The New York Times: Remembering The Nearly 100,000 Lives Lost To Coronavirus In America
As the U.S. approaches a grim milestone in the outbreak, The New York Times gathered names of the dead and memories of their lives from obituaries across the country. (5/24)

The Washington Post: Covid Death Trackers Replace National Mourning
Before dawn broke in Riverside, Calif., political scientist Kim Yi Dionne grabbed her iPhone from the bedside table to check the grim daily toll of covid-19. Deaths were a bit lower in the United States that morning. But like other hardened watchers of such tallies, Dionne was skeptical that the pandemic was easing. More likely it was just a quirk, she thought, a product of the natural rise and fall in the statistical flow, a bureaucratic rhythm in counting the dead. This macabre ritual — searching for meaning in numbers that pulse up and down, day after day — is one countless Americans have adopted. (Timberg, 5/24)

Reuters: U.S. CDC Reports 1,637,456 Coronavirus Cases, 97,669 Deaths
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday reported 1,637,456 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 15,342 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 620 to 97,669. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 pm ET on May 24 versus its previous report a day earlier. (5/25)

Reuters: WHO Warns Of 'Second Peak' In Areas Where COVID-19 Declining
Countries where coronavirus infections are declining could still face an “immediate second peak” if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak, the World Health Organization said on Monday. The world is still in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, WHO emergencies head Dr Mike Ryan told an online briefing, noting that while cases are declining in many countries they are still increasing in Central and South America, South Asia and Africa. (5/25)

The Associated Press: Risks Complicate Reopenings As WHO Warns 1st Wave Not Over
The risks of reigniting coronavirus outbreaks are complicating efforts to fend off further misery for the many millions who have lost jobs, with a top health expert warning that the world is still in the midst of a “first wave” of the pandemic.“ Right now, we’re not in the second wave. We’re right in the middle of the first wave globally,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, a World Health Organization executive director. (Kurtenbach, 5/26)

The New York Times: Trump Administration Coronavirus Testing Strategy Draws Concerns: 'This Isn't The Hunger Games'
The Trump administration’s new testing strategy, released Sunday to Congress, holds individual states responsible for planning and carrying out all coronavirus testing, while planning to provide some supplies needed for the tests. The proposal also says existing testing capacity, if properly targeted, is sufficient to contain the outbreak. But epidemiologists say that amount of testing is orders of magnitude lower than many of them believe the country needs. (Mandavilli and Edmondson, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Federal Coronavirus Testing Plan Puts Burden On States
The 81-page document from the Department of Health and Human Services says, “State plans must establish a robust testing program that ensures adequacy of COVID-19 testing, including tests for contact tracing, and surveillance of asymptomatic persons to determine community spread.” It says the federal government will “ensure that States have the collection supplies that they need through December 2020.” To that end, the administration plans to acquire and distribute 100 million swabs and 100 million tubes of viral transport media. The HHS document, which The Washington Post first reported, recommends that all states “have an objective of testing a minimum of 2 percent of their population in May and June.” (5/25)

CNN: Trump Administration's Latest Testing Report Again Largely Places Responsibility With States
As states reopen and lift restrictions, health experts have emphasized that adequate testing, which has been a central challenge since the beginning of the pandemic, is necessary to detect coronavirus and trace its spread. The US has experienced significant challenges in testing, including flawed testing sent to states at the beginning of the pandemic that slowed containment efforts, lack of testing supplies to ensure Americans are properly tested and mixed messaging on who can get tested. The White House has frequently emphasized what it sees as the states' responsibility to handle testing, saying in a blueprint on testing last month that the federal government is the "supplier of last resort." (Duster and Fox, 5/25)

The Hill: Democratic Leaders Say Trump Testing Strategy Is 'To Deny The Truth' About Lack Of Supplies 
Democratic leaders said Monday that President Trump’s strategy for coronavirus testing is to “deny the truth” about the current lack of supplies. Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.), reacted in a statement to the Trump administration’s plan for testing that was submitted to Congress on Sunday. The congressional leaders alleged the administration “still does not have a serious plan” to boost testing to prevent COVID-19 from spreading further. (Coleman, 5/25)

