Hit Hard By Coronavirus 
Across the country, the novel coronavirus has laid bare the life-and-death consequences of racial inequality, which has disproportionately killed more African Americans. Now, a stunningly similar pattern has emerged among Pacific Islanders in California, exposing a public health blind spot that will likely require re-evaluating coronavirus tracking for this small, communal population. (Botts, 5/6)

KQED: Bay Area Counties Report Steep Drop In Calls To Child Abuse Hotlines During Pandemic 
Social service agencies are usually alerted to potential child abuse instances through mandated reporters, like teachers, who are required under state law to call if they have reason to believe a child is being abused. But that's far less likely to happen with kids out of school and families forced to shelter in place due to the coronavirus, Marchman said. She noted that abuse and neglect are more likely to occur during times of crisis. (Siler-Gonzales, 5/6)

Houston Chronicle: ‘Long And Hard’ Houston Recession Ahead As COVID-19, Oil Bust Batter Local Economy 
The Houston region could lose 83,200 net jobs by the end of 2020, according to the most recent estimate by Bill Gilmer, economist and director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business. Before the virus upended life here and across the country, Gilmer had forecast in January that the region would add a net 47,000 jobs this year. (Douglas, 5/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: School Uses High-Tech Lab To Protect Medical Workers During COVID-19
As healthcare workers worried about personal protective equipment shortages, a private school community in metro Atlanta looked at its new, state-of-art, high-tech fabrication lab and asked: How can we help?Ryan Diamond, a rising senior at The Weber School, a Jewish high school in Sandy Springs, watched news reports of how a Georgia Tech lab, with funding from the Coca-Cola Company, produced equipment for those on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Diamond knew his school’s lab was capable of manufacturing similar products. (Berrios, 5/6)

WBUR: 'Boston Hope Gave Me That — Hope': Coronavirus Care And More For Homeless Population At Field Hospital 
The facility — which was conceived and constructed by city and state leaders, the private health care providers now running it, and Suffolk Construction — has allowed Boston to have a ready supply of beds for people who are homeless, as it's worked toward testing the entire adult homeless population for the coronavirus over the last few weeks (testing that is expected to be complete this week). The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to cover 75% of the costs tied to the facility, according to Mayor Marty Walsh's office. (Joliocoeur, 5/7)

Boston Globe: With An Increase In Violence During The Pandemic, Pastors And Residents Call For More Services In Boston Neighborhoods 
A coalition of ministers, residents and Boston Police Commissioner William G. Gross Wednesday issued an urgent call for increased attention to the root causes of gun violence in city neighborhoods following an increase in shootings during the coronavrius pandemic. Coalition members repeatedly expressed their support for Governor Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin J. Walsh, Boston police, and Transit Police during a meeting with reporters outside a Dorchester barbecue restaurant where multiple shots were fired last December that also included prayers for peace in the city and good health during the pandemic. (Ellement and Berg, 5/6)

Boston Globe: In New Initiative, Minority-Owned Restaurants Will Help Serve Meals To Those In Need
In an initiative announced Wednesday by the City of Boston, a group of local minority-owned restaurants will be tapped to help serve free meals to those in need during the pandemic. The program, called CommonTable, will be run by CommonWealth Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides a shared kitchen space in Dorchester to startup food businesses, most of which are minority-owned. It will provide free meals to needy families and seniors through a $461,688 grant from the Boston Resiliency Fund, which was created to serve the community as it weathers the crisis. (Nanos, 5/6)

Reuters: Will Gilead Price Its Coronavirus Drug For Public Good Or Company Profit?
Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) faces a new dilemma in deciding how much it should profit from the only treatment so far proven to help patients infected with the novel coronavirus. The drugmaker earned notoriety less than a decade ago, when it introduced a treatment that essentially cured hepatitis C at a price of $1,000 per pill. Public outrage over the cost of Sovaldi in 2013 - despite that it was a vast improvement over existing equally expensive therapies - ignited a national debate on fair pricing for prescription medicines that the pharmaceutical industry has fought to deflect ever since. (Beasley, 5/6)

Politico: Remdesivir Helps Coronavirus Patients — But At What Cost?
Gilead has rocketed into the public consciousness with one of the most promising coronavirus treatments, but the company’s history of sky high drug pricing is drawing increasing scrutiny from Congress about how much it will charge for remdesivir and who will get access. But Gilead, which suffered through a spate of bad publicity in 2015 for charging $84,000 for a hepatitis C drug, isn’t just under fire over the potential price of its coronavirus treatment. It’s under pressure from Wall Street investors to recoup the $1 billion investment in remdesivir, which has been proven to accelerate recovery from the coronavirus. How Gilead navigates financial pressures from investors and political pressures from Washington may very well determine the mass production and availability of one of the most promising coronavirus drugs on the market. (Brennan, 5/6)

Stat: Doctors Lambaste Process For Distributing Covid-19 Drug Remdesivir
Hospitals and physicians around the country are sharply criticizing the federal government for the uneven and opaque way it is distributing its supply of the Covid-19 drug remdesivir. The experimental drug received an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration last week, after preliminary data from a clinical trial showed that it reduced how long it took hospitalized Covid-19 patients to recover. Now, as the drug’s producer, Gilead Sciences, tries to ramp up production, the U.S. government is starting to distribute the limited number of vials that aren’t needed for ongoing research, so that patients can start to see the benefit outside of clinical trials. About two dozen hospitals are believed to have been chosen to receive the drug so far, but clinicians told STAT it is unclear why some medical centers were chosen to receive coveted doses while others weren’t — and who is making those decisions in the first place. (Boodman and Ross, 5/6)

CNBC: Moderna Shares Surge After FDA Approves Coronavirus Vaccine For Phase 2 Trial
Shares of Moderna surged by more than 16% in premarket trading Thursday after it announced that the Food and Drug Administration cleared its coronavirus vaccine for phase 2 trial, what the company called a “crucial step.” Moderna said it will begin phase 2 trials with 600 participants shortly and is finalizing plans for a phase 3 trial as early as this summer. “We are accelerating manufacturing scale-up and our partnership with Lonza puts us in a position to make and distribute as many vaccine doses of mRNA-1273 as possible, should it prove to be safe and effective,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. (Feuer, 5/7)

ABC News: What It's Like Inside The Oxford Trial Leading The Race For Coronavirus Vaccine
As soon as the news of the novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, broke in early January, scientists at the historic University of Oxford began to work on a vaccine. Just three months later, the university announced promising results in monkeys and its vaccine, called ChAdOx1 nCoV019, was entering into the clinical trial phase. (Davies and Haddou, 5/7)

Boston Globe: 23 Percent Say They Won’t Get A COVID-19 Vaccine
The availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus will likely play a key role in determining when Americans can return to life as usual. Whether a vaccine can end this pandemic successfully, however, depends on more than its effectiveness at providing immunity against the virus, or how quickly it can be produced in mass quantities. Americans also must choose to receive the vaccine. (Trujillo and Motta, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Kizzmekia Corbett Is Leading NIH's Team To Find A Coronavirus Vaccine
Halfway through the school year, Myrtis Bradsher found herself paying close attention to a little girl called Kizzy. She always looked sharp, with ribbons knotted to her ponytails and socks that matched every outfit. But it was the way she rushed to help other fourth-graders with classwork that really stood out. “She had so much knowledge,” the teacher recalled. “She knew something about everything. ”In 25 years at Oak Lane Elementary School in rural Hurdle Mills, N.C., Bradsher had not seen a child like her. Bradsher was one of a few black teachers, and Kizzy was a rare black student. At a parent-teacher conference, Bradsher pushed to give the girl the advantages she felt she deserved. (Fears, 5/6)

