Reuters: Mnuchin Hopes Deal Is 'Very Close' On $2-Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package In U.S. Senate
The U.S. Treasury secretary and the Senate Democratic leader voiced confidence late on Monday for a deal to be reached soon on a far-reaching coronavirus economic stimulus package that had been stalled in the U.S. Senate as lawmakers haggled over it. (Cowan and Morgan, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Negotiators Close On Nearly $2 Trillion Virus Aid Package
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said they had spoken by phone with President Donald Trump during the long night of negotiations. While the two sides have resolved many issues in the sweeping package, some remain. At midnight Monday, they emerged separately to say talks would continue into the night. “We look forward to having a deal tomorrow,” Mnuchin told reporters after exiting Schumer’s office. “The president is giving us direction,” Mnuhcin said. “The president would like to have a deal and he’s hopeful we can conclude this.” (Mascaro, Taylor and Lemire, 3/23)

The Hill: Mnuchin, Schumer Brief Trump, Expect Coronavirus Stimulus Deal Tuesday 
Schumer added that Mnuchin called the president during their meeting and they told him they were "very, very close to an agreement." "He seemed very happy with that," Schumer said. Trump knocked Democrats in a tweet minutes after Mnuchin had gone into Schumer’s office for another meeting. (Carney, 3/24)

The Washington Post: Democrats Block $2 Trillion Coronavirus Rescue Bill, Senate Floor Erupts In Partisan Anger
After a day of partisan rancor and posturing on Capitol Hill, the outlook grew markedly more positive later in the afternoon, when offers and counteroffers were exchanged. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) convened Democrats on a conference call and told them he was hopeful about striking a deal by the end of the day, according to a person familiar with the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal details. Schumer was very upbeat, according to another Democrat, who listened into the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe it. Some senators encouraged Schumer to announce a deal in principle Monday evening, but several issues remained unresolved. (Werner, Kane, Bade and DeBonis, 3/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Fails To Advance Coronavirus Rescue Package For Second Day
In the Senate negotiations, Democrats want to place more controls on nearly $500 billion for helping distressed businesses, comprising loans made directly by the Treasury Department and backstopping losses in lending facilities launched or expanded by the Federal Reserve. Of the total, about $75 billion would go directly to distressed industries such as air carriers. Democrats worry that the pool of money could become a tool by the administration to reward favored companies in secret, since the Treasury secretary could delay disclosing financial aid for six months. Among stricter conditions Democrats want on the aid are those to encourage companies to retain workers. (Hughes and Duehren, 3/23)

Politico: Mnuchin, Schumer Say Coronavirus Rescue Package Deal Very Close
According to three sources, Mnuchin had agreed to a key Democratic demand for "strict oversight" over a $500 billion "Exchange Stabilization Fund" designed to lend money to corporations and municipalities. Senate Democrats had attacked the entity as a "slush fund" under the initial Senate GOP proposal, which had no congressional regulation and allowed Mnuchin to withhold information on who received loans for six months. Schumer also said Mnuchin had agreed to a "Marshall Plan" for hospitals to help respond to the growing coronavirus crisis. Senate Republicans had offered $75 billion for hospitals, but Schumer and Pelosi sought hundreds of billions in additional funding. (Bresnahan, Levine and Ferris, 3/23)

CNN: Doug Jones Says He Broke With Party On Coronavirus Bill Because 'The Clock Is Ticking' 
Sen. Doug Jones of Alabama said that he voted to advance Senate Republicans' controversial coronavirus package -- the lone Democrat to do so -- to highlight that progress is being made on the bill and time to act is running out. When asked by CNN's Jake Tapper why he voted for the legislation Monday after voting against it on Sunday, Jones replied, "Because I think there's been great progress." (Kelly, 3/23)

Politico: How The House Democrats' Stimulus Plan Compares To The Senate's
Democrats are following through on their threat to go rogue with their own stimulus plan, unveiling a more than 1,400-page bill Monday night, packed with policy differences compared to the proposal Senate Republicans laid out. After the GOP’s latest measure tanked twice during test votes in the Senate, House Democrats wrote a competing proposal to save the country from economic destruction at the hands of the coronavirus. The House measure would boost emergency funds for agencies, mandate "green" rules for airlines, eliminate a payroll tax suspension, kick in additional help for hospitals, schools and food banks, and more. (Emma and Scholtes, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cases In Congress Bring New Urgency To Remote Voting
Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s husband is in the hospital with Covid-19, adding the Minnesota Democrat to the growing list of lawmakers touched by the coronavirus pandemic, as calls mounted for Congress to consider unprecedented legislation that would enable remote voting during a national emergency. John Bessler, a professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, became sick while the senator was in Minnesota, Ms. Klobuchar’s office said in a statement. He quarantined himself, and as his symptoms progressed, he was admitted to a hospital in Virginia. (Andrews, Wise and Tau, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Six Days: Tracking Sen. Rand Paul From Coronavirus Testing To Positive Diagnosis
Aware of his extensive travel and compromised health, Sen. Rand Paul quietly got himself tested for the novel coronavirus on March 16. But for the six days that his results were pending, the Kentucky Republican took no steps to self-quarantine — continuing to cast votes on the Senate floor, delivering a speech lambasting a coronavirus aid bill, and meeting with other GOP senators in strategy sessions that defied federal advisories warning against gatherings of more than 10 people. (Kim, Scherer and Kane, 3/23)

The New York Times: Rand Paul’s Positive Coronavirus Test Sets The (Still Meeting) Senate On Edge
In another workplace, in another town, the news that a colleague who, days and even hours before testing positive for the novel coronavirus, had been dining and meeting and working out alongside his co-workers might have spurred some drastic measures. Not so in Congress. (Edmondson, 3/23)

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill —

Politico: Shareholder Suit Accuses Sen. Richard Burr Of Securities Fraud
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is being sued after selling shares in a hotel company while possessing confidential information about the potential impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Alan Jacobson, a shareholder in Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, sued Burr in federal court on Monday, alleging that the senator used private information to motivate a mass liquidation of his assets. It is illegal for senators to use nonpublic information in conducting securities exchanges. (Choi, 3/23)

Politico: House Panel Warns Coronavirus Could Destroy Postal Service By June
The U.S. Postal Service could be gone by June unless Congress immediately delivers billions of dollars to counteract the impact of the coronavirus crisis, a House committee chairwoman warned Monday night. "Based on a number of briefings and warnings this week about a critical fall-off in mail across the country, it has become clear that the Postal Service will not survive the summer without immediate help from Congress and the White House," said Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) in a statement. (Cheney, 3/23)

Politico: Fears Mount Of A Coronavirus-Induced Depression
Forecasts of doom for the American economy are quickly turning from gray to pitch black. As Congress haggles over a multitrillion-dollar coronavirus rescue package, analysts are warning the U.S. could be facing a prolonged depression rather than the kind of short recession and swift bounce back that President Donald Trump and his top aides expect. And they’re raising questions about whether current government efforts to cushion the economy from the damage will be anywhere near enough. (White, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Could Trigger Global Recession, Says IMF
Europe saw a record fall in business activity during March as government measures and behavioral changes designed to contain the novel coronavirus intensified, while Japan saw sharp falls that similarly hit service providers hardest. Surveys of purchasing managers released Tuesday that have a good record of measuring economic activity point to large drops in output and big job losses in some of the world’s largest economies, suggesting a global recession is possible. The surveys are the first globally comparable measures of activity to be released since widespread lockdowns by countries began. (Hannon and Fujikawa, 3/24)

The New York Times: Whatever It Takes: How The Fed Aims To Rescue The Economy
The Federal Reserve on Monday pledged to do, in essence, whatever it takes to keep the economy from collapsing under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. The Fed’s announcement had lots of bureaucratic jargon and an alphabet soup of acronyms. But at its core, the central bank was making a simple promise, summed up in the first sentence of its news release: The Fed is “committed to using its full range of tools to support households, businesses and the U.S. economy overall.” Here’s a guide to understanding the Fed’s actions. (Casselman, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Fed Makes Strongest Bid Yet To Protect Firms And Governments
With lending in Treasury and mortgage markets threatening to shut down, the Fed announced an aggressive set of programs Monday to try to smooth out those markets. To do so, it committed to buy as much government-backed debt as it deems necessary. And for the first time ever, the Fed said it plans to buy corporate debt, too.Its intervention is intended to ensure that households, companies, banks and governments can get the loans they need at a time when their own revenue is fast drying up as the economy stalls. (Rugaber, 3/24)

The Hill: Fed Rewrites Crisis Playbook 
The Federal Reserve is rewriting its crisis playbook as the central bank takes unprecedented steps to prevent a historic downturn. As the coronavirus pandemic unleashes economic turmoil across the U.S., the Fed is approaching the limits of its legal authority to keep credit flowing to American households and businesses facing financial peril. “The coronavirus pandemic is causing tremendous hardship across the United States and around the world,” the Fed said in a statement Monday. “Aggressive efforts must be taken across the public and private sectors to limit the losses to jobs and incomes and to promote a swift recovery once the disruptions abate.” (Lane, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Global Stocks Rise Following Turbulent Start To Week
U.S. stock-index futures and global equities rose after the Federal Reserve stepped up its assistance to the American economy, saying it would back lending to businesses and buy essentially unlimited amounts of government debt. S&P 500 futures gained 4.9%, suggesting U.S. shares could rise later in the day. (Chiu, 3/24)

Politico: The Unthinkable: Is It Time To Shut Down The Stock Market?
Wall Street is facing a grim question as stock prices plunge on most days with no end in sight: Is it time to shut the market down for a while? The debate over whether to pause market trading has intensified over the last two weeks, as much of the economy has ground to a halt to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Warmbrodt, 3/24)

The Associated Press: Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime? Echoes Of '30s In Viral Crisis?
The imagery floats in sepia-colored photographs, faintly recalled images of bedraggled people lined up for bread or soup. Shacks in Appalachian hollows. Ruined investors taking their lives in the face of stock market crashes. Desperation etched on the faces of a generation that would soon face a world war. By now, it’s hard to find someone whose grandparents are old enough to recall the suffering of the Great Depression or the stream of rescue programs the government unleashed in response to it. All but gone, too, are memories of President Franklin Roosevelt’s “fireside chats,” his attempts to console an anxious populace and quell the “fake news” rumors of the day. (Gordon, 3/24)

The New York Times: Bankers Pledge Mortgage Help, But Want Billions
In just days, tens of millions of people across the United States will have to make fresh payments on their mortgages. Their lenders have come up with a plan to help borrowers who can’t pay because of the economic fallout from the coronavirus — and they want the federal government to backstop it. Such help would cost tens of billions of dollars, and groups representing the mortgage industry warned that their efforts to help homeowners could cause the entire industry to collapse without the government’s help. (Flitter and Goldstein, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Mortgage Firms Brace For Wave Of Missed Payments As Coronavirus Slams Homeowners
Mortgage companies are bracing for a severe cash crunch when Americans who lose jobs and income because of the coronavirus pandemic stop making payments on their home loans. The companies, such as Quicken Loans Inc. and Mr. Cooper Group Inc., expect a wave of missed payments from borrowers as early as next month that will force them to come up with tens of billions of dollars on short notice. (Ackerman, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Forces Workers To Choose Between Health And Paycheck
Teresa Trejo has spent the last two decades shuttling between jobs at the L.A. Convention Center and Dodger Stadium. Her work as a barista and a bartender serves as the main source of income for her family, which includes her 7-year-old son, whose fears around the coronavirus have steadily grown. For Trejo, 46, the effects of the outbreak hit swiftly two weeks ago, when both her workplaces shuttered and her hours were cut indefinitely, forcing her to file for unemployment. Like other Americans who don’t have the luxury of a work-from-home option, Trejo is finding that the virus will disproportionately affect those whose livelihoods depend on daily human interaction. (Shalby, 3/24)

NBC News: Las Vegas' Neon Lights Go Dark As Coronavirus Outbreak Leaves Thousands Unemployed
Roshy Rivera was hiking at the Grand Canyon with two of her co-workers last week when she found out they'd all just lost their jobs. As the sun turned the mountains golden that Tuesday afternoon, she and her co-workers received a text message from the owners of Casa Di Amore, the Las Vegas restaurant where Rivera, 37, had worked as a bartender for 12 years. The message said that Nevada's governor had just ordered the closure of all nonessential businesses, such as casinos, dine-in restaurants and bars, for 30 days amid the growing coronavirus outbreak. Casa Di Amore was going to shut down. (Hassan, 3/23)