ProPublica: In Hard-Hit New Jersey, COVID-19 Saddles Some Small Health Departments With Crushing Workload 
The beaches of the Jersey Shore are set to reopen on Friday. But in a state where nearly 11,000 people have been killed by COVID-19, the same public health system that struggled to implement widespread testing faces what could be an even larger challenge: preventing a second wave of infection that experts say is almost inevitable without coordinated, aggressive efforts. And more than almost any state in the country, New Jersey relies on small, local health departments, which have found themselves stretched far beyond their missions by the pandemic. (Campbell and Kaplan, 5/22)

In other testing and tracing news —

The Associated Press: CDC, States' Reporting Of Virus Test Data Causes Confusion
Elected officials, businesses and others are depending on coronavirus testing and infection-rate data as states reopen so that they will know if a second wave of contagion is coming — and whether another round of stay-at-home orders or closings might be needed. But states are reporting those figures in different ways, and that can lead to frustration and confusion about what the numbers mean. In some places, there have been data gaps that leave local leaders wondering whether they should loosen or tighten restrictions. (Smith, 5/24)

The Washington Post: D.C. Region Will Have Enough Testing And Tracing Capacity By July To Contain Coronavirus, Officials Say
The Washington region is just weeks from having enough testing equipment, laboratory capacity and contact tracers to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, assuming the public cooperates, officials said. Despite having one of the highest rates in the country of people testing positive for the infection, the region is expected to achieve its desired capacity to conduct testing and tracing in June or early July, according to public health officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia. (McCartney, 5/25)

CIDRAP: Studies: Early Tests, Not Symptom Screening, Can Control COVID-19 In Nursing Homes
A new study in JAMA Internal Medicine examines COVID-19 prevalence in a single Seattle-area combined assisted and independent care facility, and shows that symptomatic surveillance alone does not provide an accurate picture of COVID-19 prevalence in that setting. While many residents complained of COVID-19 symptoms, few had the virus when tested twice over a period of weeks. (Soucheray, 5/22)

The New York Times: A Virus-Hunter Falls Prey To A Virus He Underestimated
“This is the revenge of the viruses,” said Dr. Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “I’ve made their lives difficult. Now they’re trying to get me.” Dr. Piot, 71 years old, is a legend in the battles against Ebola and AIDS. But Covid-19 almost killed him. “A week ago, I couldn’t have done this interview,” he said, speaking recently by Skype from his London dining room, a painting of calla lilies behind him. “I was still short of breath after 10 minutes.” (McNeil, 5/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Crowdsourced COVID Near You Website Generates Map Of Coronavirus Spread 
Maps showing the spread of COVID-19 are invaluable for public health researchers, health care professionals and policymakers. Most are generated based on statistics reported to the government. A new website, covidnearyou.org, asks everyday people to join in self-reporting coronavirus symptoms, using crowdsourcing to help picture where the disease is spreading or receding. Its real-time data help compensate for the fact that testing is still not sufficiently widespread. (Said, 5/25)

ProPublica: The Feds Gave A Former White House Official $3 Million To Supply Masks To Navajo Hospitals. Some May Not Work.
A former White House aide won a $3 million federal contract to supply respirator masks to Navajo Nation hospitals in New Mexico and Arizona 11 days after he created a company to sell personal protective equipment in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Zach Fuentes, President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, secured the deal with the Indian Health Service with limited competitive bidding and no prior federal contracting experience. (Torbati and Willis, 5/22)

Stat: As Covid-19 Hits Navajo Nation, Young People Step Up To Protect Elders
Michelle Tom stared into the screen. The Navajo doctor had just finished a grueling shift at the Winslow Indian Health Care Center urgent care facility in Winslow, Ariz., caring for Covid-19 patients. Now, she was spending her Friday night speaking via livestream to Native American youth about the pandemic. “I’ve seen it hit everyone,” she said of the coronavirus. “But I have the strength of my ancestors, the strength of my prayers, and the strength of all of you. We have to keep talking about it, especially to our young people.” (Gable, 5/26)