CNN: Coronavirus: Life Will Change As We Wait Until Next Year For A Coronavirus Vaccine, Experts Say 
As coronavirus sweeps across the nation, with some states seeing drops in numbers while hotspots emerge in others, experts are warning it's unlikely a vaccine will be ready this year... Vaccines to prevent coronavirus infections are racing through development at unprecedented speeds. But scientists won't know if the vaccines can prevent infection until April or May next year, said Dr. Mark Mulligan, director of the Vaccine Center at New York University's Langone Health. (Almasy and Karimi, 5/7)

ProPublica: How Climate Change Is Contributing To Skyrocketing Rates Of Infectious Disease
The scientists who study how diseases emerge in a changing environment knew this moment was coming. Climate change is making outbreaks of disease more common and more dangerous. Over the past few decades, the number of emerging infectious diseases that spread to people — especially coronaviruses and other respiratory illnesses believed to have come from bats and birds — has skyrocketed. A new emerging disease surfaces five times a year. One study estimates that more than 3,200 strains of coronaviruses already exist among bats, awaiting an opportunity to jump to people. (Lustgarten, 5/7)

The Hill: Evidence Mounts That Outside Is Safer When It Comes To COVID-19
Health experts say people are significantly less likely to get the coronavirus while outside, a fact that could add momentum to calls to reopen beaches and parks closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being outside shouldn’t be seen as completely safe, health experts say. People should continue to avoid crowds and maintain six feet of distance from others to keep away from the virus. But experts are increasingly confident in evidence showing that the coronavirus spreads much more readily indoors than outdoors, a finding that could help guide policymakers seeking to figure out ways to end lockdowns that have shuttered much of the nation’s economy.(Sullivan, 5/6)

Stat: Amazon Lends Its Expertise — And Its Cash — To Covid-19 Research 
Shipping behemoth Amazon is increasingly throwing its weight into the pandemic response, sharing its staff’s web and research design expertise with scientists across the country and digging into its deep pockets to fund a smattering of Covid-19 studies and projects. The company is backing a wide range of efforts, from funding a clinical trial of blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to delivering at-home coronavirus tests to health workers and others in the U.K. Much of Amazon’s work is focused on people at a high risk of being exposed to the virus, such as delivery drivers, grocery store staff, and health care workers — all roles that exist within Amazon and its subsidiaries. (Brodwin, 5/7)

The New York Times: Hoping Llamas Will Become Coronavirus Heroes
Winter is a 4-year-old chocolate-colored llama with spindly legs, ever-so-slightly askew ears and envy-inducing eyelashes. Some scientists hope she might be an important figure in the fight against the novel coronavirus. She is not a superpowered camelid. Winter was simply the lucky llama chosen by researchers in Belgium, where she lives, to participate in a series of virus studies involving both SARS and MERS. Finding that her antibodies staved off those infections, the scientists posited that those same antibodies could also neutralize the new virus that causes Covid-19. They were right, and published their results Tuesday in the journal Cell. (Kramer, 5/6)

Stat: Giving Blood Thinners To Severely Ill Covid-19 Patients Is Gaining Ground
Treating Covid-19 patients with medicines to prevent blood clots might help reduce deaths in patients on ventilators, based on new observational data. A team from Mount Sinai Health System in New York on Wednesday reported better results for hospitalized Covid-19 patients who received anticoagulant drugs compared to patients who didn’t. The data are preliminary and require confirmation in larger studies with a more robust design, the authors say about their study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, but their findings add weight to medical guidelines. (Cooney, 5/6)

CNN: Syndrome Kawasaki: Dozens More Children Hospitalized In New York With Rare Symptoms That Could Be Linked To Coronavirus 
A growing number of children are showing up at New York hospitals with troubling new symptoms that state health officials believe could be linked to coronavirus. In an advisory to health care providers, state officials said 64 children in New York have been hospitalized with a condition doctors described as "pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome." (Karimi, 5/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Unproven Coronavirus Cures Flood U.S. Regulators
Gordon Pedersen wore a white lab coat and stethoscope and billed himself as a doctor in online videos he made to promote his own brand of drinks and gels containing silver particles, which he claimed could destroy the new coronavirus. Authorities in his home state of Utah, however, say he has no medical degree or license, and his products—concoctions they describe as water, baking soda and silver extracted from wire and sold for $299.95 a gallon—were a sham. On April 27, federal prosecutors charged him with fraud. (Alpert, 5/7)

The New York Times: Did A Mutation Turbocharge The Coronavirus? Not Likely, Scientists Say
All viruses mutate, and the coronavirus is no exception. But there is no compelling evidence yet that it is evolving in a way that has made it more contagious or more deadly. A preprint study — posted online, but not published in a scientific journal and not yet peer-reviewed — has set the internet afire by suggesting otherwise. On April 30, a report by a team led by Bette Korber, a biologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, claimed to have found a mutation in the coronavirus that arose in Europe in February and then rapidly spread, becoming dominant as the virus was introduced into new countries. (Zimmer, 5/6)

Reuters: New Coronavirus Spread Swiftly Around World From Late 2019, Study Finds
A genetic study of samples from more than 7,500 people infected with COVID-19 suggests the new coronavirus spread quickly around the world after it emerged in China sometime between October and December last year, scientists said on Wednesday. Scientists at University College London’s Genetics Institute found almost 200 recurrent genetic mutations of the new coronavirus - SARS-CoV-2 - which the UCL researchers said showed how it is adapting to its human hosts as it spreads. (Kelland, 5/6)

The New York Times: ‘Covid-19 Parties’ Probably Didn’t Involve Intentional Spread
Amid growing impatience over stay-at-home orders and rising unemployment, public health experts have worried that some people may try to expose themselves to the coronavirus in a risky bid to gain immunity. One fear is the prospect of “coronavirus parties,” much like the chickenpox parties of the past that preceded the development of a chickenpox vaccine, designed to deliberately spread infection. (Baker, 5/6)

And in other news —

The Wall Street Journal: New York Survey Yields New Insights Into Who’s Getting Infected With Covid-19
A majority of the New Yorkers hospitalized in recent days for the novel coronavirus weren’t working and had been living in their homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, offering new insights into who is getting infected with the virus. The number of new coronavirus patients entering hospitals in the state each day declined to around 600 this week from more than 900 last week, when the Democratic governor ordered the survey. It included 1,269 respondents at 113 hospitals earlier this week. (Vielkind and De Avila, 5/6)

WBUR: Former CDC Official Warns Of 2nd COVID-19 Wave: Most Americans Are Still Susceptible
Since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., officials have been warning about the prospect of a second wave. Some even say additional COVID-19 spikes in the country could be worse than the first wave. Dr. Ali Khan, former director of the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says he is confident that a second wave will happen. That's because, he says in an interview with NPR's Morning Edition, the vast majority of people in the U.S. are likely still at risk of contracting the virus. (Greene, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Think You Had Covid-19 Already? A Lot Of People Do.
The week before Thanksgiving, Barbara O’Donnell came down with a wretched cough. “It was just really bad, and it was constant,” says O’Donnell, 62. “I would turn purple,” gasping for breath. She could barely walk up the hills near her home outside of Philadelphia. Though she is a smoker, she was healthy and strong — “I don’t get the flu, ever” — and had never experienced anything like this before. (Judkis, 5/6)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Crisis Exacts Toll On People With Disabilities
Even before the coronavirus hit, cystic fibrosis meant a cold could put Jacob Hansen in the hospital for weeks. He relies on hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to stay healthy because he also has cerebral palsy and can’t easily wash his hands from his wheelchair, but these days shelves are often bare. For millions of disabled people and their families, the coronavirus crisis has piled on new difficulties and ramped up those that already existed. (Whitehurst, 5/6)