Bloomberg: Landlords Will Be Granted U.S. Mortgage Relief If They Delay Evictions
Many landlords may be allowed to fall behind on their mortgage payments amid the coronavirus outbreak in return for not kicking renters out of their apartments. The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Monday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will grant mortgage forbearance to owners of multifamily properties in exchange for suspending evictions. The move applies to all Fannie- and Freddie-backed mortgages in situations where renters can’t afford to make their monthly payments due to the outbreak. (Westbrook, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Domestic Passenger Flights Could Virtually Shut Down, Voluntarily Or By Government Order
Major U.S. airlines are drafting plans for a potential voluntary shutdown of virtually all passenger flights across the U.S., according to industry and federal officials, as government agencies also consider ordering such a move and the nation’s air-traffic control system continues to be ravaged by the coronavirus contagion. No final decisions have been made by the carriers or the White House, these officials said. As airlines struggle to keep aircraft flying with minimal passengers, various options are under consideration, these people said. (Pasztor and Sider, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Gun Industry Lobbies To Keep Selling Despite Coronavirus Shutdowns
The firearms industry is lobbying state and federal officials to have gun stores be categorized as essential businesses that are allowed to remain open during the nationwide shutdowns meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Business has boomed for the industry in the past week, with long lines stretching outside gun stores across the country. On March 16, background checks were up 300% compared with the same day last year, according to federal data shared with the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry association. The total number of checks since Feb. 23 is twice as high as in the same period in 2019. (Elinson and Bravin, 3/24)

The Washington Post: Gun And Ammunition Sales Rise Amid Pandemic Fears
Behind an unmarked metal door in a Maryland industrial park, in the bunkerlike space where Kat O’Connor runs her gun business, boxes of ammo were stacked on a desktop and a table early Friday, awaiting customers. In this spring of pandemic and social upheaval, bullets for home defense are as precious to some folks as toilet paper and Purell, and just as scarce lately. After canvassing distributors, O’Connor had managed to get hold of 7,000 rounds, most of which would be gone by closing time. (Duggan and Weiner, 3/22)

ABC News: Gun Sales On The Rise As Coronavirus Concerns Spread
At gun stores from California to New York, the American people are stocking up in enormous numbers, almost as if the end was near. "Trying to buy ammunition because of everything that's going on with the virus and stuff, it's horrible and I don't want to take any chances," Angel Colon told ABC News affiliate WPVI in Spanish. (Barr, 3/21)

In other news about what's selling and what's not —

The Wall Street Journal: Groceries, Guns And News: What Sells In A Pandemic—And What Doesn’t
U.S. household consumption patterns have gone haywire during the early stages of the global coronavirus health crisis. A Wall Street Journal analysis of high-frequency data from a range of U.S. industries showed sharp declines in spending on hotels, restaurants, airlines and other travel, while spending boomed in other areas including groceries, general merchandise stores, gun and ammunition shops and marijuana suppliers. Mortgage applications surged as interest rates dropped, new car sales in many cities fell and consumers quickly grew reluctant to buy big-ticket household items. (Guilford, 3/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Grocers Stopped Stockpiling Food. Then Came Coronavirus.
Food sellers in the U.S. spent years making their supply chains efficient. Then a pandemic hit, and the strategy backfired. In the past two decades, producers and grocery stores such as Kroger Co. have gone from keeping months of inventory on hand to holding only a four to six weeks’ supply. For many items this month, though, that amount sold out in days. The run has exposed the downside of the food industry’s push to hold less stock in warehouses and operate fewer, fuller trucks to increase profit margins. (Gasparro, Smith and Kang, 3/23)

The New York Times: Trump Considers Reopening Economy, Over Health Experts’ Objections
As the United States entered Week 2 of trying to contain the spread of the coronavirus by shuttering large swaths of the economy, President Trump, Wall Street executives and many conservative economists began questioning whether the government had gone too far and should instead lift restrictions that are already inflicting deep pain on workers and businesses. Consensus continues to grow among government leaders and health officials that the best way to defeat the virus is to order nonessential businesses to close and residents to confine themselves at home. Britain, after initially resisting such measures, essentially locked down its economy on Monday, as did the governors of Virginia, Michigan and Oregon. More than 100 million Americans will soon be subject to stay-at-home orders. (Tankersley, Haberman and Rabin, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Trump Says He Intends To Reopen Country In Weeks, Not Months
“We can’t have the cure be worse than the problem,” Trump told reporters at a briefing, echoing a midnight Sunday tweet. “We have to open our country because that causes problems that, in my opinion, could be far bigger problems.” Health experts have made clear that unless Americans continue to dramatically limit social interaction — staying home from work and isolating themselves — the number of infections will overwhelm the health care system, as it has in parts of Italy, leading to many more deaths. While the worst outbreaks are concentrated in certain parts of the country, such as New York, experts warn that the highly infectious disease is certain to spread. (Colvin, Boak and Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/23)

Reuters: Trump Suggests He May Scale Back Closures Soon Despite Worsening Coronavirus Outbreak
Trump issued guidelines a week ago that he said aimed to slow the spread of the disease over 15 days, including curbing unnecessary travel. In the meantime, economic activity has ground to a halt in some states. But watching the loss of many jobs and a sharp drop in stock markets and facing a tough re-election battle, Trump has privately expressed worries to aides and allies about the impact of the restrictions on the long-term health of the economy. (Holland and Mason, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: As Economic Toll Mounts, Nation Ponders Trade-Offs
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday acknowledged the trade-offs and defended his administration’s decision to close all nonessential businesses and ban unnecessary gatherings of any size. “I’m very proud of the measures being taken to address the public health crisis. …But, I’m also very aware that it is unsustainable to run this state and run this country with the economy closed down,” he said at a news conference in Albany. The stakes have rarely been higher for the nation: The risk of death to millions, and the cost of millions of jobs and potential bankruptcies if businesses and households can’t earn cash flow to pay their bills. (Hisenrath and Armour, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Trump Vows To Lift Restrictions To Reopen Businesses, Defying The Advice Of Coronavirus Experts
The consensus among experts — including infectious disease expert Anthony S. Fauci and other senior officials on Trump’s coronavirus task force — is that restaurants, bars, schools, offices and other gathering places should remain closed for many more weeks to mitigate the outbreak, the worst effects of which are yet to be felt in the United States. But Trump has been chafing against that notion and impatient to get American life back to normal. (Rucker, Stein, Dawsey and Parker, 3/23)

Politico: Health Officials Want Trump To ‘Double Down, Not Lighten Up’ Restrictions
Health experts are contending the fallout will be worse if the White House declares victory now, only to have the virus resurface weeks or months from now. The government, they argue, has yet to definitively answer key questions that would dictate how to reactivate the economy: Do those who recover from coronavirus become immune? How do underlying health conditions affect the severity of the virus? And, most important, how widely has it spread? Others have stressed the political risks facing Trump and his reelection campaign if the outbreak worsens significantly, warning that it would be catastrophic if the virus made a comeback closer to the November election — especially after Trump declared himself a “wartime” president and assured the public that his administration was in control. (Cancryn and Cook, 3/23)

NBC News: Tensions Brewing Inside The White House Over Economic Consequences Of Coronavirus Response
The president was cautioned early on against setting expectations that after two weeks, the country would return to normal, an administration official said. He is also being warned not to back off on the necessary restrictions on movement and social interactions, not only by public health officials but also his allies in Congress. "President Trump’s best decision was stopping travel from China early on," Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said. "I hope we will not undercut that decision by suggesting we back off aggressive containment policies within the United States." (Alexander and Pettypiece, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Will Texas And Florida Be 'The Next Italy' In Coronavirus Outbreak?
Gavin Newsom was the first governor to order his citizens to stay at home, shutting down California’s economy, the world’s eighth-largest, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next day, Friday, Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, followed suit. But not so in Texas and Florida, the nation’s second and third most populous states, where a small-government philosophy — less taxes, fewer regulation and a weaker safety net — has long held sway. About one-fifth of Texas’ 29 million people lacks health insurance, and nearly one-quarter of Florida’s 21 million residents are elderly. (Hennessy-Fiske and Kaleem, 3/23)

The New York Times: See Which States And Cities Have Told Residents To Stay At Home
In a matter of days, millions of Americans have been asked to do what might have been unthinkable only a week or two ago: Don’t go to work, don’t go to school, don’t leave the house at all, unless you have to. The directives to keep people at home to stunt the spread of the coronavirus began in California, and have quickly been adopted across the country. By Monday, more than a dozen states had called on their residents to stay at home as much as possible, with some cities and counties joining in. (Mervosh and Lu, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Across The U.S., Residents Heed Lockdown Orders
State by state, America is locking down its residents, as more officials urge people to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus by limiting their interactions with the world outside of their homes. Jeff Binder and his wife decided that starting Monday no visitors would be allowed into their house in Webster Groves, Mo., with even limits on extended family. That came as St. Louis County, where they live, joined the growing list of municipalities flat-out ordering residents to stay home. “The world is shrinking for sure,” said Mr. Binder, who is 51 years old and the managing director of a real-estate brokerage firm for senior housing. But he calls the lockdown a necessary step: “Whatever it takes to get us to the other side.” (Levitz and Maher, 3/24)

CNN: Why Some People Just Won't Stay Home Despite The Advice 
Living through a pandemic is strange. Most of us have never been asked to make sacrifices like this before -- staying home and limiting contact with others. All that disruption can make people anxious. And for some, that includes ignoring the novel coronavirus altogether and carrying on as though it's business as usual. Despite repeated pleas from public health and government officials to stay home and slow the spread of Covid-19, many people just won't. (Andrew, 3/24)

CNN: Trump Predicts 'This Is Going To Be Bad' But Vows To Reopen America 
President Donald Trump appears to have made his choice in the awful dilemma posed by the coronavirus pandemic -- whether to destroy the nation's economic foundation in order to save lives. In his zeal to fire up American prosperity after helping to trigger an unprecedented self-inflicted economic meltdown, Trump is already losing patience -- weeks before the virus may peak. "Our country was not built to be shut down," the President warned on Monday. "We are going to be opening up our country for business because our country was meant to be open." (Collinson, 3/24)

The New York Times: Trump Has Given Unusual Leeway To Fauci, But Aides Say He’s Losing His Patience
President Trump has praised Dr. Anthony S. Fauci as a “major television star.” He has tried to demonstrate that the administration is giving him free rein to speak. And he has deferred to Dr. Fauci’s opinion several times at the coronavirus task force’s televised briefings. But Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, has grown bolder in correcting the president’s falsehoods and overly rosy statements about the spread of the coronavirus in the past two weeks — and he has become a hero to the president’s critics because of it. And now, Mr. Trump’s patience has started to wear thin. (Haberman, 3/23)

ABC News: Tensions With Trump: Dr. Anthony Fauci On Telling The Truth
Just as those free-wheeling daily White House briefings on how the government is dealing with the coronavirus have become a constant in this strange new iteration of American life, so, too, has the presence of Dr. Anthony Fauci as a real-time fact-checker to President Donald Trump. Fauci, the government’s top expert on infectious diseases, has long been viewed as a truth-teller, but never so much as now, reassuring Americans looking for science-based answers about what to expect in the coronavirus epidemic, using plain-spoken language in his trademark Brooklyn accent. (Haslett, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Fauci Says He Can't Stop Trump From Talking At Briefings
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he can’t jump in front of the microphone to stop President Donald Trump from speaking at daily White House briefings on the coronavirus outbreak. The nation’s top infectious disease expert told Science magazine in an interview that Trump listens “even though we disagree on some things.” “He goes his own way. He has his own style,” Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in the telephone interview with the magazine Sunday. “But on substantive issues, he does listen to what I say.” (Superville, 3/24)

CNN: Fauci On Trump: 'I Can't Jump In Front Of The Microphone And Push Him Down' 
The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, described the challenges of working with the Trump administration during the coronavirus pandemic in an interview with the journal Science published Sunday. Asked how he responds to falsehoods from the President during press conferences, Fauci said, "I can't jump in front of the microphone and push him down," according to the interview. (Azad, 3/23)