PBS NewsHour: Native Communities Have Been Hit Hard By COVID-19 — And Fear For Their Survival 
Native communities in the U.S. have suffered disproportionately from COVID-19, with higher rates of infection and death. The Navajo Nation has implemented a series of strict lockdown measures in an effort to protect its population, but health care facilities have still been overwhelmed. In fact, tribes across the country see the pandemic as representing an existential threat. (Sy, 5/25)

The New York Times: U.S. Bans Flights From Brazil, Where Pandemic Is Raging
The United States, citing Brazil’s surging coronavirus crisis, has banned flights from the nation, delivering a blow to its embattled leader, who has tried to use his warm relations with President Trump to bolster his political standing. In recent weeks, coronavirus cases and deaths have exploded in Brazil, Latin America’s most populous country. Its president, Jair Bolsonaro, a pandemic skeptic, had ignored the warnings of health experts and mocked social distancing measures. (Casado and Kurmanaev, 5/24)

Reuters: U.S. Brings Forward Travel Ban As Brazil Surpasses Its Daily Death Toll 
The White House did not give a reason for bringing the travel restriction forward. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration issues, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The travel ban was a blow to right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has followed the example of U.S. President Donald Trump in addressing the pandemic, fighting calls for social distancing and touting unproven drugs. (5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. To Restrict Travel From Brazil To Stem Coronavirus Spread
The announcement Sunday follows other travel bans implemented by the U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said earlier Sunday on CBS that he thought a decision on a Brazil travel ban could come that day. “We hope that’ll be temporary. But because of the situation in Brazil, we’re going to take every step necessary to protect the American people,” he said. (Lucey, 5/24)

The Associated Press: Death And Denial In Brazil’s Amazon Capital
As the white van approached Perfect Love Street, one by one chatting neighbors fell silent, covered their mouths and noses and scattered. Men in full body suits carried an empty coffin into the small, blue house where Edgar Silva had spent two feverish days gasping for air before drawing his last breath on May 12. “It wasn’t COVID,” Silva’s daughter, Eliete das Graças insisted to the funerary workers. She swore her 83-year-old father had died of Alzheimer’s disease, not that sickness ravaging the city’s hospitals. (Brito, 5/26)

The Hill: Trump, GOP Go All-In On Anti-China Strategy 
Republicans are amplifying President Trump's anti-China rhetoric on Capitol Hill and in campaign ads across the country as the White House seeks to blame Beijing for a pandemic that has devastated the U.S. economy and killed almost 100,000 people in the U.S. It’s a message that’s playing well with Trump’s base — nearly a third of voters say they view China as “the enemy” — and is reminiscent of the hard-line, anti-immigrant positions that helped catapult him to the White House in 2016. But it’s unclear if ratcheting up the pressure on China will prove to be a winning campaign strategy with the broader electorate amid sagging poll numbers and daily news reports detailing Trump’s slow and shaky response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Wong, 5/23)

Politico: Trump Adviser Compares China's Handling Of Coronavirus To Chernobyl
China's handling of the coronavirus pandemic is akin to the Soviet Union's response to Chernobyl, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, said Sunday. "The cover-up that they did of the virus is going to go down in history along with Chernobyl," O'Brien told Chuck Todd on NBC's "Meet the Press," referring to the 1986 nuclear disaster in Ukraine. "We'll see an HBO special about 10 or 15 years from now." (Mueller, 5/24)

The Hill: Pentagon Charts Its Own Course On COVID-19, Risking Trump's Ire 
The Pentagon is actively planning on living with the coronavirus well into 2021, putting it at risk of angering President Trump as he expresses confidence that the disease is on the wane. Defense officials have extended a freeze on troop movement, held ships in port and laid the framework for what the military will look like in an extended pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Tuesday, a leaked Pentagon memo revealed that top Defense Department (DOD) officials are planning for the possibility that the military could be dealing with the virus beyond this year. (Mitchell, 5/25)