The New York Times: Nearly Half Of Men Say They Do Most Of The Home Schooling. 3 Percent Of Women Agree.
Home schooling, the new parental chore brought about by coronavirus lockdowns, is being handled disproportionately by women, according to a new poll by Morning Consult for The New York Times. Fathers don’t necessarily agree — nearly half of those with children under 12 report spending more time on it than their spouse — but just 3 percent of women say their spouse is doing more. Eighty percent of mothers say they spend more time on it. (Miller, 5/6)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Reopenings: Many Churches Consider Plans To Pray In Person
When everything began shutting down back in March, Steve Wiens thought he would be leading church via Zoom for two, maybe four, weeks. Members of his church, Genesis Covenant in Robbinsdale, Minn., rose to the challenge. They celebrated the Eucharist from their kitchens, with coffee and doughnuts, Capri Sun and Oreos. They divided themselves into small groups across town to keep tabs of who needed groceries or supplies. (Dias, 5/7)

The Associated Press: San Francisco Gets Alcohol, Tobacco For Addicts In Hotels
San Francisco is using private donations to deliver alcohol, tobacco and medical marijuana to a few dozen people dealing with addiction as they isolate or quarantine in city-leased hotel rooms during the pandemic, officials confirmed Wednesday. There are about 270 people, mostly homeless, staying in hotel rooms to recover from COVID-19 or to wait out possible exposure to the virus. Nearly a dozen people have received alcohol and more than two dozen have received tobacco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. (5/7)

The New York Times: How To Keep Children’s Stress From Turning Into Trauma
Children may be processing the disruptions in their lives right now in ways the adults around them do not expect: acting out, regressing, retreating or even seeming surprisingly content. Parents need to know that all of this is normal, experts say, and there are some things we can do to help. (Steinberg, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Disproportionately Black Counties Account For Over Half Of Coronavirus Cases In The U.S. And Nearly 60% Of Deaths, Study Finds
Black people make up a disproportionate share of the population in 22 percent of U.S. counties, and those localities account for more than half of coronavirus cases and nearly 60 percent of deaths, a national study by an AIDS research group found. The study also found that socioeconomic factors such as employment status and access to health care were better predictors of infection and death rates than underlying health conditions. (Williams, 5/6)

ABC News: Minorities Have Higher Chances For 'Bad Outcomes' As Country Reopens: Former Acting CDC Director 
Dr. Richard Besser, the former acting director of the​ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during part of the first term of the Obama administration, said that he worries as states continue their push to reopen communities of color will begin to see more “bad outcomes” since the virus disproportionately impacts them. “I worry, though, that as states start to open up, their economies, get more people back to work, which is something everyone wants to see happen,” Besser, a former medical editor at ABC News, said on the 'Powerhouse Politics' podcast. (Cunningham, 5/6)

CNN: 'Happy' Hypoxia: Covid-19 Patients Who Should Be Gasping For Air But Aren't
In hospitals around the world, doctors are shaking their heads in disbelief as they watch Covid-19 patients who should be comatose or "seizing" from hypoxia -- a lack of oxygen in the body's tissues -- check social media, chat with nurses and barely complain of discomfort while breathing. Some have dubbed them "happy hypoxics," a terrible misnomer for what could be a long, slow recovery -- or worse. The proper medical term is "silent hypoxia." It happens when people are unaware they are being deprived of oxygen and are therefore showing up to the hospital in much worse health than they realize. (LaMotte, 5/6)

Stat: Photos: Inside One Boston Hospital's Response To Covid-19 
When he arrived at the bedside, the emergency physician found a problem he could only half-solve. He could check the patient’s oxygen level and listen to her breathing. He could evaluate whether she needed to be put on a ventilator. But he couldn’t bring back the family member she’d just lost to Covid-19, nor could he promise she would be fine now that her own coronavirus symptoms were worsening. (Boodman, 5/7)

CNN: Getting To The Hospital During A Pandemic 
Earlier this month, Dia Sue-Wah-Sing faced a dilemma. The 41-year-old living in Toronto had a history of kidney stones. She had been feeling some renal colic symptoms recently, a type of pain that can indicate the stones are worsening. But during the coronavirus pandemic, routine medical appointments get a little more complicated. Was it worth it to go in? "It was a solid 'maybe,'" she said. (Prior, 5/7)

Boston Globe: The ‘Fourth Trimester’ And Plight Of New Mothers During A Pandemic
Up to 1 in 7 women are diagnosed with postpartum depression, according to the American Psychological Association, while up to 4 in 5 experience feelings of sadness euphemistically referred to as the “baby blues.” These women in need are frequently left to navigate mental health problems on their own. A 2013 survey sponsored by the National Partnership for Women & Families found that 63 percent of respondents with indicators of depression never received treatment. And a bad situation is now getting worse. During this pandemic, new mothers are feeling especially isolated, scared, and overwhelmed, says Ann Smith, board president of the nonprofit Postpartum Support International. (Lipson, 5/6)

Boston Globe: The Link Between Coronavirus Deaths And Those French Fries 
Doctors and scientists are discovering two common characteristics among many of those who are losing their battle with COVID-19 — they are overweight or obese and suffer from a chronic disease. Ninety four percent of deaths from COVID-19 are in those with an underlying age-related chronic disease, mostly caused by excess body fat. (Mark Hyman and Dariush Mozaffarian, 5/7)

CNN: Dr. Tom Frieden: These Are The '10 Plain Truths' About The Coronavirus Pandemic, According To Former CDC Director 
Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid out "10 plain truths" about Covid-19 on Wednesday as he spoke at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the pandemic response. "In my 30 years in global public health, I've never seen anything like this," Frieden, who now serves as president and CEO of Resolve to Save Lives, said. "It's scary. It's unprecedented." (Kim and Watts, 5/6)

The New York Times: UnitedHealth Customers Will See A Discount On Next Month’s Bill
With so many of its customers struggling during the pandemic, UnitedHealth Group, one of the nation’s largest health insurers whose profits have not suffered during the crisis, is offering modest relief. On Thursday it said it would make $1.5 billion worth of premium credits and fees for doctor’s visits available to people enrolled in its plans.“ People are hurting right now,” said David S. Wichmann, UnitedHealth’s chief executive, in a call with reporters on Wednesday night. “Employers are hurting. Individual consumers are hurting.” (Abelson, 5/7)

The Wall Street Journal: UnitedHealth To Give Customers $1.5 Billion Of Discounts
UnitedHealth said it would also waive cost sharing, such as copayments, for specialist and primary-care doctor visits by people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, through at least the end of September. “Taken together, these actions will help people get and pay for health care,” said David Wichmann, chief executive of UnitedHealth. (Wilde Mathews, 5/7)