The Hill: Trump Offers Praise For Absent Fauci: 'He's A Good Man' 
President Trump on Monday praised National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, even as he acknowledged he may overrule the advice of public health officials and scale back steps taken to constrain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Fauci, a member of Trump's coronavirus task force, has become a familiar presence at the daily White House briefings, often offering a more sober contrast to Trump. (Weixel, 3/23)

NBC News: See Trump's Reaction When He Heard One Of His Top Docs Was Tested For Coronavirus
The Trump administration's coronavirus task force had a moment of levity Monday when President Donald Trump playfully walked away from Dr. Deborah Birx, a panel member, after she revealed that she had a fever over the weekend and was tested for the virus. She was negative. (Clark, 3/23)

The New York Times: In Daily Coronavirus Briefing, Trump Tries To Redefine Himself
President Trump’s campaign rallies have been canceled for the foreseeable future. His noisy back-and-forths with reporters on the South Lawn, half drowned out by the whir of Marine One behind him, have also disappeared. And with almost no meetings or foreign leaders visiting the Oval Office, Mr. Trump can no longer invite the news media to view him at work — photo ops that doubled as chances for him to engage in impromptu question-and-answer sessions with the news media that he could end on his own terms. (Karni, 3/23)

Politico: Trump’s New 2020 Reality: Nothing Matters But His Coronavirus Response
Team Trump is rushing to rewrite the early narrative about the president’s response to coronavirus. Faced with endless video clips of Donald Trump downplaying the escalating outbreak, Trump aides and allies are working furiously to instead highlight the president’s recent actions and comments. Their effort comprises three tactics: Blanket supporters with detailed timelines of every action the Trump administration took. Amplify praise of those actions. And forcefully push back against anyone who criticizes those actions. (Kumar, 3/24)

Politico: White House Reporter Suspected To Have Coronavirus, WHCA Says
The White House Correspondents Association on Monday said a reporter who was at the White House multiple times over the last two weeks is suspected to have coronavirus, according to an email from the organization. The reporter was at the White House on March 9, 11, 16 and 18, and the WHCA is encouraging all journalists present at the White House during those days to "review public health guidance, consult their medical professionals and take the appropriate next steps." (Ward, 3/23)

ProPublica: The Coronavirus Testing Paradox
There’s a seeming paradox in experts’ advice on testing people for COVID-19. A growing number of epidemiologists are calling for a nationwide regimen of tests to identify hot spots and allow public health workers to isolate the close contacts of anyone who’s infected. Yet New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S., has ordered doctors not to test anyone who is “mild to moderately ill” with COVID-like symptoms, a position also taken by Los Angeles. As New York’s Health Department succinctly put it: “Outpatient testing must not be encouraged, promoted or advertised.” (Engelberg, 3/23)

The Washington Post: State Coronavirus Testing Numbers Vary
Epidemiologists and other leading scientists seeking to decipher test result patterns and slow the advance of the coronavirus are stumbling over the huge disparities among the ways states administer or report information. Some states are keeping negative tests secret while others aren’t. Some track state lab results, while ignoring test results from private companies. Some restrict the availability of tests, while others test widely. (Mufson, Tran and Dennis, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Testing Blunders Crippled US Response As Coronavirus Spread
A series of missteps at the nation’s top public health agency caused a critical shortage of reliable laboratory tests for the coronavirus, hobbling the federal response as the pandemic spread across the country like wildfire, an Associated Press review found. President Donald Trump assured Americans early this month that the COVID-19 test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “perfect” and that “anyone who wants a test can get a test.” But more than two months after the first U.S. case of the new disease was confirmed, many people still cannot get tested. (Biesecker, Stobbe and Perrone, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Tests: Medical Board Looking Into 'Concierge Doctors'
The Medical Board of California is looking into physicians selling COVID-19 tests while sick people around the country can’t get tested because of a nationwide shortage, a board spokesman said Monday morning. The inquiry comes after The Times reported that “concierge” doctors who cater to rich people and celebrities have been selling testing to patients and their families, in some cases even if they have no symptoms or any other reason to be tested. (Elmahrek, Kaufman and Poston, 3/23)

The New York Times: As Federal Government Mobilizes, Local Officials Say Response Remains Too Slow
Federal emergency response teams toured a convention center in New York City on Monday, a sign that a much-needed temporary hospital is on the way. California has received hundreds of thousands of masks for those on the front lines of the outbreak. And President Trump said desperately needed protective equipment was on its way to Washington State. In spots around the nation, the gears of the federal government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak have begun turning. But as the Federal Emergency Management Agency grapples with a crisis whose breadth poses challenges it has never confronted before, state and local leaders lament the time already lost and say the delivery of essential supplies remains far too slow to address their quickly expanding list of needs. (Kanno-Youngs and Lipton, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Strategic Stockpile Of Medical Supplies Is Outmatched By Coronavirus
Hospitals and states overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic say the nation’s safety net of medical-equipment supplies, the Strategic National Stockpile, is falling far short of need and are calling for federal officials to invoke national-defense powers to spur more manufacturing. State officials in Washington and Massachusetts say they have received a fraction of what they sought from the national stockpile, an emergency federal reserve of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and protective gear such as protective masks and gowns. State officials also are calling for a change in the way the stockpile is administered. The stockpile’s formula for doling out supplies is based on population, which is limiting response in areas with escalating cases. (Evans and Siconolfi, 3/23)

Reuters: U.S. States, Cities Desperate For Coronavirus Help, Military Prepares
Several more U.S. governors on Monday joined the procession of states ordering millions of Americans to stay at home to slow the spread of the coronavirus, while President Trump signaled he’s considering a move in the opposite direction. (Kelly and Chiacu, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Newsom Says California Needs 50,000 Hospital Beds
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced new action on Monday to encourage social-distancing measures, including closing parking lots at state parks, and warned that California will need more than twice as many hospital beds for coronavirus patients than previously anticipated. The governor said he was closing parking lots in an effort to prevent people from congregating at California’s outdoor recreational areas and unintentionally spreading the virus. His announcement came four days after he ordered all residents to remain in their homes, making California the first state in the nation to place such restrictions on the movement of its residents. (Luna, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Doctors Plead For Supplies, While Nations Seek To Slow Virus
Doctors and nurses pleaded for supplies such as masks and ventilators that are critical in their battle to treat a surging number of coronavirus patients, while governments on Tuesday continued to roll out measures that have put more than one-fifth of the world’s population under some form of lockdown. High in the Himalayan mountains, Nepal became the latest country to compel its citizens to stay at home, joining large parts of Europe, Southeast Asia and the entire West Coast of the United States. (Geller and Blake, 3/24)

The New York Times: The U.S. Needs China’s Masks, As Acrimony Grows
American front-line medical personnel are running desperately short of masks and protective equipment as they battle the coronavirus outbreak. China, already the world’s largest producer of such gear by far, has ramped up factory output and is now signaling that it wants to help. Reaching deals won’t be easy. Increasingly acrimonious relations between Washington and Beijing are complicating efforts to get Chinese-made masks to American clinics and hospitals. A breakdown over the last few days in the global business of moving goods by air around the world will make it costly and difficult as well. (Bradsher and Swanson, 3/23)

The Hill: Trump Signs Executive Order To Prevent Price Gouging, Hoarding Of Medical Supplies 
President Trump signed an executive order Monday aimed at preventing price gouging and hoarding of critical medical supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak. Attorney General William Barr detailed the executive order at a White House briefing Monday evening, saying it would prohibit people from accumulating critical supplies amid the coronavirus outbreak in an effort to profit off of them.Barr said the Department of Justice (DOJ) had seen potential evidence of hoarding and price gouging amid the pandemic. (Chalfant, 3/23)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Bans Hoarding Of Scarce Medical Equipment And Supplies
Hand sanitizer, face masks and other personal protective equipment, or PPE, are in short supply thanks to a sudden and overwhelming increase in demand throughout the U.S. caused by the coronavirus outbreak. The Trump administration decided to take action following reports that some people have stocked up on critical equipment and supplies, which can exacerbate shortages. "We have started to see some evidence of potential hoarding and price gouging," United States Attorney General Bill Barr said. HHS Secretary Alex Azar can determine what essential equipment and supplies are "scarce" under the order. (Brady, 3/23)

CNN: 3M CEO: Our Medical Masks Should Not Be Showing Up In Stores
Every respirator mask that's available right now should be going to a healthcare worker on the front lines, caring for coronavirus-infected patients. They should not be sold in stores to consumers, said 3M CEO Mike Roman in a CNBC interview Monday. 3M is the largest maker of medical face masks, specifically the N95 respirator mask. (Kavilanz, 3/23)

CIDRAP: Life, Or Death? Experts Guide Pandemic Medical Equipment Decisions
As healthcare systems all over the world face rationing of medical supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are offering recommendations to enable ethical allocation. In an article today in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), an international group of experts on medical ethics and health policy give six recommendations to ensure that patients are treated equally and that individual physicians don't have to make the "terrible" decision about which patients receive life-sustaining treatment and which do not. (Van Beusekom, 3/23)

WBUR: People With Disabilities Say Rationing Care Policies Violate Civil Rights 
People with disabilities are asking the federal government to stop what they say are policies by states and hospitals that will ration care — and deny them treatment for the coronavirus. On Monday, several disability groups filed a complaint against the state of Washington, one of the states hardest hit by the pandemic. (Shapiro, 3/23)

Modern Healthcare: UPMC Defends Decision To Continue With Some Elective Surgeries
UPMC on Monday defended its policy of continuing to perform elective procedures on a case-by-case basis amid the COVID-19 outbreak, even as nearly 300 doctors urged the health system to cancel such procedures across the board. In a letter to UPMC administrators signed by 291 of its resident physicians, fellows and attending physicians, the doctors argued that continuing to perform elective procedures and allow outpatient visits would lead to further spread of the novel coronavirus to healthcare workers and patients alike and would use up crucial supplies at a time of national shortages. (Bannow, 3/23)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Homemade Face Masks Are Turned Away By Some Hospitals As Volunteers Try To Aid Coronavirus Fight 
The coronavirus crisis and its corresponding drain on medical supplies have created an altruistic cottage industry in the Crescent City, as creative citizens turn to their sewing machines to produce homemade surgical masks for hospital workers and others facing the contagion close up.But while the masks are turning up in some area institutions, many are declining the gift. (Maccash, 3/23)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sewing Masks For Hospitals: Wisconsin Make Homemade Supplies To Help
With hospitals across the state overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients, many have been struggling with the same equipment shortages seen all across the country.In Wisconsin, though, some hospitals and care facilities are getting a little help from their friends — from home-based sewers, church groups, a high-tech education lab and a well-known flag factory.On Saturday, the 300-bed Marshfield Clinic in the central part of the state put out a Facebook appeal for volunteers to sew masks. (Noenning and Johnson, 3/23

Cincinnati Enquirer: COVID-19: 100K Face Masks On Their Way To Local Hospital
The local Chinese chamber of commerce has arranged the delivery of 100,000 N95 face masks to a local hospital to protect doctors, nurses and other health care workers battling the new coronavirus pandemic.A FedEx cargo plane is scheduled to pick up the masks from a manufacturer in China on Tuesday, according to Leo Chan, executive director at the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The masks should be delivered to the hospital shortly thereafter, according to Chan, who said he could not identify the hospital because of a client confidentiality agreement. (Tucker, 3/23)

Bloomberg: Is There A Coronavirus Vaccine? Moderna May Release This Fall
Moderna Inc. said its experimental vaccine for Covid-19 could be available to a select few as soon as this fall, ahead of expectations for a commercial release in a year. Stephane Bancel, the biotech’s chief executive, told Goldman Sachs on Friday that mRNA-1273 could be made available to a few, potentially health-care workers, under emergency use authorization, according to a company statement. The vaccine was developed in partnership with Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Human testing started earlier this month. A potential vaccine is not expected to be commercially available for at least a year. Moderna is also scaling up manufacturing capacity so it can produce millions of doses each month, the company said. (Flanagan, 3/23)

Boston Globe: Moderna Might Seek Emergency Approval This Fall Of Coronavirus Vaccine For Health Care Workers 
Moderna last month became the first drug maker to deliver a potential COVID-19 vaccine for clinical trials to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The institute helped develop the vaccine. Forty-five healthy volunteers on March 16 began receiving doses of the vaccine, which relies on custom-built messenger RNA to produce an immune response, in a clinical trial in Seattle. The first phase of the trial, at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, is scheduled to run about six weeks. If all goes well, the vaccine will then probably undergo two more phases of testing on many more people.Saltzman, 3/23)