Newsweek: Trump Wants Schools To Reopen 'ASAP'—Majority Of Americans Think They Will Still Be Unsafe For Months
resident Donald Trump has issued a call for schools forced to close amid the coronavirus pandemic to be "opened ASAP," as new polling suggests that Americans do not believe it is safe yet to send children back to school. Trump shared the sentiment in a tweet on Sunday night, writing: "Schools in our country should be opened ASAP." "Much very good information now available," the president said, tagging British political adviser and commentator Steve Hilton and Fox News in his tweet. (Da Silva, 5/25)

Politico: We Must Be Smart About Social Distancing, Birx Urges
As the United States approaches the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths and the long Memorial Day weekend brings large crowds, Dr. Deborah Birx said it’s “our job to continue to communicate” the importance of social distancing. On Friday, Birx — the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force — said people could enjoy the outdoors as long as they remained mindful of protecting one another. (Dugyala, 5/24)

ProPublica: Bill Barr Promised To Release Prisoners Threatened By Coronavirus — Even As The Feds Secretly Made It Harder For Them To Get Out 
Even as the Justice Department announced that federal prisons would release vulnerable, nonviolent inmates to home confinement to avoid the spread of COVID-19, the agency was quietly adopting a policy that makes it harder for inmates to qualify for release, not easier. The result has been that more than 98% of inmates remain in federal custody, while a handful of celebrity inmates, like former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, have been released to home detention. In two memos, one in late March and a second in early April, Attorney General William Barr directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department, to begin identifying inmates who could safely be released to home confinement — essentially house arrest. (MacDougall, 5/26)

NPR: As COVID-19 Cuts Deadly Path Through Indiana Prisons, Inmates Say Symptoms Ignored
Scottie Edwards died of COVID-19 just weeks before he would have gotten out of the Westville Correctional Facility in Indiana. Edwards, 73, began showing symptoms of the disease in early April, according to the accounts of three inmates who lived with him in a dormitory. He was short of breath, had chest pain, and could barely talk. He was also dizzy, sweaty and throwing up. (Harper, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump, Biden Place Opposing Bets On Voters’ View Of Coronavirus
President Trump visited a golf course for the first time in two months on Saturday, as he pushes the nation to reopen for business. Joe Biden, remaining at his Delaware home since mid-March, has urged caution about public outings. As the nation looks to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 presidential rivals are placing bets on how voters will view the outbreak by November. Their conflicting strategies show that the two campaigns believe the race will turn on very different outcomes. (Thomas and Bender, 5/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Biden And Trump, At Separate Memorial Day Events, Show A Contrast In Style
President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden made public appearances on Memorial Day, approaching the day differently amid the coronavirus pandemic. It was the first time Mr. Biden was seen outside his Delaware neighborhood in two months. In an unannounced stop at the Delaware Memorial Bridge’s Veterans Memorial Park near his hometown of Wilmington, Mr. Biden was accompanied by his wife and a Secret Service detail, all of whom wore masks. He spoke briefly with a local elected official from a distance in a visit that lasted less than 10 minutes. (Restuccia and Siddigui, 5/25)

The New York Times: Joe Biden, Wearing Mask, Appears In Public At A Veterans Memorial
Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has been campaigning from his home for more than two months during the coronavirus crisis, on Monday made his first public appearance since mid-March, visiting a veterans memorial in Delaware. He and his wife, Jill Biden, wearing black masks, laid a wreath of white flowers in a Memorial Day commemoration that had not been publicly announced before the trip. Mr. Biden, a practicing Catholic, made the sign of the cross. (Glueck and Haberman, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Pays Tribute To Veterans, Coronavirus Victims At Baltimore’s Fort McHenry
President Trump paid tribute Monday to veterans and victims of the coronavirus pandemic as the U.S. death tally neared 100,000, ignoring calls by the city’s mayor to reconsider making an appearance here. “Tens of thousands of service members and national guardsmen are on the front lines of our war against this terrible virus, caring for patients, delivering critical supplies and working night and day to safeguard our citizens,” Mr. Trump said. “As one nation, we mourn alongside every single family that has lost loved ones, including the families of our great veterans.” (Restuccia, 5/25)