The New York Times: UnitedHealth Customers Will See A Discount On Next Month’s Bill
Employers and individuals in its commercial plans could receive credits toward their premium bills for June, ranging from 5 to 20 percent of their May bills. The credits, which would be targeted to those in areas of the country hardest hit by the virus, would not apply to the plans UnitedHealth administers for employers that are self-insured. For people enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plans, the company said it would waive all cost-sharing for visits to primary-care physicians and specialists through at least the end of September. The company said it wanted to encourage people to get any care they need and had put off during the crisis. (Abelson, 5/7)

CNBC: UnitedHealth Commits $1.5 Billion For Premium Rebates And New Cost-Sharing Waivers
Some insurers and hospital operators have reported surgical volumes and non-Covid-19 emergency room visits in April down 40% or more from a year ago, which is more than offsetting increased costs on coronavirus care and expenses. (Combs, 5/7)

In other news on health care costs —

Modern Healthcare: AHA: COVID-19 Could Cost Hospitals $200 Billion Through June
The financial impact of COVID-19 on hospitals and health systems may top $200 billion from March through June, according to a report released Tuesday. More than $161 billion of the expected revenue losses stems from canceled surgeries and other services like lower levels of outpatient treatment and emergency department services. COVID-19 related hospitalizations account for an additional $37 billion in losses, the American Hospital Association reports. (Brady, 5/5)

Bangor Daily News: ‘Devastating’ Number Of Mainers Could Lose Health Insurance As Pandemic Continues
Up to 221,000 Maine residents could lose the health insurance they receive through their jobs if unemployment levels this year reach Great Depression heights, ultimately increasing the ranks of Maine’s uninsured by almost 50 percent, a new analysis shows. (Andrews, 5/7)

The Associated Press: 33 Million Have Sought US Unemployment Aid Since Virus Hit
Nearly 3.2 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the business shutdowns caused by the viral outbreak deepened the worst U.S. economic catastrophe in decades. Roughly 33.5 million people have now filed for jobless aid in the seven weeks since the coronavirus began forcing millions of companies to close their doors and slash their workforces. That is the equivalent of one in five Americans who had been employed back in February, when the unemployment rate had reached a 50-year low of just 3.5%. (Rugaber, 5/7)

CNN: 1 In 5 American Workers Has Filed For Unemployment Benefits Since Mid-March
That brings the total number of seasonally-adjusted initial claims filed since mid-March to 33.5 million. Initial claims are considered a proxy for layoffs or furloughs, and that level represents about 21% of the March labor force. These numbers are staggeringly high; weekly jobless claims were hovering in the 200,000s in the last few years before this crisis. (Tappe, 5/7)

Bloomberg: Another 3.17 Million Filed For U.S. Jobless Benefits Last Week
Continuing claims, or the total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits, rose to a fresh record of 22.6 million in the week ended April 25. That, in turn, sent the insured unemployment rate, or the number receiving benefits as a share of the labor force based on eligibility, to 15.5%. Those data are reported with a one-week lag. California, Texas and Georgia reported the highest levels of unadjusted initial claims last week. Most states posted declines from the prior week. (Pickert, 5/7)

Reuters: Millions More Americans Join The Unemployment Line
The data supported economists’ views of a protracted recovery of the economy, which is reeling from nationwide lockdowns to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The economy shrank in the first quarter at the steepest pace since the Great Recession of 2007-2009. (Mutikani, 5/7)

CNBC: US Weekly Jobless Claims Total 3.169 Million, Seven-Week Tally Hits 33.5 Million
Though the numbers remain stark, that was the lowest total since the week ended March 14, shortly after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus strain a pandemic. (Cox, 5/7)

The Wall Street Journal: 3.2 Million Workers Filed Unemployment Claims Last Week
The recent jobless claims figures suggest the wave of unemployment caused by the pandemic could crest as soon as this month. Still, the layoffs that already occurred are likely to cause the April unemployment rate, due out Friday, to jump to a high on records back to 1948 from a 50-year low as recently as February. (Morath and Guilford, 5/7)

The Washington Post: As 3.2 Million Filed U.S. Jobless Claims Last Week, Post-Ipsos Poll Finds 77 Percent Of Laid-Off Workers Believe They’ll Get Jobs Back
The vast majority of laid-off or furloughed workers — 77 percent — expect to be rehired by their previous employer once the stay-at-home orders in their area are lifted, according to a nationwide Washington Post-Ipsos poll. Nearly 6 in 10 say it is “very likely” they will get their old job back, according to the poll, which was conducted April 27-May 4 among 928 workers who were laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began. But there’s concern that many of these workers are too optimistic about being rehired given how much uncertainty remains about health and business conditions in the year ahead. (Long and Guskin, 5/7)

MarketWatch: Jobless Claims Jump 3.2 Million In Early May, But Historic Rate Of Layoffs Is Slowing
A separate report by large payroll processor ADP on Wednesday said more than 20 million jobs were eliminated in April, at least temporarily. The federal government’s official employment summary is expected to show a similarly large wipeout when it’s released Friday morning. (Bartash, 5/7)

The New York Times: Unemployment Numbers Will Be Terrible. Here's What You Need To Know.
The coronavirus pandemic has brought wave after wave of catastrophic economic data: The worst decline in gross domestic product in a decade. The worst retail sales report on record. The worst week ever for unemployment claims, and then two more twice as bad as that. But even by those recent standards, the April jobs numbers could stand out. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect the report, which the Labor Department will release on Friday, to show that U.S. payrolls fell by 22 million jobs last month — a decade’s worth of job gains, wiped out in weeks. (Casselman, 5/6)

In other news on pandemic's blows to the labor market —

The Washington Post: Blacks And Hispanics Are The Most Likely To Be Laid Off, Washington Post Poll Finds
Hispanics are nearly twice as likely as whites to have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus shutdowns, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll, underlining that the pandemic is wreaking a disproportionate toll on some racial and ethnic groups. The poll finds that 20 percent of Hispanic adults and 16 percent of blacks report being laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began in the United States, compared with 11 percent of whites and 12 percent of workers of other races. (Jan and Clement, 5/6)

The New York Times: As Hunger Swells, Food Stamps Become A Partisan Flash Point
As a padlocked economy leaves millions of Americans without paychecks, lines outside food banks have stretched for miles, prompting some of the overwhelmed charities to seek help from the National Guard. New research shows a rise in food insecurity without modern precedent. Among mothers with young children, nearly one-fifth say their children are not getting enough to eat, according to a survey by the Brookings Institution, a rate three times as high as in 2008, during the worst of the Great Recession. The reality of so many Americans running out of food is an alarming reminder of the economic hardship the pandemic has inflicted. (DeParle, 5/6)

The New York Times: Small Businesses Counting On Loan Forgiveness Could Be Stuck With Debt
The embattled small business lending program at the center of the Trump administration’s economic rescue is running into a new set of challenges, one that threatens to saddle borrowers with huge debt loads, as banks begin the tricky task of proving the loans they extended actually met the government’s strict and shifting terms. With thousands of businesses preparing to ask for their eight-week loans to be forgiven, banks and borrowers are just now beginning to realize how complicated the program may turn out to be. Along with lawmakers, they are pushing the Treasury Department, which is overseeing the loan fund, to make forgiveness requirements easier to meet. (Rappeport and Flitter, 5/6)