Reuters: Singapore Scientists Study Genes To Fast-Track Coronavirus Vaccine
Scientists in Singapore say they have developed a way to track genetic changes that speeds testing of vaccines against a coronavirus that has killed more than 16,000 people worldwide. The scientists, at the city-state’s Duke-NUS Medical School, say their technique needs just days to evaluate potential vaccines provided by Arcturus Therapeutics, an American biotech firm the school has partnered with for the trials. (Aravindan, 3/24)

Politico: Trump Touts New York Coronavirus Trials As Progress Against Pandemic
President Donald Trump is hanging big hopes for defeating the coronavirus on a drug trial starting soon in New York, touting the potential benefits of an experimental combination that is only in the early stages of research. That therapy “probably is looking very, very good,” and the trial could start as early as Tuesday, Trump said at a Monday night press briefing on the coronavirus. Two clinical trials are set to begin in the state as early as this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Monday morning ahead of the president's briefing. (Owermohle and Young, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Malaria Drugs' Promise For Coronavirus Spurs Hope, Shortages
Excitement about treating the new coronavirus with malaria drugs is raising hopes, including with President Donald Trump. But the evidence that they may help is thin, and a run on the drugs is complicating access for people who need them for rheumatoid arthritis or lupus. Chloroquine and a similar drug, hydroxychloroquine, showed encouraging signs in small, early tests against the coronavirus. But the drugs have major side effects, one reason scientists don’t want to give them without evidence of their value, even in this emergency. (Marchione, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Claim That Malaria Drugs Treat Coronavirus Sparks Warnings, Shortages
Health officials across the world are issuing warnings over the use of antimalarial drugs after President Trump’s comments about treating the coronavirus with them sparked panic-buying and overdoses. In recent days, thousands of consumers across Africa and South Asia rushed to stockpile chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, drugs that are usually used to combat malaria, vacuuming up supplies in cities in the developing world, sending prices skyrocketing and prompting panicked warnings from local authorities. (Parkinson and Gauthier-Villars, 3/23)

NBC News: 'Lifesaving' Lupus Drug In Short Supply After Trump Touts Possible Coronavirus Treatment
For nearly 30 years, Bonnie Lieberman has relied on a drug called Plaquenil to prevent a flare-up of symptoms associated with lupus: rashes, debilitating fatigue, "swollen, hot, painful joints." "This drug is lifesaving for me because it helps me function," she said. But when Lieberman, a preschool teacher from California, called her pharmacy Friday to check whether her new prescription was available, she got a startling reply. (Nadi, 3/23)

WBUR: Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop 
A family of old antimalarial drugs — including one that some patients rely on to treat their lupus or rheumatoid arthritis — is becoming harder to get in the United States, pharmacists say, partly because of remarks President Trump has made, highlighting the drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19. (Bebinger, 3/23)

The New York Times: Man Fatally Poisons Himself While Self-Medicating For Coronavirus, Doctor Says
An Arizona man died and his wife was hospitalized after officials said they treated themselves on Sunday with a deadly home remedy for the new coronavirus — a popular fish tank additive that has the same active ingredient as an anti-malaria drug. The drug, known as chloroquine phosphate or chloroquine, has been bandied about by President Trump during White House briefings on the coronavirus pandemic as a potential “game changer” in the treatment of Covid-19. (Vigdor, 3/24)

The Associated Press: Arizona Death Prompts Warning Against Self-Medication
It’s unclear if the couple took it specifically because of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but now Banner Health is warning everyone to avoid self-medicating. “Given the uncertainty around COVID-19, we understand that people are trying to find new ways to prevent or treat this virus, but self-medicating is not the way to do so,” said Dr. Daniel Brooks, Banner Poison and Drug Information Center medical director. “The last thing that we want right now is to inundate our emergency departments with patients who believe they found a vague and risky solution that could potentially jeopardize their health.” (Galvan and Cooper, 3/24)

Stat: When Might Experimental Drugs To Treat Covid-19 Be Ready? A Forecast
There is a desperate need for new medicines to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has shut down much of the world. A vaccine to prevent infection entirely would be even better. Drug companies and medical researchers are making heroic efforts to deliver new medicines. (Herper, 3/24)

Stat: Why Does Pharma Still Make Drugs Using A Slow, Batch-Based Process?
Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said so-called continuous manufacturing would prevent drug shortages, lower drug prices, and bring manufacturing back to the United States. Lawmakers have doled out millions to encourage it. There are predictions it could throw gasoline on the quest for flu treatments and now, potentially, coronavirus therapies. So why aren't most drug makers fully bought in? (Florko, 3/24)

NBC News: New York Will Be First State To Test Treatment Of Coronavirus With Blood From Recovered Patients
Hoping to stem the toll of the state’s surging coronavirus outbreak, New York health officials plan to begin collecting plasma from people who have recovered and injecting the antibody-rich fluid into patients still fighting the virus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the plans during a news briefing Monday. The treatment, known as convalescent plasma, dates back centuries and was used during the flu epidemic of 1918 — in an era before modern vaccines and antiviral drugs. (Hixenbaugh, 3/23)

ABC News: Critical Inhaler Medication Shortage Looms As Coronavirus Cases Soar
When Brett Cavin went to a pharmacy last week in Gresham, Oregon, to pick up his inhaler prescription for his asthma, he was turned away and warned it could take up to a week for the pharmacy to replenish its supply. Cavin is not alone, according to doctors and pharmacists who spoke to ABC News. As emergency rooms and intensive care units across the country begin to fill with patients with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, hospitals and pharmacies have run into a new shortage: albuterol inhalers, a critical rescue medication that expands a user's constricted airways and allows them to breath more easily. (Cook, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Faces Challenges As U.S. Epicenter For Coronavirus
In days, New York City has gone from sounding determined to ride out the novel coronavirus and keep schools open to confronting daunting challenges as the epicenter of the nation’s crisis. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who only days ago had encouraged people to visit restaurants and kept his own gym appointments, was by the weekend instructing residents to stay home and sounding the alarm. (Chapman and Vielkind, 3/23)

The New York Times: Density Is New York City’s Big ‘Enemy’ In The Coronavirus Fight
New York has tried to slow the spread of the coronavirus by closing its schools, shutting down its nonessential businesses and urging its residents to stay home almost around the clock. But it faces a distinct obstacle in trying to stem new cases: its cheek-by-jowl density. New York is far more crowded than any other major city in the United States. It has 28,000 residents per square mile, while San Francisco, the next most jammed city, has 17,000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. (Rosenthal, 3/23)

The Hill: Administration Says New York Has Soaring Coronavirus 'Attack Rate' 
The “attack rate” of the coronavirus in the New York metro area is five times higher than in other areas of the country, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, said Monday evening. About one in 1,000 people have the coronavirus in the region, she added. Of those who have been tested for the virus in the New York area, 28 percent were positive, compared to 8 percent in the rest of the country. (Hellmann, 3/23)

The New York Times: How An Upscale Connecticut Party Became A Coronavirus 'Super Spreader'
About 50 guests gathered on March 5 at a home in the stately suburb of Westport, Conn., to toast the hostess on her 40th birthday and greet old friends, including one visiting from South Africa. They shared reminiscences, a lavish buffet and, unknown to anyone, the coronavirus. Then they scattered. The Westport soirée — Party Zero in southwestern Connecticut and beyond — is a story of how, in the Gilded Age of money, social connectedness and air travel, a pandemic has spread at lightning speed. The partygoers — more than half of whom are now infected — left that evening for Johannesburg, New York City and other parts of Connecticut and the United States, all seeding infections on the way. (Williamson and Hussey, 3/23)

Politico: Andrew Cuomo, Social Media Superstar
A month ago, in quieter times, Gov. Andrew Cuomo posted a story on Facebook about how scientists at a state college had found a tortoise on the Galapagos Islands previously believed to be extinct. The comments were in line with what can be found on most of the New York governor’s social media posts. “When will you be extinct?” responded one person. (Mahoney, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Hospital System Bans Partners From Delivery Room
A major New York City hospital system is banning partners from the delivery room in response to the new coronavirus outbreak, sparking a backlash from health-care advocates concerned about the policy’s toll on pregnant women and their families. A spokeswoman for NewYork-Presbyterian, a network of 10 hospitals that delivers some 15,000 infants a year, said the hospital has decided not to permit visitors, including partners. “We understand that this will be difficult for our patients and their loved ones, but we believe this is a necessary step to promote patient safety,” she said. (Kusisto and West, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Crime Falls As Coronavirus Takes Hold
Crime in New York City is falling as the city’s response to the new coronavirus ramps up, data released by the New York Police Department on Monday show. The number of serious felonies reported by the NYPD dropped by 16.6 % between March 16 and March 22, compared with the same period last year, according to police data. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered city schools closed on March 15, in the first in a series of wide-reaching official actions to stem the spread of the disease. (Chapman, 3/23)

Los Angeles Times: San Francisco Warns Of Coronavirus Surge: 'The Worst Is Yet To Come'
San Francisco officials warned that a surge in coronavirus is expected to come within a week or two, and voiced dismay over images of the public crowding beaches and parks across California. “The worst is yet to come,” San Francisco Director of Health Dr. Grant Colfax said at a news conference Monday. “Every community where the virus has taken hold has seen a surge in the number of coronavirus patients who need to be hospitalized. We expect that to happen in San Francisco soon, in a week or two, or perhaps even less.” (Ryan, Lin and Greene, 3/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Hospitals Scramble To Hire Nurses For Coronavirus Surge Amid National Shortage 
As the surge in new coronavirus patients threatens to overwhelm Bay Area hospitals, some are preparing by aggressively ramping up the hiring of nurses, reshuffling staff and even asking recent retirees to return .Even before COVID-19 posed a risk to the U.S., many hospitals around the country — including San Francisco General Hospital — were woefully short of nurses and other frontline health care workers. Now, as the coronavirus tears through the country, hospitals everywhere are competing for a limited pool of experienced talent. (Thadani, 3/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Brings An End To California’s Good-Times Budget. How Bad Will It Get? 
In a January budget proposal of record size, Gov. Gavin Newsom touted a projected multibillion-dollar surplus and new programs to reshape homeless services, boost wildfire prevention and provide health care for immigrant seniors living in the country illegally. That plan has been dashed by the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus outbreak, which experts say is pushing the U.S. into a recession. (Koseff, 3/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Site Opens For Coronavirus Test Without Doctor’s Order, One Of First In State 
Within an hour after Hayward Fire Station 7 began offering free coronavirus testing at 9 a.m. Monday morning — one of the first free testing sites in California with no doctor’s order required — firefighters had screened nearly 300 people for symptoms, collected nasal cavity samples from about 20 of them and prepared to drive the samples across the bay to a lab.By 11 a.m., technicians and clinical laboratory specialists at Avellino Lab, the Menlo Park biotech company that is providing and processing the tests, was running samples through its diagnostic machines. (Ho and Ravani, 3/23)

CNN: Florida Coronavirus: Governor Mandates Self-Quarantine For Travelers Coming From New York, New Jersey And Connecticut 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order mandating a 14-day self-quarantine or isolation period for travelers coming to Florida from airports in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The order marks the first large-scale attempt by a state to impose a self-quarantine period for domestic travelers and underscores the expansive measures elected officials are attempting -- and willing -- to enact as the outbreak spreads. (LeBlanc, 3/23)

CNN: Dan Patrick: 'I'm All In' On Risking My Health To Lift Social Distancing Guidelines For Economic Boost 
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Monday night that he's "not living in fear" of the novel coronavirus pandemic and is "all in" on lifting social distancing guidelines recommended by public health experts in order to help the economy. Patrick, who said he turns 70 next week, would be among the high-risk population that is most affected by the coronavirus. But he said people like him have to weigh the hazards to their personal health that the virus poses with the challenges to health of the American economy brought on by social distancing guidelines. (LeBlanc, 3/23)