The Washington Post: On Weekend Dedicated To War Dead, Trump Tweets Insults, Promotes Baseless Claims And Plays Golf
In a flurry of tweets and retweets Saturday and Sunday, Trump mocked former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’s weight, ridiculed the looks of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and called former Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton a “skank.” He revived long-debunked speculation that a television host with whom Trump has feuded may have killed a woman and asserted without evidence that mail-in voting routinely produces ballot stuffing. (Gearan, 5/24)

The Washington Post: In Crucial Florida, Some Senior Voters Cast A Skeptical Eye Toward Trump’s Reelection
Allen Lehner was a Republican until Donald Trump became his party’s nominee in 2016. The 74-year-old retiree says he couldn’t bring himself to vote for someone who lied, belittled others, walked out on his bills and mistreated women — but he also couldn’t bring himself to vote for Hillary Clinton. So he didn’t vote. Trump has done nothing since to entice Lehner back. (Johnson and Rozsa, 5/25)

NPR: Voter Registration Plummets Due To Pandemic, Reshaping 2020 Electorate
No door to door canvassing. Public gatherings are canceled. Motor vehicle offices are closed. Naturalization ceremonies are on hiatus. Almost every place where Americans usually register to vote has been out of reach since March and it's led to a big drop in new registrations right before a presidential election that was expected to see record turnout. (Fessler, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Voting By Mail In November? States Need To Prepare Now
Americans are expected to vote by mail in record numbers in November, but authorities are running out of time to secure the vast number of ballots and ballot-processing machines needed to ensure a smooth process, election and industry officials say. Many Americans will likely want or need to avoid polling stations in the fall because of the coronavirus pandemic. A Department of Homeland Security-led working group said weeks ago that local governments should have started preparing in April if they want to ready their vote-by-mail systems for the November election. (Corse and McMillan, 5/23)

Boston Globe: Vote-By-Mail Advocates Growing Anxious 
Legislation outlining vote-by-mail procedures for the September and November elections in Massachusetts “absolutely cannot wait another month,” electoral reform advocates say, as they renew their push for action on Beacon Hill. Under normal circumstances, local departments need several months to prepare fully for major statewide elections, particularly in a presidential year. But with the COVID-19 pandemic upending most aspects of public life — and with voters broadly supporting mail-in ballots — reform advocates argued it is critical for lawmakers to quickly find consensus on the myriad proposals before them. (Lisinski, 5/25)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Faulty Trump Claims On Virus Drug, Vote Fraud
When President Donald Trump doesn’t like the message, he shoots the messenger. So it was this past week when he took very personally a scientific study that should give pause to anyone thinking of following Trump’s lead and ingesting a potentially risky drug for the coronavirus. He branded the study’s researchers, financed in part by his own administration, his “enemy.” (Yen, Marchione and Woodward, 5/25)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Of Voters Support Mandatory Face Masks In Some Public Settings 
A majority of voters in a new Hill-HarrisX poll support mandatory face masks in at least some public settings during the coronavirus panemic. Forty percent of registered voters in the May 18-19 survey said wearing face masks should be required in both indoor and outdoor public spaces, while another 28 percent said facial coverings should be mandatory in public indoor spaces only. (5/22)

CIDRAP: US Polls Show Partisan Divide In Attitudes To COVID-19
New results from an ongoing health tracking poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation show Americans' attitudes about how and when to resume activities after stay-at-home mandates lift are starkly divided along political lines, with Republicans more than Democrats saying they intend to go to the salon, attend large gatherings, and eat in restaurants in the coming months. (Soucheray, 5/22)