The New York Times: E.U. Is Facing Its Worst Recession Ever. Watch Out, World. 
The good news for Europe is that the worst of the pandemic is beginning to ease. This week deaths in Italy hit a nearly two-month low. And the German leader Angela Merkel announced that schools, day care centers and restaurants would reopen in the next few days.But the relief could be short-lived. The European Commission released projections on Wednesday that Europe’s economy will shrink by 7.4 percent this year. A top official told residents of the European Union, first formed in the aftermath of the Second World War, to expect the “deepest economic recession in its history.” (Stevis-Gridneff and Ewing, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Restaurants Reopen, But Not Everyone Is Coming Back To Work
Restaurants are ramping back up as coronavirus lockdowns lift in U.S. states. As they do, they’re assessing both customers’ willingness to come back and how many workers they’ll need in kitchens and socially-distant dining rooms. One of the toughest calculations is proving to be just how far to go in staffing back up. Restaurant owners say they have little sense of how many consumers will feel safe to eat out again, and under what circumstances. (Haddon and Chen, 5/7)

The New York Times: As Restaurants Remain Shuttered, American Cities Fear The Future
The change in Botanical Heights started with a single restaurant. Before Olio, an Italian spot fashioned from a boarded-up old gas station, opened in 2012, its St. Louis neighborhood was known mostly as a place to buy illegal drugs. Nearly three-quarters of the lots on some streets were abandoned or demolished, said Brent Crittenden, the chief executive of UIC, the design and redevelopment firm that built Olio and several other restaurants in the neighborhood. By his count, one block was down to fewer than 10 residents. (Steinhauer and Wells, 5/7)

Kaiser Health News: Economic Blow Of The Coronavirus Hits America’s Already Stressed Farmers
Richard Oswald, still mourning the loss of his family’s homestead to flooding along the Missouri River, is planting corn and soybeans into ground that last year was feet deep underwater. It’s probably good, he said, to not have too much time to think. “Diversion therapy is the best treatment for farmers right now,” said the 70-year-old from Atchison County, Missouri. “Being busy helps.” (West, 5/7)

The Associated Press: Democrats Make Case For Role Of Government In Virus Response
When he stood before Congress in 1996 and declared “the era of big government is over,” President Bill Clinton gave voice to a doctrine that permeated Democratic politics for more than two decades. Government, while necessary, shouldn’t be celebrated if the party wanted to win elections. The coronavirus is changing that. (Barrow and Fram, 5/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Deficit Fears Put Senate Republicans And Trump On Coronavirus Collision Course
Senate Republicans are citing renewed budget-deficit fears as they pump the brakes on more coronavirus-aid spending, putting them at odds with President Trump’s push for tax cuts and an infrastructure package on top of roughly $3 trillion of funds approved so far. Many GOP lawmakers, facing pressure from conservative groups, say any new infrastructure spending is a nonstarter. They are also lukewarm on Mr. Trump’s call to slash payroll taxes, paid by workers and employers. (Hughes and Wise, 5/6)

Stateline: Next Stimulus Needs To Help Us, Small Cities And Counties Say
The $2 trillion stimulus bill Congress approved at the end of March included $111 billion for states, $22.5 billion for major counties and $5 billion for big cities.Many cities and counties didn’t get a dime. That’s because only cities and counties with populations larger than 500,000 were eligible for direct infusions of cash. That criteria excluded about 95% of the nation’s more than 3,000 counties, according to Teryn Zmuda, chief economist for the National Association of Counties. (Bergal, 5/7)

Modern Healthcare: Provider Liability Protections Could Get Caught In Partisan Fight
Major healthcare provider lobbies have asked Congress to protect healthcare facilities, physicians and other clinicians from liability for care provided during the COVID-19 pandemic, as states have a patchwork of different policies. Republicans are calling for wide-ranging immunity for healthcare providers and other businesses in the next legislative package, but Democrats have so far opposed the idea. (Cohrs, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Press Airlines To Protect Workers, Travelers
Lawmakers who bailed out U.S. airlines want to make sure the government gets what it paid for. In letters and at a subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, some members of Congress questioned whether airlines are complying with rules around retaining workers in exchange for federal aid and how carriers are protecting passengers amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Sider, 5/6)

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill —

The New York Times: Democrats Press Judicial Nominee, A McConnell Protegé, On Health Care Views
Judge Justin Walker, President Trump’s pick for an influential appeals court, faced brutal questioning from Senate Democrats on Wednesday over his views on health care policy, as the 37-year-old nominee sought to dispel criticism that he was too inexperienced and ideologically driven for the post. The nomination of Judge Walker, a Louisville, Ky., native and protégé of Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has drawn fire from Democrats and liberal activists who suggest that Mr. McConnell maneuvered inappropriately to position his favored candidate for the powerful post. (Hulse, 5/6)

ABC News: Democrats Decry Hearing For Trump Appeals Court Nominee Amid Pandemic 
Senate Democrats on Wednesday decried holding a confirmation hearing for a federal appeals court nominee close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell amid the coronavirus pandemic - the Judiciary Committee's first hearing since lawmakers returned to Washington this week. “I thought if the Senate Judiciary Committee is coming back for business, there's certainly a lot of things we can bring up related to this COVID-19 crisis,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, pointing to the effect the virus is having on prisons, immigration, and spiraling fraud, particularly against seniors. (Turner, 5/6)

ProPublica: On The Same Day Sen. Richard Burr Dumped Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law. Then The Market Crashed.
Sen. Richard Burr was not the only member of his family to sell off a significant portion of his stock holdings in February, ahead of the market crash spurred by coronavirus fears. On the same day Burr sold, his brother-in-law also dumped tens of thousands of dollars worth of shares. The market fell by more than 30% in the subsequent month. Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who has a post on the National Mediation Board, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of shares in six companies — including several that have been hit particularly hard in the market swoon and economic downturn. (Faturechi and Willis, 5/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Senate Republicans Break With Leaders On Coronavirus Testing At Capitol
Senior Republican lawmakers are pushing for routine coronavirus testing for members, their staffers and others who work at the U.S. Capitol complex, breaking with the decision by congressional leaders to decline such tests until they become more widely available to the public. Sen. Roy Blunt (R., Mo.), chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, said on Wednesday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) should revisit their decision, citing the risks posed by lawmakers traveling back and forth from Washington. (Wise, 5/6)

The Hill: Bipartisan Caucus Set To Hold 'Virtual Congress' On Thursday
The bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus is slated to hold a “virtual Congress”  on Thursday, providing lawmakers with the chance to remotely debate the next major coronavirus relief package amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The House has largely been out of session — with the exception of being called back to vote on COVID-19 related stimulus bills — since mid-March, when the outbreak began to escalate. Reps. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J), the co-chairs on the group of centrist House lawmakers, said they are aiming to provide a way for members to have a voice in the legislative process without imposing a safety risk to members and staff. (Brufke, 5/6)

The New York Times: Knock, Knock, Who’s There? No Political Canvassers, For The First Time Maybe Ever
Joseph R. Biden Jr. went door-to-door in his first Senate race in 1972, and had volunteers hand-deliver mailers. In 2018, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez walked across her district until rainwater seeped through the soles of her sneakers. This past winter, Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign mobilized an army of supporters to hit more than 800,000 doors ahead of the Iowa caucuses. But in the fall of 2020, volunteers might have to knock on a door and then sprint 10 feet away, making a pitch from a safe social distance. That is one tactic some strategists have floated as they consider a pandemic-safe update to a fundamental political tool: the humble door knock. (Goldmacher, 5/7)