The Hill: Texas Lt. Gov.: Grandparents 'Don't Want The Whole Country To Be Sacrificed' Amid Coronavirus Closures 
Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick (R) on Monday said that he is willing to take a chance on his survival as a senior citizen for the good of the country’s economy amid the coronavirus outbreak and added that thinks “there are lots of grandparents out there in this country” who feel the same way. "No one reached out to me and said, as a senior citizen, are you willing to take a chance on your survival in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren? And if that's the exchange, I'm all in," Patrick, who turns 70 next week, said during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program on Monday night. (Folley, 3/23)

The Hill: Inslee Orders Residents Of Washington State To Stay Home Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 
Gov. Jay Inslee (D) ordered Monday that the residents of Washington state stay at home as much as possible as the coronavirus outbreak continues to hit the state hard. Inslee announced the stay-at-home order in a live televised address to the state, saying residents have to remain home unless they are “pursuing an essential activity,” including grocery shopping, doctor appointments or essential work duties. All gatherings of people in public and private groups will be banned, including weddings and funerals. (Coleman, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Virginia Closes Schools, Maryland Closes Nonessential Businesses March 23
Virginia closed all schools for the rest of the academic year and Maryland ordered all nonessential businesses to shut their doors as the coronavirus continued to spread Monday, with health care workers sounding the alarm about dwindling supplies of protective gear. The number of cases announced in the region had reached 684 as of Monday evening. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) said the state was “moving into a period of sacrifice” and canceled the remainder of the school year — becoming the second state to do so, after Kansas. (Schneider, Wiggins, Vozzella and Swenson, 3/23)

WBUR: What We Know About The Coronavirus In Mass. Senior Living Residences
Older adults, especially those with underlying health issues, have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic, so nursing homes and other senior living residences in Massachusetts have been on high alert for weeks. Hoping to avoid what happened at the Life Care Center of Kirkland in Washington — where at least 129 people have tested positive and 35 people have died — the state and federal governments have issued guidelines about cleaning, hygiene, and limiting outside visitors. Still, late last week, senior living residences in the state began reporting residents testing positive for the coronavirus. (Wasser, 3/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia’s Youth Detention Staff Continue Work In Face Of Virus Concerns
Many of Georgia’s employees tasked with monitoring juvenile offenders continue to show up to work every day while taking extra steps to ensure their safety during the growing coronavirus pandemic. Even though Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this month encouraged state employees who could to telework, 60% to 65% of the Department of Juvenile Justice’s some 3,500 staff members — such as security officers and health care staff across 26 facilities — are not able to stay at home. (Prabhu, 3/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Confusion, Scarcity Lead To Haphazard Testing In State’s Virus Response
These are some of the sick who were tested for coronavirus: a woman who lost consciousness because she could not breathe; a state senator exposed to a congressman under voluntary quarantine; and a mom with a fever who works next to a doctor’s office. These are some of the sick who were not: a pregnant woman with lupus; a roofer who experienced such severe shortness of breath he dialed 911; and an uninsured woman whom doctors wanted to test, but could not afford it. (Mariano and Trubey, 3/23)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia Clears Homeless Encampment Despite CDC Guidance Not To During Coronavirus Spread
Philadelphia city officials shut down a homeless encampment near the Convention Center on Monday in a move that appeared to defy federal guidance aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus. The city’s Office of Homeless Services had planned for months to clear the encampment that formed in the shadow of the Convention Center. City officials considered the site the epicenter of Center City homelessness. Though some of the dozens of people who slept there regularly found safe haven in the community, officials said the conditions were unsafe and unsanitary. (Orso, 3/23)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Coronavirus Hasn’t Hit Rural Pennsylvania Hard Yet, But It’s Already Causing Problems
On March 13, when Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all schools in the commonwealth to be closed, families and educators in Forest County and other rural areas were presented with unique problems. Internet service is often terrible or nonexistent, so the students are just off. (Nark, 3/24)

Philadelphia Inquirer: For The Families Of Philadelphia’s Health-Care Workers, Painful Choices And Growing Anxiety Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
These are the painful choices that health-care workers and their families are making as the coronavirus outbreak bears down on the region. Those decisions have only become more urgent in recent days, as it’s become clear health-care workers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and around the world are facing a severe shortage of equipment to protect themselves.The crisis has set off a sense of wartime in America — the virus is described as an invisible enemy, and health-care workers are spoken of in terms often reserved for soldiers. The families who are avoiding their loved ones or setting up quarantine rooms in their homes are seen as part of the sacrifice. (Orso and Ao, 3/23)

The Oklahoman: Coronavirus In Oklahoma: More Testing Will Show Dramatic Increase In COVID19 Cases, Experts Say
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Oklahoma will rise dramatically as testing increases, adding to pressures on a health care system that is lacking necessary equipment, medical experts said Sunday night. “It’s likely we’ll see the numbers rise fairly significantly” as Oklahoma’s capability to test people increases, Gary Raskob, dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma, said Sunday night. (Casteel, 3/24)

The Washington Post: Trump Extends Real ID Deadline Amid Coronavirus Crisis
President Trump said Monday that he is pushing back the deadline for when Americans will be required to have the new Real ID credential to board domestic flights. At a White House briefing, Trump said he is postponing the Oct. 1 deadline, citing the coronavirus crisis and concerns of crowding at state departments of motor vehicles from people trying to meet the looming deadline. (Lazo, 3/23)

The New York Times: In Pandemic, Justice Dept. Seeks Video Court Hearings And Home Detention
Invoking the coronavirus crisis, the Justice Department has asked Congress to let more federal inmates serve their time at home and to steer scarce masks and testing kits to federal prisons ahead of other agencies, according to draft legislation submitted last week to congressional leaders. The department has also asked Congress to relax speedy trial rules and expand opportunities for law enforcement officials to use video conferencing for certain preliminary federal criminal and detention proceedings, like arraignments for newly arrested people. (Savage, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Barr Strives To Keep Justice Moving Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Attorney General William Barr keeps a thermometer on his desk so he can take his temperature every time he prepares to go to the White House. As with every aspect of American life, the coronavirus has upended the Justice Department and the way its more than 113,000 employees across the country work, including the attorney general. More federal courts are drastically reducing operations, prisons are grappling with how to handle infections among inmates and criminal cases have stalled. (Gurman, 3/23)

ABC News: How Coronavirus Is Crippling Courts And Raising Concerns Among Civil Liberties Advocates 
The rapid spread of novel coronavirus throughout America’s communities has crippled courts across the country as judges, attorneys and defendants trying to come to grips with how to achieve justice under the law while balancing public safety concerns amid ​a pandemic. In conversations with ABC News, current and former judges, attorneys and public defenders painted a sobering picture: ​jury trials discontinued, ongoing cases significantly delayed, a scramble for technological work-arounds and empty courthouses nationwide as some judges issue rulings from home. (Mallin, Barr and Dwyer, 3/24)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: California Trials Delayed; L.A. County Courts Closed To Public
Criminal and civil trials were discontinued in California for at least two months after a sweeping order was issued late Monday by the state’s chief justice that aims to sharply cut down public traffic in state courthouses during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said in her order that court facilities were “ill-equipped to effectively allow the social distancing and other public health requirements” that have been imposed across California to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Hamilton and Queally, 3/23)

ABC News: Despite Coronavirus Warnings, Federal Bureau Of Prisons Still Transporting Inmates 
Despite the federal government's guidance to stay inside and many states' stay-in-place orders, the Bureau of Prisons is still moving inmates from facility to facility, internal documents obtained by ABC News show. One document, written to staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City, says that inmate movement is suspended for 30 days, but at the end adds, “Other case-by-case exceptions for judicial proceedings [are to] be brought to the attention of the appropriate Regional Counsel for consideration.” (Barr, 3/23)

WBUR: When Inmates Die Of Poor Medical Care, Jails Often Keep It Secret 
A WBUR investigation found that when people suffered from dire medical conditions in Massachusetts county jails, they were often ignored or mistrusted, with fatal consequences. The sheriffs and for-profit companies increasingly responsible for inmate health care face little oversight, and often have withheld the circumstances of these deaths from the public — even from inmates’ families. (Willmsen and Healy, 3/23)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania Prison System Defies Court Order To Test Philly Death Row Inmate For The Coronavirus
Pennsylvania prison officials are defying a Philadelphia judge’s order to take a man on death row for a 1988 murder to an outside hospital for testing and treatment of coronavirus symptoms he developed this month.Lawyers for the Department of Corrections said Walter Ogrod, 55, is being adequately monitored and treated in prison medical facilities. They challenged the court’s jurisdiction to interfere with prison system operations in the context of a criminal case. (Roebuck, 3/23)

The New York Times: Joe Biden, Struggling For Visibility, Faults Trump's Response To Coronavirus
With President Trump providing daily televised briefings and governors like Andrew M. Cuomo emerging as national leaders during the coronavirus pandemic, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is still grappling with how to position himself as a prominent voice on a crisis that is pushing traditional politics to the background. Mr. Biden has been confined over the last week to an unusually small role for the likely — though not yet completely certain — nominee of a major political party. His public comments have been sparing and, for the most part, restrained. He is now ramping up a public schedule, beginning with an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday, and his aides said he would offer remarks on camera in some fashion each day. (Kaplan and Burns, 3/23)

Reuters: Biden Battles For Attention As Coronavirus Threatens To Blunt Democrat's Momentum
When [Biden] delivered the debut speech on Monday morning, major cable news networks broadcast New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s coronavirus briefing instead. It was yet another sign of the upheaval the global pandemic has wrought on a presidential campaign that just a week ago seemed to be moving full steam toward a Nov. 3 general election matchup between Biden and Trump. (Hunnicutt, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Suddenly Upends Campaign Themes For Both Parties
The coronavirus pandemic and the nation’s crashing economy are scrambling the themes both political parties thought would carry them to victory in November for control of the White House and Congress. Shattered, certainly for now, is President Donald Trump’s ability to tout a brawny economy and record stock market prices as the predicate for his reelection. The GOP could face a hard time calling Democratic candidates socialists with a straight face as Congress works on a bipartisan, near $2 trillion rescue package that would essentially have government drive the economy indefinitely. (Fram, 3/24)

The New York Times: Democratic Convention Planners Look At Contingency Options
Planners for the Democratic National Convention are looking at “contingency options” in case the mid-July gathering in Milwaukee can’t take place because of the coronavirus, officials said on Monday for the first time. “As we navigate the unprecedented challenge of responding to the coronavirus, we’re exploring a range of contingency options to ensure we can deliver a successful convention without unnecessary risk to public health,” said Katie Peters, a convention spokeswoman. “This is a very fluid situation — and the convention is still more than three months away. We are committed to sharing updates with the public in the coming weeks and months as our plans continue to take shape.” (Epstein, 3/23)

Politico: DNC Insists Its Convention Is On — But Many Democrats Aren't Buying It
“There are no plans to cancel the convention and we are not considering a rules change at this time,” Xochitl Hinojosa, the DNC’s communications director, said Monday after news reports that the party is in the process of devising backup plans. “Contingency planning is a routine part of preparations for any convention.” Hinojosa’s statement came the same day an International Olympic Committee member, Dick Pound, told USA Today Sports that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be postponed. The Olympics were scheduled to begin in late July, shortly after the DNC’s July 13-16 gathering. (Siders and Thompson, 3/23)

ProPublica: Voting By Mail Would Reduce Coronavirus Transmission But It Has Other Risks
Because of a rise in its Latino population, Gwinnett County in suburban Atlanta had to mail out absentee ballots with information in both English and Spanish in 2018. The result was chaos. The county accommodated the increased text by printing it in 6.5-point font, making each letter smaller than a sesame seed. Many voters were confused by the instructions — in particular, that they had to sign the back of the yellow envelope before returning it or their votes wouldn’t count. Gwinnett rejected 595 absentee ballots, a third of all those tossed in Georgia, often without notifying the spurned voters. Only a hurried lawsuit by the ACLU forced the county to reexamine the discarded ballots. (Huseman, 3/24)

The New York Times: Obamacare Turns 10 Today. Here’s A Look At What Works And Doesn’t.
A pandemic. A Supreme Court challenge (again). A presidential election campaign — this time with attacks from the left as well as the right. Ever since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law 10 years ago Monday, it has faced legislative, legal and political attacks. The landmark health law, nicknamed Obamacare, has withstood more than 60 votes to repeal it from Republican-controlled Congresses, two Supreme Court decisions, the gutting of one of its main provisions (the tax penalty for not having insurance) and a president who campaigned on promises to get rid of it. (Goodnough, Abelson, Sanger-Katz and Kliff, 3/23)