Politico: The General Election Scenario That Democrats Are Dreading
In early April, Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration and now a professor at Harvard, was speaking via Zoom to a large bipartisan group of top officials from both parties. The economy had just been shut down, unemployment was spiking, and some policymakers were predicting an era worse than the Great Depression. The economic carnage seemed likely to doom President Donald Trump’s chances at reelection. Furman, tapped to give the opening presentation, looked into his screen of poorly lit boxes of frightened wonks and made a startling claim. (Lizza and Lippman, 5/26)

The New York Times: Trump Threatens To Pull Republican National Convention From North Carolina
President Trump on Monday threatened to yank the Republican National Convention from Charlotte, N.C., where it is scheduled to be held in August, accusing the state’s Democratic governor of being in a “shutdown mood” that could prevent a fully attended event. The president tweeted that he had “LOVE” for North Carolina, a swing state that he won in 2016, but he added that without a “guarantee” from the governor, Roy Cooper, that the event could be held at full capacity, “we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space.” (Haberman, 5/25)

ABC News: Trump Threatens To Move GOP Convention Out Of North Carolina Over COVID-19 Restrictions
"I love the Great State of North Carolina, so much so that I insisted on having the Republican National Convention in Charlotte at the end of August," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, Democrat Governor, @RoyCooperNC is still in Shutdown mood & unable to guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance in the Arena. In other words, we would be spending millions of dollars building the Arena to a very high standard without even knowing if the Democrat Governor would allow the Republican Party to fully occupy the space." (Thomas, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Trump Threatens To Pull Republican Convention Out Of North Carolina
The threat singling out a Democratic governor who has followed federal guidelines echoed Trump’s pressure on other Democratic-led states to reopen as the coronavirus pandemic pushes the economy to the worst crisis since the Great Depression, with approximately 38 million Americans filing for unemployment and scores of businesses shuttering. Trump, who sees a revived economy as critical to his reelection, also has encouraged protests against Democratic governors who have imposed stay-at-home orders consistent with federal health officials’ recommendations. (Kim and Sullivan, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Threatens To Pull Republican Convention From North Carolina
The Republican National Convention is scheduled to take place in late August at an arena in Charlotte that can hold as many as 20,000 people. Republicans “must be immediately given an answer by the Governor as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets. “If not, we will be reluctantly forced…to find, with all of the jobs and economic development it brings, another Republican National Convention site.” (Restuccia, 5/25)

Politico: Trump Threatens To Pull Republican Convention Out Of North Carolina
Trump’s remarks amounted to a shift in the party’s posture. Republicans have said they are intent on forging ahead with the convention and have been raising millions of dollars needed to stage the event. The party has set a goal of raising $65 million. The president has remained in touch with top party officials, including Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, and has privately said he is determined to hold a convention. (Isenstadt and Cohen, 5/25)

NBC News: Trump Threatens Republican Convention Move If N.C. Limits Attendance Over Coronavirus
The convention is currently scheduled for Aug. 24-27, in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state which recently reported its highest number of new cases in a single day. North Carolina entered the second phase of its reopening Friday, but gatherings of groups over 10 people indoors, and 25 people outdoors, are still prohibited. (Timm and Alba, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Memorial Day Weekend Draws Crowds And Triggers Warnings
The Memorial Day weekend marking the unofficial start of summer in the U.S. meant big crowds at beaches and warnings from authorities Sunday about people disregarding the coronavirus social-distancing rules and risking a resurgence of the scourge that has killed nearly 100,000 Americans. ... Sheriff’s deputies and beach patrols tried to make sure people kept their distance from others as they soaked up the rays on the sand and at parks and other recreation sites around the country. (Anderson and Mahoney, 5/25)

The New York Times: Even On Memorial Day, ‘You Can’t Escape’ Coronavirus
On a holiday that usually mixes somber remembrance and blissful renewal, the nation marked an unusually grim Memorial Day in which losses from the past merged with ones from the present. Gray skies and rain in much of the United States on Monday provided a muted backdrop as crowds flocked to beaches, amusement parks, lakes and boardwalks on the first long weekend since the coronavirus began to tear through the country, taking almost 100,000 lives with it. For many people, the day was an attempt to turn the page from the lockdowns of the past two months to something more resembling the traditional beginning of summer. (Oppel and Burch, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Pandemic Brings Smaller, Subdued Memorial Day Observances
Americans settled for small processions and online tributes instead of parades Monday as they observed Memorial Day in the shadow of the pandemic, which forced communities to honor the nation’s military dead with modest, more subdued ceremonies that also remembered those lost to the coronavirus. (Forliti and Brown, 5/26)