Politico: Candidates Morph Into Covid-19 Relief Workers — And Want You To Know About It
Clayton Fuller was filming his first campaign ad for Congress when he got a call from his Air National Guard commanding officer: He was being activated for coronavirus duty. Now the Republican from Georgia is spending his days far away from the campaign trail, coordinating the cleaning of nursing and veterans’ homes in Alabama. But because he’s under federal orders, he can no longer ask for votes himself — this week, he’s missing two virtual candidate forums. (Schneider and Arkin, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Democrats’ Hold On House Seat In Jeopardy As Coronavirus Complicates Vote In California
Holding the House seat in California’s congressional district north of Los Angeles County was supposed to be fairly easy for Democrats who had a growing voter advantage in the onetime GOP stronghold and a rising star of the freshman class. But that came crashing down when nude photos of then-Rep. Katie Hill were published online and her estranged husband accused her of having an affair with a member of her Capitol Hill staff. Within days of the revelations, Hill, 32, denied the affair but acknowledged the photos, apologized and resigned. (Itkowitz, 5/6)

Reuters: Germany Eases Lockdown, With 'Emergency Brake' On Hand If Needed
Chancellor Angela Merkel announced steps on Wednesday to ease the coronavirus lockdown in Germany but at the same time launched an “emergency brake” mechanism allowing for renewed restrictions in case infections pick up again. (Chambers and Carrel, 5/6)

The New York Times: Germany’s Reopening Offers Hope For A Semblance Of Normal Life
The infection numbers, Ms. Merkel announced, were not just stable but lower than those reported two weeks ago. “We have reached the goal of slowing the spread of the virus, of protecting our health care system from being overwhelmed,” the chancellor said at a news conference. Germany, she said, was now in a position to reopen most aspects of its economy and society. “We can afford a little audacity,” Ms. Merkel said. It was good news not only for Germany, but countries eager for a sign that life can continue with the virus. (Bennhold and Eddy, 5/6)

Reuters: Explainer: South Korean Findings Suggest 'Reinfected' Coronavirus Cases Are False Positives
South Korean health authorities raised new concerns about the novel coronavirus after reporting last month that dozens of patients who had recovered from the illness later tested positive again. ... But after weeks of research, they now say that such test results appear to be “false positives” caused by lingering - but likely not infectious - bits of the virus. (Cha and Smith, 5/7)

Reuters: Amazon Indigenous Groups Launch International Fund To Fight Coronavirus
Indigenous groups from nine countries in the Amazon basin called on Wednesday for donations to help protect 3 million rainforest inhabitants who are vulnerable to the spread of the novel coronavirus because they lack adequate access to healthcare. They said the failure of regional governments to consider the needs of indigenous people in their plans for curbing the pandemic made it imperative to find other funding to buy food, medicine and basic protective equipment such as masks. (5/6)

The Associated Press: Fears Of 'Second Wave' Hang Over Coronavirus Successes
Britain was expected to extend its nationwide lockdown on Thursday, but the European country hit hardest by the coronavirus plans cautiously to ease some restrictions on economic and social activity next week as it tries to reopen without sparking a devastating second wave of infections. Authorities in many countries are drawing up plans for how to cope with a resurgence in outbreaks even as they slowly work to reopen businesses and resume other activity halted to combat the pandemic. (Lawless, Kurtenbach and Johnson, 5/7)

The Associated Press: Pandemic Poses Special Threat To Indigenous Health, Culture
In Indonesia’s easternmost province, felled trees are stacked to block a road that leads to Papuan villages. On the Thai-Myanmar border, the Karen people have also made makeshift barricades and marked them with signs warning visitors away. Across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has left indigenous peoples at particular risk because so many have poorer health and less access to health care than their non-indigenous peers. (Milko, 5/7)

The Associated Press: Women Demand Voice In Italy Virus Response Dominated By Men
Every evening when health experts updated anxious Italians in televised briefings about their nation’s devastating coronavirus outbreak, the lineup of authoritative figures included only one woman: the sign-language interpreter. And not a single woman was among the 20-member commission appointed to advise the government on how and when Italy could safely re-open its factories, stores, schools and parks — a disparity all the more glaring because more than half the country’s doctors and three-quarters of its nurses are women, many on the heroic front lines of the pandemic. (D'Emilio, 5/7)

Stat: Study Using Human Brain Tissue Shows Herpes Link To Alzheimer's 
A small 3D version of the human brain develops key features of Alzheimer’s disease when it is infected with a virus that causes cold sores, scientists reported on Wednesday, adding to the evidence that this most common form of dementia can be caused by a common microbe. The new research, published in Science Advances, is the first to directly show in a lab model (rather than through circumstantial evidence from human studies) that the herpes simplex virus HSV-1 might cause Alzheimer’s: Human brain-like tissue infected with the virus became riddled with amyloid plaque-like formations — the hallmark of Alzheimer’s. It also developed neuroinflammation and became less effective at conducting electrical signals, all of which happen in Alzheimer’s disease. (Begley, 5/6)

The New York Times: Fighting Fat Discrimination, But Still Wanting To Lose Weight
Anne Coleman considers herself to be “body positive,” part of a social movement that accepts different body shapes and sizes. She takes pride in her appearance and has attended size acceptance events like the Curvy Con, an annual convention celebrating plus-size brands and individuals, and an early screening of “Fattitude,” a film about weight stigma. And yet Ms. Coleman, who weighs more than 200 pounds, would like to weigh less. She doesn’t want to be “skinny.” Just able to move around more easily. (Ellin, 5/7)

American Academy Of Pediatrics: Rates And Stability Of Mental Health Disorders In Children Born Very Preterm At 7 And 13 Years
Children born VPT show higher rates of MH disorders than their term peers, with changing trajectories over time. Findings highlight the importance of early identification and ongoing assessment to support those with MH disorders in this population. (Yates et al, 5/1)

Health Affairs: Self-Help Groups And Medication Use In Opioid Addiction Treatment: A National Analysis
Self-help groups and medications (buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone) both play important roles in opioid addiction treatment. The relative use of these two treatment modalities has not been characterized in a national study. Using national treatment data, we found that self-help groups were rarely provided in conjunction with medication treatment: Among all adult discharges from opioid addiction treatment in the period 2015–17, 10.4 percent used both self-help groups and medications, 29.2 percent used only medications, 29.8 percent used only self-help groups, and 30.5 percent used neither self-help groups nor medications. (Wen et al, 5/1)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Contact Tracing Assessment Of COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics In Taiwan And Risk At Different Exposure Periods Before And After Symptom Onset
In this study, high transmissibility of COVID-19 before and immediately after symptom onset suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients alone may not suffice to contain the epidemic, and more generalized measures may be required, such as social distancing. (Cheng et al, 5/1)

The New York Times: Women Are Less Likely To Conceive After C-Section Delivery
Women have lower rates of childbirth after a cesarean section. A new study suggests that this is not by choice, but appears to be an effect of the C-section itself. Researchers followed 2,021 women after delivering their first babies, 599 of whom had C-sections. The women reported the number of months they had unprotected sex during the three years following the births. The study is in JAMA Network Open. (Bakalar, 5/6)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals May Contribute To Racial Maternal Morbidity Disparities, Study Finds
An analysis published Monday in Health Affairs found women living in ZIP codes that had the highest concentration of poor black residents had a life-threatening condition or life-saving procedure during childbirth 4 out of every 100 deliveries from 2012 to 2014 compared with 1.7 cases per 100 deliveries among women in neighborhoods with the lowest concentration of poor black residents. (Johnson, 5/4)