Kaiser Health News: Listen: The Hard-Knock Health Law Turns 10 Amid Pandemic
On March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Kaiser Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner talks to NPR’s Ari Shapiro about how the ACA has changed health care in America over the past decade and also how the coronavirus pandemic ultimately may change the still embattled law. Kaiser Family Foundation Executive Vice President Larry Levitt also marked the anniversary of the law, discussing with Noel King, on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” how the law led to 20 million Americans gaining health insurance. (Rovner, 3/23)

The New York Times: Eleven States Now Letting Uninsured Sign Up For Obamacare 
Eleven states and the District of Columbia have opened enrollment under the Affordable Care Act to allow laid-off workers to get subsidized health insurance, and the Trump administration, which has been gunning to repeal the law, is considering opening the federal exchange to new customers. The new enrollment periods will ease insurance sign-ups for people who have recently lost health coverage along with their jobs. And they will provide an opportunity for people who didn’t buy insurance for the year to reconsider that choice. (Sanger-Katz and Abelson, 3/23)

Modern Healthcare: Democrats Want Trump To Reopen Enrollment Nationwide
On the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, Democratic lawmakers and other proponents of the law called on the Trump administration to create a national special enrollment period to allow uninsured people to sign up for health insurance, as many states have already done. The Trump administration should reopen enrollment so that more people can get health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic, several Democrats said during a conference call hosted by Protect Our Care, an advocacy group founded to defend the ACA. Many experts worry that uninsured people will be reluctant or unable to access care during the outbreak, which could make it more severe. (Brady, 3/23)

Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Could Prompt Higher 2021 Insurance Premiums, Benefit Cuts
The cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment is likely to squeeze U.S. health insurers' profits, which could lead to higher premiums in 2021. Pressure on state budgets may also prompt Medicaid benefit cuts, experts warn. A new report from Covered California, the state's Affordable Care Act marketplace, projected that commercial insurers and employers could face a $34 billion to $251 billion bill for coronavirus testing and treatment this year. Their best estimate is $103 billion. (Livingston, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. To Pause Routine Nursing-Home Inspections
Federal regulators said they plan to temporarily halt routine inspections of nursing homes to focus on the most dangerous situations, as coronavirus cases mount in the facilities across the U.S. and serious infractions were found at the hardest-hit location. Under the changes, regular inspections of nursing homes, home health and hospice companies, among others, will be paused for at least three weeks. During that time, inspectors will emphasize controlling infections, and focus on facilities at risk from the new coronavirus and those with potential issues posing the most peril to residents. (Wilde Mathews and Kamp, 3/23)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Will Target Hotspots With Coronavirus Inspections
Nursing homes, hospitals and other providers will also have access to a voluntary self-assessment the CMS created to ensure they're correctly screening staff members, practicing good hygiene and following other precautions necessary for controlling the spread of COVID-19. (Brady, 3/23)

CNBC: Coronavirus: US Health Officials Say 147 Nursing Homes Have At Least One Case
There are 147 nursing homes across 27 states that have at least one resident with the coronavirus, exposing seniors who are “more susceptible to dangerous complications from the virus,” Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said in releasing the new data Monday. CMS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined the high rate of COVID-19 fatalities at the Life Care Center nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, the epicenter of the outbreak in the state. At least 35 residents or staff of Life Care have died from the virus, CMS said. (Higgins-Dunn, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: One Nursing Home, 35 Coronavirus Deaths: Inside The Kirkland Disaster
It seemed a curious day for the Life Care Center to throw a Mardi Gras party. For one thing, Feb. 26 was actually Ash Wednesday, the day after Mardi Gras. More crucially, the nursing home was under orders to be in scrub-down mode due to a raft of respiratory problems among its residents. That same day, managers had ordered staff members to close the two dining rooms immediately, wipe down all common spaces and halt group activities. (Koh, Kamp and Frosch, 3/23)

In other news —

The Associated Press: Feds: Virus Frauds Spread, Preying On Medicare Recipients
Scam artists are preying on older people’s fears by peddling fake tests for the coronavirus to Medicare recipients, a federal law enforcement agency warned on Monday. And moving separately on another law enforcement priority, President Donald Trump signed an order directing a crackdown on large-scale hoarding that’s intended to create shortages of critical goods and drive prices up. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/23)

The Washington Post: What Research On Coronavirus Structure Can Tell Us About How To Kill It
Like any virus, the novel coronavirus is a germ that tries to burrow into a cell and turn it into a virus-replicating factory. If it succeeds, it can produce an infection — in this case, a respiratory disease. The type of cells a virus targets and how it enters them depend on how the virus is built. This virus gets its family name from a telltale series of spikes — tens or even hundreds of them — that circle its bloblike core like a crown, or corona. Virologists know from studying its close cousins, viruses that cause SARS and MERS, that the spikes interact with receptors on cells like keys in locks, enabling the virus to enter. (Berkowitz, Steckelberg and Muyskens, 3/23)

The Washington Post: The Science Of Why Coronavirus Is So Hard To Stop
Viruses have spent billions of years perfecting the art of surviving without living — a frighteningly effective strategy that makes them a potent threat in today’s world. That’s especially true of the deadly new coronavirus that has brought global society to a screeching halt. It’s little more than a packet of genetic material surrounded by a spiky protein shell one-thousandth the width of an eyelash, and leads such a zombielike existence that it’s barely considered a living organism. (Kaplan, Wan and Achenbach, 3/23)

Stat: Seeking Covid-19 Answers, U.S. Doctors Turn To Colleagues In China 
Even as the Covid-19 outbreak has already overwhelmed some U.S. hospitals, in many cities anxious physicians feel more like coastal dwellers who learn that a tsunami has formed miles offshore: It hasn’t hit them yet, they know it’s going to, and they are desperate for information about how to survive it.Now, fed up with what they see as inadequate and confusing directives from public health authorities, many physicians are trying to get on-the-ground advice directly from colleagues in countries that were the first to be hit by the coronavirus pandemic. (Begley, 3/24)

Stat: Doctors Warn An Inability To Smell Could Be A Symptom Of Covid-19
Health care workers are calling attention to a potential new symptom of a novel coronavirus infection: the loss of one’s sense of smell. Clinicians in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world have reported, anecdotally, that some patients infected with the virus experience anosmia, or an inability to smell. (Brodwin, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Symptoms Could Include Lost Sense Of Smell, Doctors Warn
But a team of British ear, nose and throat doctors on Friday raised the possibility of a new indicator of the coronavirus, one they say has been observed globally, even in patients who are otherwise asymptomatic: anosmia, a condition that causes the loss of sense of smell. In a statement, they warned that adults experiencing recent anosmia could be unknown carriers of covid-19, and urged them to consider self-isolation. “All of this evidence is accumulating very rapidly, but there’s nothing yet robustly in print,” Claire Hopkins, president of the British Rhinological Society, said in an interview. “Since then, I’ve had colleagues from around the world saying: ‘That’s exactly what we’re seeing.’ They’ve been trying [to raise awareness], but it hasn’t been picked up.” (Brice-Saddler, 3/24)

The Washington Post: What It’s Like To Be Infected With Coronavirus
Ritchie Torres, 32, a New York City councilman from the Bronx, first had nothing more than a “general sickly feeling.” Then came a bad headache. He felt terrible. But for Torres, the worst effects of covid-19 so far have been mental: “It is psychologically unsettling to know I am carrying a virus that could harm my loved ones.” The Rev. Jadon Hartsuff, 42, an Episcopal priest in Washington, D.C., felt drained after a Sunday service on Feb. 23. He took a nap. No big deal — the service can be tiring. The next day at the gym, his muscles ached. He became fatigued, feverish, slightly dizzy. “I kept telling people I felt spongy,” he recalls. “Like a kitchen sponge.” (Achenbach, Guarino and Cha, 3/22)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Adds Peril To The Already At-Risk: ‘If I Get This Stuff, It’s Going To Kill Me.’
Isolated in her third-floor apartment, Maria Sweezy knew her coronavirus situation was more precarious than most, but what she saw on her phone Sunday morning left her unsettled and fighting panic. A woman she had befriended at a camp for children with Type I diabetes was dead — along with her baby. Everyone suspected the coronavirus, which can have more adverse symptoms for diabetics. Messages streamed into Sweezy’s phone from people she had met as a camp resident and counselor, some sharing pictures of their friend — including one that included Sweezy, as a dark-haired teenager, grinning. (Wootson, 3/23)

CNN: Coronavirus Prevention: Why Soap, Sanitizer And Warm Water Work Against Covid-19 And Other Viruses 
Tired of washing your hands for 20 seconds each time? Fingers starting to prune or feel like sandpaper? Please don't stop. The world is counting on you to help stop the spread of Covid-19, the deadly new disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. (LaMotte, 3/24)

Kaiser Health News: Does Everyone Over 60 Need To Take The Same Coronavirus Precautions?
She knew it wasn’t a good idea and her daughter would disapprove. Nonetheless, Barbara Figge Fox, 79, recently went to four stores in Princeton, New Jersey, to shop for canned goods, paper towels, fresh fruit, yogurt, and other items. “I was in panic mode,” said Fox, who admitted she’s been feeling both agonizing fear and irrational impulsivity because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Graham, 3/24)

The New York Times: These Doctors Have Specialties. Fighting Coronavirus Wasn’t One Of Them.
Dr. Scott Isaacs has worked as an endocrinologist for more than two decades, focused on the medical needs of adults with diabetes in the Atlanta area. He never expected to be serving on the front lines of a pandemic. For weeks, his phone has been ringing off the hook. His diabetes patients, a high-risk group for coronavirus infection, want to know: How can they get tested? How can they stockpile extra medication? And can he write to their employers to recommend they work from home? (Goldberg, 3/23)

The New York Times: When Coronavirus Closes Your Lab, Can Science Go On?
In recent weeks, coronavirus led to the shutdown of many university campuses and other institutions for research and learning in the United States and around the world. There’s always work that you can do from home. But parts of the scientific process can only be completed in the lab, or at another location where fieldwork or other hands-on research occurs. What’s a scientist to do when it’s time to put some of their experiments on the shelf? (3/23)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And Social Distancing: Take Steps To Counter The Loneliness
Two years ago, when Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, the former surgeon general of the United States, started researching his book, “Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World,” he never anticipated how relevant the topic would be now that it is about to be published. The coronavirus pandemic and resulting advice — stay home if at all possible, avoid convening with others and refrain from close contacts even on the street — has intensified the harm inflicted by factors that already isolate people and rendered many of the antidotes to isolation moot. (Brody, 3/23)

The New York Times: 20-Somethings Now Realizing That They Can Get Coronavirus, Too
While the common misperception has been that only the old and frail can contract the coronavirus, early testing data in the city has shown that young New Yorkers have also been vulnerable. People ranging in ages from 18 to 44 have accounted for 46 percent of positive tests, according to city data as of Monday. “Part of it is because we are testing more people as tests become more available and also because folks in this age group were out and about and weren’t necessarily engaging in social distancing like other age groups,” said Dr. Danielle Ompad, associate professor of epidemiology at N.Y.U.’s School of Global Public Health. (de Freytas-Tamura, 3/23)

CNN: What These 34-Year-Old And 26-Year-Old Coronavirus Patients Have To Say To Young Adults 
They thought they were too young to be concerned about coronavirus, and then they tested positive. Valerie Wilson, 34, and Fiona Lowenstein, 26, are telling their fellow millennials that they too need to be aware of their health in the coronavirus pandemic as they recover from infection. More than 42,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in the United States, with at least 541 deaths -- and the numbers are climbing. Early testing showed that people with chronic conditions and older people were the most at risk for severe illness. But younger people are also getting sick and spreading the illness. (Holcombe, 3/24)

Los Angeles Times: 80% Of Coronavirus Patients In L.A. County Are 18 To 65
Of those who have tested positive, 80% are people ages 18 to 65, and 42% are in the 18-40 age group. “This virus can infect affect people from across the board,” said Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of the L.A. County Public Health Department, on Monday. Those numbers are fairly in line with the statewide breakdown of COVID-19 cases as of Sunday. (Shalby, Wigglesworth and Blume, 3/23)