Reuters: Americans Make Low-Key Memorial Day Tributes, Coronavirus Overshadowing Events
In some places, scaled-down ceremonies were broadcast over the internet, as shutdowns to curb the spread of the virus put a damper on what is usually a day of flag-waving parades and crowds celebrating the unofficial start of the U.S. summer. Spots that would be bustling on a normal Memorial holiday had noticeably thinner crowds. Perhaps half of those gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington wore face coverings, recommended as one way to fight infection. Only about one in 10 did so on the boardwalk by the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. (Allen, 5/25)

NPR: Americans Welcome Summer With A Somber And Surreal Memorial Day
Even in a typical year, Memorial Day in the U.S. can be a confusing mixture of joy and sadness — at once a hearty welcome to summertime, brimming with picnics and parties, and a somber remembrance of the service members who died in wars. But this has been no typical year. Into the holiday's characteristic contrast of opposites the coronavirus pandemic has tossed a rather large wrench, which has only served to rend that divide wider. (Dwyer, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Crowd Ignores Social Distancing In Missouri’s Lake Of The Ozarks
Vacationers flocked to the Lake of the Ozarks over the holiday weekend, flouting social distancing guidelines as they packed into yacht clubs, outdoor bars and resort pools in the Missouri tourist hot spot. Images of the revelry rippled across social media, showing people eating, drinking and swimming in close quarters. In one picture shared by the news station KSDK, dozens of people could be seen crammed on an outdoor patio underneath a sign reading, “Please practice social distancing.” (Hawkins, 5/24)

NBC News: Missouri Health Officials Call For Self-Quarantine Of Partiers At Lake Of The Ozarks
Images of a jampacked pool party at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri over the Memorial Day weekend prompted St. Louis County to issue a travel advisory and the Kansas City health director to call for self-quarantine of the revelers. The advisory by the St. Louis County Public Health Department cited news reports of large crowds at Lake of the Ozarks, where hundreds of people were recorded squeezed closely together amid the coronavirus epidemic. (Helsel, 5/26)

The Washington Post: Memorial Day Offers Array Of Contrasts As Trump And Biden Honor War Dead, With And Without Masks
In Ocean City, Md., videos showed visitors thronging the boardwalk, only some wearing masks. From Newport Beach, Calif., to the Tampa area along Florida’s Gulf Coast, crowds were sometimes dense — in the latter case, forcing authorities to close jammed parking lots. In midtown Houston on Saturday, more than 100 partygoers packed into a swimming pool area at a club, flouting social distancing orders to maintain space or wear masks a day after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) eased restrictions on bars and restaurants. (Nakashima, 5/25)

CNN: Thousands Disregarded Health Guidance Over The Weekend Despite Rising Coronavirus Cases In More Than A Dozen States 
Packing beaches, pool parties and outdoor gatherings all over the US, many Americans used the holiday weekend to mark the unofficial beginning of summer -- ditching the face masks and social distancing urged by health officials. Many people, undoubtedly, continued to abide by new restrictions set in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus -- staying in small groups, wearing masks and keeping a distance from others. But in some parts of the country, Memorial Day happenings looked not at all unlike any other year. (Maxouris, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Caution Urged As Americans Venture Out For Holiday Weekend
The festivities played out as the number of U.S. deaths from Covid-19 approached 100,000. The U.S. death toll stood at more than 97,800 on Monday, which was close to 30% of the global total of about 345,000. The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases exceeded 5.4 million world-wide Monday, with more than 1.6 million of those in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The pandemic didn’t stop some of the traditional Memorial Day salutes. In Los Angeles, 18 vintage warplanes flew low and in formation Monday as a tribute to veterans and health-care workers. (Lazo, Berger and Michaels, 5/25)