Commonwealth Fund: New Survey Finds Americans Suffering Health Coverage Insecurity Along With Job Losses
A new survey of U.S. adults by SSRS and the Commonwealth Fund provides some answers. About a third (32%) of adults ages 18 to 64 reported they had lost their job (12%), had their hours cut (19%), and/or had their pay cut (9%) because of the pandemic.1 Of those, 3 percent said they had lost their health insurance. It is important to note that this does not include family members who also may have lost their insurance. Twenty percent of people who lost their jobs or had their hours or pay cut did not have health insurance before the pandemic hit, reflecting the fact that many of the jobs were likely in industries that frequently don’t offer health benefits and in small businesses. (Collins et al, 4/21)

The New York Times: Filtered Coffee May Be Especially Good For Heart Health
Coffee can be a healthful drink. It may be even better for you when brewed with a paper filter. Norwegian researchers gathered health data on 508,747 men and women 20 to 79 years old and followed them for an average of 20 years. The participants also reported the type and quantity of coffee they drank — filtered through paper or brewed using unfiltered methods like French press or espresso. (Bakalar, 4/28)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Task Force Gets Its ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment 
On Tuesday, as the number of reported deaths from Covid-19 in the United States topped 70,000, the Trump administration declared “mission accomplished” for Phase 1 of its fight against the coronavirus. Specifically, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence announced that the coronavirus task force, which Mr. Pence oversees, had been so successful in getting the pandemic under control that the group would most likely disband within the month, to be replaced by a new panel focused on getting America back to work. (5/6)

The New York Times: The Virus Is Winning
When Michael T. Osterholm, a prominent epidemiologist, heard that the White House coronavirus task force was “ramping up” its work this month, he was elated. Maybe now the United States would finally tackle the virus with the seriousness needed. Then he realized that he had misheard. The task force wasn’t “ramping up” but “wrapping up.”“I was in shock,” said Osterholm, a professor at the University of Minnesota. “We’re just in the second inning.” (Nicholas Kristof, 5/6)

Los Angeles Times: Politics Is Why Trump Is Ending Coronavirus Task Force Early
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed to reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the White House might look to close down the special coronavirus task force he’s been leading, possibly in early June.Why, you might ask?Well, there are a couple of explanations.“It really is all a reflection of the tremendous progress we’ve made as a country,” Pence said. “The president stood up the White House coronavirus task force … to marshal a national response.”  (Scott Martelle, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Wuhan Lab Theory
The evidence is clear that the Chinese Communist Party covered up for weeks the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, but what we don’t know is why. One emerging theory is that the virus originated in a Wuhan lab. Beijing denies it, but the world deserves a full accounting of what China knew and when.President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both said in recent days that they’ve seen evidence the coronavirus did come from a Wuhan lab. Mr. Trump said it appears to be an accidental release. If they don’t want the issue to be dismissed as an anti-China campaign ploy, they should make the evidence public. (5/6)

The Hill: Tests For COVID-19: Has The FDA Said Yes Too Many Times? 
There are many controversies about the coronavirus, but there is one point of consensus: We need testing, testing, and then more testing. But yesterday, in response to criticisms from chairs of two House health subcommittees, the FDA tightened their standards for antibody tests intended to identify people who were previously exposed to the coronavirus. Why? (Robert M. Kaplan and Diana Zuckerman, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Trump Went Ballistic At Me On Twitter. Here’s Why He Reacts With Such Rage.
Americans died from covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night. Not Donald Trump. Just days ago, the president flipped out at a detailed New York Times article that described how he watches television at all hours, obsessed about how he’s covered in the news. As though to prove the story’s thesis, Trump rage-tweeted that it was a “phony story” and that the media would say “Anything to demean!” And then, as though to prove the point again, at 12:46 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump went ballistic on Twitter — at me. (George T. Conway, 5/6)

CNN: This Is The Worst Possible Moment To Try To Kill Obamacare
What is the worst time to overturn a law that provides healthcare for the uninsured? Surely, topping any list of answers would be: in the midst of the pandemic that is quickly becoming the leading cause of death in America. Yet, the Trump administration is pushing forward with their position to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with the Supreme Court due to hear the case in the fall. (Leana S. Wen, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Governors Should Trust Mayors And County Officials On Reopening. California Shows Why.
Just as the decision to order “shelter-in-place” shutdowns began at the local level, so should the decision of when to reopen. On March 16, the seven counties that constitute California’s Bay Area issued a legal order — the first of its kind in the United States — requiring residents to shelter in place. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) expanded the order to the entire state days later, and other state governments followed suit thereafter. Judging from the Bay Area counties’ flattened curve of confirmed infections, theirs was the right decision, at least from a public health standpoint. But in the state’s more rural counties, such as Fresno, where I live, there hasn’t been much of a curve to flatten. (Aris Janigian, 5/6)

The Hill: Business Interruption Insurance Bills Will Help Small Businesses Through National Emergencies 
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our lives. One of the hardest hit has been our small businesses... During a time like this, most businesses would look to access their business interruption insurance, to help them through weeks of lost income... Unfortunately, most insurance companies have stated that claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic are not covered under business interruption insurance. (Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick and Rep. Mike Thompson, 5/6)

The Washington Post: Save Us All From Jared Kushner 
Whenever a member of the Trump family gets involved with a project, it is always smart to keep an eye out for the grift. We might have hoped that a pandemic that has already cost more than 70,000 Americans their lives would be an exception to this rule. But no. President Trump’s decision to again put his unqualified son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in charge of a team charged with a vital national security interest — this time, procuring crucial supplies and protective equipment for hospitals and others on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus — is producing the usual results: incompetence and cronyism. (Karen Tumulty, 5/6)

The Hill: COVID-19 Fear Syndrome
The death toll has not been as catastrophic as predicted by the initial models. The optimistic models predicted 100,000 deaths by now. Pessimistic ones predicted millions. In reality, 60,000 souls have been lost. That is a terrible toll, but far less than initially projected.  Our hospitals are not overwhelmed as models projected. In fact, all over the country most of them are just the opposite. (Dr. Thomas W. Lagrelius, 5/6)

The Detroit News: Keep Guns Out Of State Capitol
Nothing ruins a good protest like a gun. The anti-shutdown protesters who have been showing up in Lansing armed to the teeth are hurting their own presumptive cause.It's hard to take anything else they stand for seriously when they appear this way at the Capitol.Their guns, not their message, draw all of the attention. And they overshadow the other protesters who have legitimate gripes about the way Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is exercising her emergency powers. So instead of serving the purpose of applying public pressure to the governor to be more reasonable with her orders, the Open Carry crowd makes it easy to ignore the entire demonstration, or to write it off as the work of a bunch of right-wing paramilitary wackos. (5/6)