Detroit Free Press: Could Vaping Play A Role In Coronavirus Infections Among The Young?
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer spoke directly to young Michiganders on Monday as she announced an executive order requiring people to stay home to avoid spreading novel coronavirus.  "Young people, I'm talking to you now," Whitmer said. "You're not immune from this. You can get this virus. ... You can carry this without even knowing it and be unknowingly exposing others to it. (Shamus, 3/24)

ABC News: Mom Of 7-Month-Old With Coronavirus Speaks Out: What Parents Should Know 
A mom in South Carolina is sharing a message to other parents after her 7-month-old son was diagnosed with COVID-19, a respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus. Children do not appear to be at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but Courtney Doster, a mom of three, wants other parents to know it is possible for their children to get the virus. (Kindelan, Proto and Sivertsen, 3/23)

The New York Times: Spit On, Yelled At, Attacked: Chinese-Americans Fear For Their Safety
Yuanyuan Zhu was walking to her gym in San Francisco on March 9, thinking the workout could be her last for a while, when she noticed that a man was shouting at her. He was yelling an expletive about China. Then a bus passed, she recalled, and he screamed after it, “Run them over.” She tried to keep her distance, but when the light changed, she was stuck waiting with him at the crosswalk. She could feel him staring at her. And then, suddenly, she felt it: his saliva hitting her face and her favorite sweater. In shock, Ms. Zhu, who is 26 and moved to the United States from China five years ago, hurried the rest of the way to the gym. She found a corner where no one could see her, and she cried quietly. (Tavernise and Oppel, 3/23)

Business Insider: CNN Correspondent Kyung Lah Recounts Racist Incident While Working
A CNN senior correspondent recounted on her network an offensive comment made by a passerby as she was reporting for a story on Friday. News correspondent Kyung Lah, an Asian-American, said that a man walked up and "used a racial slur" as she was preparing for her segment in the morning. "I was so surprised, I was so taken aback, that I asked him to repeat it because I couldn't believe it," Lah said to CNN anchor Jake Tapper on "The Lead." (Choi, 3/22)

The New York Times: Texas And Ohio Include Abortion As Medical Procedures That Must Be Delayed
Texas and Ohio have included abortions among the nonessential surgeries and medical procedures that they are requiring to be delayed, setting off a new front in the fight over abortion rights in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Both states said they were trying to preserve extremely precious protective equipment for health care workers and to make space for a potential flood of coronavirus patients. But abortion rights activists said that abortions should be counted as essential and that people could not wait for the procedure until the pandemic was over. (Tavernise, 3/23)

NBC News: Texas, Ohio Order Clinics To Halt Abortion Procedures Amid Coronavirus
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland accused officials of "exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to further their agenda to close Ohio's abortion clinics." "Abortion care is a time-sensitive medical situation that cannot be significantly delayed without profound consequences," she said, adding: "Ohio's elected officials should not stand between patients and their doctors." (Smith, 3/23)

The Hill: Texas Moves To Halt Abortions During Coronavirus Outbreak 
Texas’s attorney general said Monday health care providers can no longer perform surgical abortions because medical resources should be preserved for coronavirus patients. Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said abortion providers are subject to an executive order issued over the weekend requiring health care facilities to postpone all surgeries that aren’t “immediately medically necessary.” “No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers,” Paxton said in a statement Monday. (Hellmann, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Orders Clinics To Halt ‘Nonessential’ Surgical Abortions Amid Coronavirus Response
Ohio’s attorney general has ordered clinics to halt many abortions under a new statewide measure to conserve health-care resources amid the coronavirus pandemic, going against the urgings of many medical professionals. Officials in Washington state and Massachusetts have clarified that similar orders pausing elective surgeries do not apply to abortions, and several national medical associations earlier this week advised against canceling or delaying the procedures — a key part of “comprehensive health care,” they said — because of the coronavirus outbreak. (Knowles, 3/21)

The New York Times: As Coronavirus Surveillance Escalates, Personal Privacy Plummets
In South Korea, government agencies are harnessing surveillance-camera footage, smartphone location data and credit card purchase records to help trace the recent movements of coronavirus patients and establish virus transmission chains. In Lombardy, Italy, the authorities are analyzing location data transmitted by citizens’ mobile phones to determine how many people are obeying a government lockdown order and the typical distances they move every day. About 40 percent are moving around “too much,” an official recently said. (Singer and Sang-Hun, 3/23)

The Associated Press: Europe Eyes Smartphone Location Data To Stem Virus Spread
Several European nations are evaluating powerful but potentially intrusive tools for fighting the coronavirus pandemic, a move that could put public health at odds with individual privacy. The tools in question are apps that would use real-time phone-location data to track the movements of virus carriers and the people they come in contact with. The aim would be to develop a better sense of where infections are flaring up, how they are spreading and when health authorities need to order quarantines and related measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. (Bajak and Winfiled, 3/24)

Reuters: Exclusive: Elite Hackers Target WHO As Coronavirus Cyberattacks Spike
Elite hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier this month, sources told Reuters, part of what a senior agency official said was a more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks. (Satter, Stubbs and Bing, 3/23)

ABC News: Rural Communities' Digital Deserts Cripple Tele-Education During Coronavirus Outbreak 
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, businesses, schools and groups are heading online to stay productive. Rural communities with poor to little broadband Internet access, however, are stuck in digital deserts with no way to ride out the situation, according to digital accessibility activists. (Pereira, 3/24)

ProPublica: ICE Detainee Says Migrants Are Going On A Hunger Strike For Soap
In an audio recording obtained by ProPublica, an immigrant held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention in New Jersey complains that he and other detainees are on a hunger strike to try to obtain soap and toilet paper in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic — and that guards reportedly have told detainees, “Well, you’re going to have to die of something.” The audio was recorded when Ronal Umaña, a 30-year-old immigrant from El Salvador currently being held at the Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey, placed a personal call to an advocate on Sunday. The advocate provided the audio to ProPublica. (Lind, 3/23)

Meanwhile —

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Pauses Court Proceedings For Asylum Seekers
The Trump administration is postponing all court proceedings for asylum seekers in its “Remain in Mexico” program amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. The program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, is a signature Trump administration policy allowing the government to send asylum-seeking migrants back over the border to Mexico. There they are required to wait in border cities for their immigration court hearings. (Hackman, 3/23)

Stat: Amid Coronavirus, Thousands Of Foreign Doctors Could Be Blocked From U.S.
The status of more than 4,200 foreign doctors who were chosen to do medical residencies in American teaching hospitals — hospitals that will desperately need their help to cope with Covid-19 — is in doubt because the State Department has temporarily stopped issuing the visas most of them would need to enter the country, according to a group that sponsors international medical graduates. The Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates said Monday that most of the international doctors would be relying on getting a J-1 visa to work in the United States, but processing of those visas has been put on hold by the State Department amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Branswell, 3/23)

The New York Times: I.O.C. And Japan Agree To Postpone Tokyo Olympics
After months of internal discussions and mounting pressure from nations and athletes across the world, the International Olympic Committee will postpone the Summer Games that had been scheduled to begin in late July in Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said Tuesday. Instead the Games, the world’s largest sporting event, will take place in the summer of 2021, a change that will wreak havoc with sports schedules but should bring great relief to the athletes, organizers and health officials who had increasingly pressed that the coronavirus pandemic made it unsafe to go forward with the event. (Ric, Futterman and Panja, 3/24)

The Washington Post: Shinzo Abe Says Thomas Bach Has Agreed To Postpone Tokyo Olympics
Abe held a conference call Tuesday to propose a one-year postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to the IOC, and said afterward that IOC President Thomas Bach “agreed 100 percent.” Abe said he and Bach had agreed “to cooperate in order to hold the Olympics in the complete form, as a testament to victory over the infection.” Abe called Bach on Tuesday night in Japan to offer his plan. The proposal came a day after the United States joined a global chorus of Olympic governing bodies advocating for a postponement, some of which had vowed not to send athletes if the Games began in July as scheduled. (Kilgore and Denyer, 3/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Japan, IOC Agree To Delay 2020 Olympics By About One Year
The Japanese leader said it was difficult to hold the Olympics this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and a delay was needed to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators. He said he proposed a delay of “about one year” and received “100% agreement” from Mr. Bach. “We have agreed that the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will be held by the summer of 2021 at the latest,” Mr. Abe said in Tokyo. He said study would now begin on arranging venues for the Games. (Landers, 3/24)

Politico: Tokyo 2020 Olympics To Be Postponed
Calls for a postponement had become overwhelming in advance of the IOC officially pulling the plug on the Games, which were due to start in July. Canada had already pulled out its athletes and several other major sports federations, including the British Olympic Association and U.S.A Track and Field, had demanded a delay until 2021. (Walker, 3/24)

The New York Times: A Grand Vision Of The Olympics Plays Catchup With The Rest Of The World
For weeks, as the coronavirus spread across the world, Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, has held onto the dream that opening an Olympic Games on July 24 in Tokyo could serve as a celebration of triumph over a pandemic that has killed thousands of people, closed down countries and devastated the world economy. By Monday, it appeared that a decision on whether to postpone the Games had finally become a matter of when and how rather than if. Regardless of when the I.O.C. decides to detail plans for a delay, its slow public responses to the coronavirus have been only the latest example of an organization seemingly out of step with much of the world. (Futterman, 3/24)

The New York Times: Dip In Italy’s Cases Does Not Come Fast Enough For Swamped Hospitals
The patient had won national swimming championships in his youth but now had a lot going against him. As he waited for a kidney transplant, doctors in the northern Italian town of Brescia discovered he had heart disease and had contracted the coronavirus. But what ultimately killed him this month was the decision to give his ventilator to a younger coronavirus patient who had a better shot at survival. “He died the next day,” said Dr. Marco Metra, the chief of cardiology at the University and City Hospitals in Brescia. “If a patient has a low likelihood to benefit from the hospital, we have to not accept them. You send them home.” He added, “This is also what I am seeing every day.” (Horowitz and Kirkpatrick, 3/23)

The Washington Post: Italy’s Coronavirus Deaths Are Staggering. They May Be More Preview Than Anomaly.
Italy has become the flash point of the coronavirus pandemic, with a death toll at 6,077 and counting — the highest in the world. More than 2,000 Italians have been killed by the virus in the past four days alone. The staggering toll stands for now as a worst-case scenario for what happens when a country is caught unprepared. Italy’s large elderly population has exacerbated the problem. (Harlan, Pitrelli and Cavaliere, 3/23)

The New York Times: How South Korea Flattened The Coronavirus Curve
No matter how you look at the numbers, one country stands out from the rest: South Korea. In late February and early March, the number of new coronavirus infections in the country exploded from a few dozen, to a few hundred, to several thousand. At the peak, medical workers identified 909 new cases in a single day, Feb. 29, and the country of 50 million people appeared on the verge of being overwhelmed. But less than a week later, the number of new cases halved. Within four days, it halved again — and again the next day. (Fisher and Sang-Hun, 3/23)

The Associated Press: China To Lift Lockdown In Most Of Virus-Hit Hubei Province
Chinese authorities said Tuesday they will end a two-month lockdown of most of coronavirus-hit Hubei province at midnight, as domestic cases of the virus continue to subside. People with a clean bill of health will be allowed to leave, the provincial government said. The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak started in late December, will remain locked down until April 8. (Moritsugu, 3/24)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In The U.K.: Boris Johnson Orders Virtual Lockdown
Facing a growing storm of criticism about his laissez-faire response to the fast-spreading coronavirus, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday that he would place Britain under a virtual lockdown, closing all nonessential shops, banning meetings of more than two people, and requiring people to stay in their homes, except for trips for food or medicine. People who flout the new restrictions, the prime minister said, will be fined by the police. (Landler and Castle, 3/23)

Politico: Intelligence Community Wrestles With A Security Threat: Coronavirus Hardship
As government work slows and non-essential workers are sent home to prevent the spread of COVID-19, money is getting tighter — and many in the national security community are wondering whether their security clearances could be on the line as a result. The U.S. national security apparatus has played a key role in the coronavirus response, monitoring how the disease has affected closed societies like China, Iran and North Korea while working to prevent the virus from spreading inside the nation’s intelligence and defense agencies themselves. (Bertrand, 3/23)