The New York Times: Can Rocky Mountain Laboratories Find A Coronavirus Cure?
It’s entirely possible that the secret to understanding — perhaps even vanquishing — the coronavirus rests in this quiet town of 5,000 nestled at the edge of the wilderness. Hamilton is home to Rocky Mountain Laboratories, run by the National Institutes of Health. Outside, the campus looks west toward the meandering tributaries of the Bitterroot River and panoramic views of the snow-capped Bitterroot Mountains. Inside, in a windowless, air-locked room, elite virologists in positive-pressure suits, hooked up to oxygen hoses, handle the world’s deadliest pathogens, from avian flu to Ebola to plague. (Charlie Warzel, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Speed Is Essential In Developing This Vaccine. But So Is Safety. 
The spirit of the administration’s fast-track vaccine quest, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, is laudable. The coronavirus pandemic is draining the global economy, making it necessary to put every ounce of innovation — and massive resources — into finding a safe and effective vaccine. But any accelerated effort must remain grounded in real-world realities and avoid hasty mistakes. Vaccines are the world’s greatest hope to stave off the pandemic. President Trump has raised expectations for one “by the end of the year,” as he put it Sunday. (5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Conference Call To Cure Covid-19
War breeds conspiracy, and in the biopharmaceutical world, far from public view, a broad conspiracy has formed. Tired of waiting for the vacuum of national scientific leadership to be filled and impatient with the glacial pace of federal research labs, nearly all the major players in drug discovery and development have taken matters into their own hands. The goal of their insider-only collaboration—called “Covid R&D”—is to accelerate creation of a vaccine or cure. Over the past four weeks I have spoken with or participated in closed group calls with the chief scientists, chief operating officers or CEOs of more than three dozen of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical research firms. In these unprecedented discussions, sworn competitors have shared proprietary data from promising drug candidates that they ordinarily would guard like prized jewels. Deals have been made and work begun without the participation of lawyers. Representatives of the Food and Drug Administration have even joined the calls to offer assistance. (Safi Bahcall, 5/6)

ABC News: Precision Public Health May Be The Answer To COVID-19: Opinion
At a time when social distancing is the norm, have we forgotten entirely about precision medicine and public health? Not so fast. Social distancing can flatten the curve, we now see, but as a one-size-fits-all approach, it's not a sustainable solution. Universal self-isolation has led to record-level unemployment claims, a drop in gross domestic product and food shortages in the wealthiest nation in the world. (Jay Bhatt, 5/7)

The Washington Post: Runners Should Wear Masks, But Not Because Of Science 
“JOGGERS,” blares the sign on Washington’s 16th Street NW. “Protect your fellow humans. WEAR A F***IN’ MASK.” The asterisks, of course, don’t appear in the original; the nasty exhortation manages to signal vice and virtue at the same time. And it captures not only today’s rift between the runners and the walkers but also a bigger truth mid-pandemic: Everyone needs to be kinder to each other. The exercise-induced enmity brought on by the coronavirus exists throughout the country. Twitter and Facebook overflow with animus against the fleet of foot. Tales of in-person scoldings and even screamings abound among a populace split between reproach for irresponsible joggers and sympathy for cooped-up amateur athletes trying to escape the apartment without self-suffocating. (Molly Roberts, 5/6)

CNN: Here's The Real Reason Donald Trump Didn't Wear A Mask In Public In Arizona 
President Donald Trump traveled to Arizona on Tuesday to visit a Honeywell mask-making plant, his first trip outside of Washington, DC, since the coronavirus paralyzed the country. In the photos of the event, Trump did not wear a mask. During the visit to a mask-making plant. And against Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations that all people wear "cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission." (Chris Cillizza, 5/6)

CNN: Why You Need To Wear The Damn Mask
Go for a walk, visit any open establishment or public space, and you will note a disconcerting phenomenon: People without masks. There is a pandemic. Tens of thousands of Americans are dead because of Covid-19, a disease that spreads in droplets that are expelled by infected humans, including as they talk or cough, and whether they show symptoms or not. (Catherine Pearlman, 5/6)

Sacramento Bee: Masks Can Help Slow COVID-19 Spread In Sacramento County
Masks can help save lives. That’s why Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg is right to call on Sacramento County residents to embrace the wearing of simple cloth masks in public places to help stop the spread of COVID-19. On Monday, Steinberg called for the county to embrace a mandatory mask rule. “I believe that a mandatory mask requirement ought to accompany that opening up because it will allow us to open up faster – and maybe more importantly – it will allow us to continue to be open and to not have that spike, which we are also fearful of, which we have thus far successfully avoided,” Steinberg said. (5/6)

Stat: Covid-19 Has Renewed America's Trust In Its Doctors. Will That Last? 
I had a disturbing conversation with my younger sister about the public perception of doctors and Americans’ trust in them. We were home in Delaware for Thanksgiving. While telling me about her life as a college student in New York City and her new social circles, she mentioned being irritated by their hostility towards physicians. In casual conversations, and even in classroom discussions, these young people agreed that physicians are greedy and care only about money. (Gregory Jasani, 5/7)

The Hill: Social Distancing And The Epidemic Of Prejudice 
Although President Trump has tempered efforts to brand COVID-19 the “Chinese virus,” he continues to allege that China caused the global pandemic. Recent claims suggest the original source of the human pathogen was a virology lab in Wuhan, though there is considerable debate whether such reports are based in fact. Such divisive rhetoric serves only to inflame racist sentiments, likely causing the recent spike in bias incidents against Asian Americans, and to stir up nativist hostilities toward “foreigners.” Unfortunately, this is all too common in our hyper-polarized world. (Linda C. McClain, 5/6)

Stat: Child Abuse Is One Of Many Harms From Shutting Down U.S. Schools 
In elementary school, my friend Krystal (not her real name) kept a perpetual clock running in her head. When she was at home, she would count down the minutes until she could come back to school. School was a safe haven for her, a place of comfort where she was shielded from the abuse she witnessed and experienced daily. One day she showed me her bruises. By doing that she included me in the countdown. (Paula Magee, 5/7)

CNN: Emergency Doctor: We Need Help Before It's Too Late
Last weekend, I was on CNN discussing the importance of supporting the mental and emotional health of medical professionals. I likened this pandemic to an invisible bomb going off in our emergency departments. Twenty-four hours later, I learned about the death of my colleague, Dr. Lorna Breen. A day later, I learned from media reports that she had died by suicide. It was a one-two punch, like she died twice. (Tsion Firew, 5/6)

Houston Chronicle: What A Miscarriage Looks Like During The Coronavirus Quarantine 
It is beyond alarming to be a woman in need of reproductive help in a country that not only does not value it, but frequently attacks reproductive rights. The stigmas and division around reproductive care, whether it is miscarriage, abortion or contraception, are magnified by this pandemic. We must break the silence in order to support each other and become more unified during a time of crisis instead of more divided. (Jenny Rollins, 5/7)

CNN: 10 Steps To Save Native Americans From Covid-19 Catastrophe
The pandemic ravaging some Native American communities has echoes that go back centuries -- to the measles and smallpox epidemics that first decimated the original Americans. This time, however, rapid action can avert a catastrophe. (Van Jones, 5/6)

Sacramento Bee: CA Should Crackdown On Youth Vaping Due To Coronavirus 
In early April, the attorney general of Massachusetts partnered with healthcare professionals to release a health advisory warning to residents. It said that smoking and vaping could put them in the high-risk category for needing “hospitalization and advanced life support to survive” COVID-19.Californians deserve the same warning from their public health officials. (Lindsey Freitas, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Anti-Vaxxers Have Found A New Way To Make People Unsafe 
Protesters plan to gather in Sacramento Thursday for a second time in less than a week to demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom lift pandemic-related restrictions so that people can exercise their God-given right to spread the coronavirus.If that sounds familiar, that because it’s essentially the same message pushed by protesters last year during the legislative battle over SB 276, a bill to make it harder to exempt students from mandatory vaccinations. Protesters framed their position as a defense of personal choice, even though the bill didn’t deny parents the choice to leave their children uninoculated against measles and other easily preventable diseases. It prevented them only from enrolling their uninoculated children in schools, where they might risk the health of other people’s kids. (5/7)