The New York Times: The Unseen Survivors Of Thalidomide Want To Be Heard 
The man on the bus was staring at her. Carolyn Farmer, 17, noticed him as she closed the Leon Uris novel “Exodus” and gathered her things. It was 1979, and she knew what it was like to have strangers gawk at her: She had been born with shortened arms and fingers missing on each hand. “Are you a thalidomide baby?” he asked as she waited to get off. (Thomas, 3/23)

The New York Times: Thalidomide Use Did Happen Here, These Americans Say
Even though thalidomide did not reach American pharmacy shelves, the drug was distributed to as many as 20,000 patients through two clinical trials run by American companies that were testing it for use in the United States. Now, a group of Americans who say they were affected by the drug are demanding justice and recognition. Here are some of their stories. (Thomas, 3/23)

The New York Times: The Story Of Thalidomide In The U.S., Told Through Documents
In July 1962, the Food and Drug Administration sent an urgent message to its field offices with an assignment it said was “one of the most important we have had in a long time.” Overseas, thousands of babies in Germany, England and other countries were being born with severe defects tied to their mothers’ use of thalidomide, a drug widely taken for insomnia, morning sickness and other ailments. Meanwhile, the federal government sought to figure out what had happened in the United States, and how many babies had been affected. (Thomas, 3/23)

Boston Globe: Trump Must Act Now To Boost Production Of Medical Supplies
Pulling the levers allowed by the Defense Production Act wouldn’t be a magical instant solution to the supply shortage that this administration allowed to fester for months after the coronavirus first popped up. And using the law to its fullest potential would require more managerial competence than the administration has demonstrated thus far. But it could speed things up, and it would signal, for a change, that the federal government really has everyone’s back. (3/23)

NBC News: #GetMePPE: Why Fully Equipping Health Care Workers Against Coronavirus Keeps Us All Safer
Health care providers — including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and more — are projected to be the bottleneck resource in providing care for COVID-19 patients in the coming weeks. Even if we have enough beds and ventilators (which itself is not a given), the surge plan recommended by the Society of Critical Care calls for nonintensive care unit physicians and other providers without specialized critical care training to be pulled in to help care for the overwhelming number of patients. (Carri W. Chan, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: The Pelosi-Schumer Coronavirus Contagion 
What a spectacle. Much of America is quarantined at home, the public is so panicked there’s a run on toilet paper, the country desperately wants reassurance, and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer decide to take a bipartisan rescue bill as a political hostage. (3/23)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Stimulus Package Should Heed Lessons From 2008 
In 2008, the Obama team decided that the top priority was bailing out the Wall Street firms. This took precedence over addressing the huge downturn in the real economy, which ultimately cost 9 million people their jobs and one in 10 American families their homes. Although the financial world needed public money to stabilize, in retrospect the right focus would have been to reduce the impact on all Americans of what came to be called “the Great Recession.” The failure to provide a rapid recovery for all cast a pall over the Obama administration’s eight years, increased economic and social division, and made it difficult for the country to come together even in the current crisis. (Reed Hundt, 3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Conservative Principles In An Emergency
Democrats on Capitol Hill are seizing on the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to force through their own longstanding and unrelated legislative priorities. Conservatives shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for our principles. To us, this crisis demonstrates that government is too big and unfocused. We want it to function well at its core responsibilities. (Bobby Jindal, 3/23)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Bailout Stalled. And It’s Mitch McConnell’s Fault.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky failed to do his job this weekend. As the economy spiraled downward, Mr. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said he would produce a bipartisan bailout bill authorizing an infusion of desperately needed aid.Instead, Mr. McConnell emerged on Sunday evening with a bill that would provide a lot of help for corporate executives and shareholders, and not nearly enough for American workers. (3/23)

The New York Times: Republicans Add Insult To Illness
If you want a quick summary of the state of play over fiscal stimulus legislation, here it is: Republicans insist that we should fight a plague with trickle-down economics and crony capitalism. Democrats, for some reason, don’t agree, and think we should focus on directly helping Americans in need. And if legislation is stalled, as it appears to be as I write this (although things change fast when we’re on Covid time), it’s because Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, is holding needy Americans hostage in an attempt to blackmail Democrats into giving Donald Trump a $500 billion slush fund. (Paul Krugman, 3/23)

CNN: Trump Uses Daily Coronavirus Briefings To Replace Campaign Rallies 
President Donald Trump complained that he is treated unfairly. He touted his tax cuts. He told his usual lie about how he is the one who got the Obama-era Veterans Choice program passed into law... The coronavirus crisis has prevented Trump from holding his signature campaign rallies. So he has turned his daily White House coronavirus briefings, like the one on Sunday, into a kind of special spinoff of the familiar Trump Show -- replete with all the usual misinformation, self-promotion and potshots. (Daniel Dale, 3/24)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: No, Seriously. Stay. Home 
Listen, Southern Californians, we know you love the beach. We know that you like to hike, bike and get out in the sun, especially after a rainy week of being cooped up at home. But, c’mon. What happened this past weekend was entirely unacceptable. Despite pleas to stay home to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, thousands of you went out anyway, crowding popular hiking trails and clustering on beaches. (3/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Risk, Uncertainty And Coronavirus 
The government response to the coronavirus pandemic has seemed chaotic—underreaction one minute, piling on restrictions the next. It has left many wondering whether anyone is weighing the trade-offs. Do heavy-handed measures carry the benefits to justify the considerable costs? The uncomfortable answer: We don’t know. The novel coronavirus appears at first to be a problem of risk management. It is a dangerous disease that threatens the lives of our neighbors and loved ones. Our response—increased social distancing, shutting down businesses—is aimed at reducing that risk. But the problem isn’t risk so much as uncertainty. (Allison Schrager, 3/23)

The New York Times: Trump Thinks He Knows Better Than The Doctors About Coronavirus
First, President Trump ignored the coronavirus, dismissing its threat to the public. Then briefly he took it somewhat seriously. He gave an address from the Oval Office, followed by one of the more sober-minded news conferences of his administration. A day later, he was back to his usual antics, attacking the press, amplifying propagandists and spreading misinformation. He has even promised a miracle cure. Now, as it becomes clear that this is not a momentary crisis — that the economy may have to come to a standstill to keep the disease from overwhelming the country — Trump appears ready to quit altogether, even if it costs thousands upon thousands of American lives. (Jamelle Bouie, 3/24)

Boston Globe: In Order To Save Dr. Fauci, We Must Destroy Him
President Trump is watching and listening to the same thing we are, i.e., Fauci going to the podium to rebut with facts the latest outbreak of paranoid anxiety or the president’s regularly reckless statements. Fauci is an oasis of rigor and reason in a barren desert of confusion and fear. Which, given who he works for, makes him an endangered species. (Kevin Cullen, 3/23)

CNN: Trump Can't Be Trusted To Make This Decision 
The first time most of us learned that President Donald Trump was thinking about relaxing existing measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic was on Sunday night, just before midnight. That's when his tweet shouted in all caps, "WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF."... The idea to change course may have come from his favorite network, Fox News, where a Sunday morning host suggested that when it comes to fighting the coronavirus, "The cure is worse than the disease." The question for the rest of us is, can we trust Trump to make a decision of this magnitude? (Friday Ghitis, 3/24)

Miami Herald: Miami Healthcare Practitioners Urge Public’s Cooperation 
All of us expect that if, and when, COVID-19 testing reaches the appropriate levels, the number of confirmed cases will explode. What we have seen in the emergency rooms in Miami confirms what is being reported from other American cities: Young and otherwise healthy people are also becoming severely ill from COVID-19. This is not just a problem for the elderly and chronically ill. It is a dangerous threat to all of us. ...As difficult as it is, we must learn to live with a minimum of in-person social interactions until the epidemic is under control. We are all going to have to sacrifice a great deal temporarily for a better future for ourselves and the most vulnerable among us. The more determinedly we practice social distancing now, the sooner we can end this epidemic and get back to our normal lives. If we choose to ignore the danger and try to live the same way as always we risk allowing this epidemic to overwhelm our healthcare system the way it has in northern Italy, with thousands of people dying in hospital hallways without even the comfort of having their families nearby.(Medical teams in Florida, 3/23)

Miami Herald: Florida Governor Parrots Trump’s Disengagement From Crisis
Municipal governments in Florida are on their own. Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said as much. But that might not be a bad thing in the mano a mano fight against the coronavirus. After all, DeSantis has fallen into line with President Trump’s impatience that the coronavirus is still a thing, still something he has to address again and again. The president is sick and tired of it. Of course, Americans are sick, and dying of it. In a Monday-afternoon press conference, DeSantis reaffirmed that he would not give an order for Floridians to shelter in place, as other governors who are confronting the crisis with more rigor have done. His position bucks the advice of public-health experts who want him to issue a short-term, stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (3/24)

Tampa Bay Times: To Combat Coronavirus, Florida Needs Stay-At-Home Orders Now
These are unprecedented and scary times. Each day we are faced with increasingly grim news about the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on our patients, hospitals, economy and schools. As life as we know it grinds to a halt, it is easy to feel as though we are helpless as the virus spreads throughout our country and community, but the simple truth is we are not. We can all do our part right now to flatten the curve and protect our health-care infrastructure and health-care workers. And it starts with staying at home. (Dr. Mona Mangat, 3/23)

Tampa Bay Times: Why Would Tampa Bay Need A Stay-At-Home Order?
Gov. Ron DeSantis has been unfairly criticized on cable news and social media for his methodical approach to gradually implementing statewide restrictions as governors in New York, California and Illinois have issued sweeping stay-at-home orders. In fact, Florida’s governor has struck a reasonable balance. He has spoken regularly and frankly to Floridians about expanding testing and acquiring medical supplies, and he has appropriately expressed concern about overbearing, statewide restrictions that would impact the physical and mental health of families and inflict more harm on a state economy that already is being devastated. "You simply cannot lock down our society indefinitely with no end in sight,'' DeSantis said Monday afternoon. (3/23)

The New York Times: Fourteen Days. That’s The Most Time We Have To Defeat Coronavirus. 
America is losing the war against Covid-19, but we can win it with decisive and extraordinary actions now. Health experts have not been overreacting. Models from Imperial College London and others suggest that up to 2.2 million Americans could die within a year without sufficient efforts to “flatten the curve.” At the same time, it is right to worry about how Covid-19 will wreck the economy. Projections already suggest that the American economy could contract by more than 15 percent in the second quarter and that the unemployment rate could surpass 20 percent. But the economy cannot be fixed without solving the pandemic. Only after the virus is contained can we reopen restaurants, bars, gyms and stores; allow people to travel, attend conferences and visit museums; and persuade them to buy cars and houses. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, 3/23)

Arizona Republic: Social Distancing Isn't Working. Why Won't We Listen To The Warnings?
Take it from President Trump and weekend revelers: Social distancing warnings to slow the coronavirus outbreak aren’t working. People crowded parks and trails everywhere, and in California, folks simply defied the state’s stay-at-home orders to soak up some sun.It’s maddening to watch that degree of irresponsibility. Coronavirus isn’t a joke, yet too many people are behaving as if the deadly COVID-19 will simply stop by itself.Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Sen. John McCain, couldn’t take it anymore and scolded Arizonans over the weekend. “Arizonans – do you want to be compared to the dumbasses on spring break in Florida or in Brooklyn ignoring our national emergency?!? I am SO DISSAPOINTED,” she tweeted Saturday. (Elvia Diaz, 3/23)

Louisville Courier Journal: Coronavirus In Kentucky: Rand Paul's Actions Were Disgraceful
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Shame on you, Rand Paul. What you did — no, what you didn’t do — was irresponsible. Even reprehensible. You were concerned enough about your own health to get tested for the coronavirus, but you didn’t care enough about other people to self-quarantine until you got the results.Instead, you carried on business as usual, cavorting with fellow senators over lunch and reportedly working out in the Senate gym and swimming in the Senate pool. (3/23)

Detroit Free Press: Coronavirus Policy Must Account For Michigan Jails And Prisons
Tens of thousands of people are held in Michigan jails and prisons that leave them particularly vulnerable to public health crises. Every day that passes during the COVID-19 outbreak puts them at heightened risk — risk of indefinite incarceration, risk of illness, and indeed risk of death. It also jeopardizes the health of the entire state: an outbreak of coronavirus in Michigan jails and prisons would spread like wildfire behind bars and beyond. (Chantá Parker, Amanda Alexander and Jonathan Sacks, 3/22)