Politico: Could A Second Wave Of Coronavirus Trigger New Stay-At-Home Orders? States Can't Agree.
Alabama hasn’t met the White House’s gating criteria for reopening, and its capital city’s health care system has been overwhelmed this month as the number of positive coronavirus cases there more than doubled. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed has warned that major hospitals have run out of ICU beds and nearly 500 people have tested positive over the past two weeks. Yet the state took another step forward in its three-week-old push to reopen, allowing entertainment venues like arcades, theaters and bowling alleys to open Friday afternoon. (McCaskill and Goldberg, 5/24)

Politico: How Summer Could Determine The Pandemic’s Future
What’s certain is the coming few months will say a lot about the state of the country, the public’s psyche and how much death and illness it’s willing to accept. With so much confusing data and contradictory political messaging on the reopening before the November elections, there is a road map to follow this summer to know if the fall will be a time of true recovery or deepening despair. Here are five story lines this summer that will reveal whether the U.S. has turned the corner. (Goldberg, Ollstein and Ehley, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Lessons From The Deadly Second Wave Of The 1918 Flu Pandemic For The Coronavirus Era
As coronavirus lockdowns loosen and some Americans flock to restaurants, beaches, and other outdoor spaces for Memorial Day weekend, the question of reopening too quickly is striking an eerily familiar tone. The global flu epidemic of 1918 remains the deadliest on record. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pandemic killed an estimated 50 million worldwide and over half a million in the United States. J. Alexander Navarro of the University of Michigan’s Center for History of Medicine is one of the organizers of the “Influenza Archive,” a collection of information cataloging and studying the effects of the 1918 pandemic in 43 major U.S. cities. (Usero, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Covid-19’s Deadly New Surge Is In Rural America As States Re-Open 
The novel coronavirus arrived in an Indiana farm town mid-planting season and took root faster than the fields of seed corn, infecting hundreds and killing dozens. It tore through a pork processing plant and spread outward in a desolate stretch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. And in Colorado’s sparsely populated eastern plains, the virus erupted in a nursing home and a pair of factories, burning through the crowded quarters of immigrant workers and a vulnerable elderly population. As the death toll nears 100,000, the disease caused by the virus has made a fundamental shift in who it touches and where it reaches in America, according to a Washington Post analysis of case data and interviews with public health professionals in several states. (Thebault and Hauslohner, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Bowser Says D.C. Is ‘Back On Track’ For Gradual Reopening; Va. Reports Record Number Of New Cases
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Monday that the city is “back on track” to move toward a gradual reopening after seeing a slight spike in new cases over the weekend. Meanwhile, Virginia reported a record number of new cases — mostly in the Washington suburbs — but the area’s leaders said they are planning for a transition to Phase 1 of reopening starting at the end of the week. Bowser said she would wait until Wednesday to decide whether to move to Phase 1 of the city’s reopening on Friday. She said she wants to see 14 days of declining community spread — calculated by the date of symptom onset and excluding cases at confined facilities such as nursing homes — before she makes a decision. (Chason and Zauzmer, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Superspreader Events Offer A Clue On Curbing Coronavirus
Some scientists looking for ways to prevent a return to exponential growth in coronavirus infections after lockdowns are lifted are zeroing in on a new approach: Focus on avoiding superspreading events. The theory is that banning mass public events where hundreds of attendees can infect themselves in the space of a few hours, along with other measures such as wearing face masks, might slow the pace of the new coronavirus’s progression to a manageable level even as shops and factories reopen. (Pancevski, 5/24)

The Associated Press: Spike In Coronavirus Cases In Oregon Traced To Gatherings
A spike in reported coronavirus cases in Redmond last week has been tied to family and social gatherings in the area. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports last week’s breakdown of coronavirus cases by ZIP code in Oregon reported eight new cases of COVID-19 in the central Oregon town. That brought Redmond up to only 18 reported cases to date, but amounted to an 80% change over the previous week – the highest in the state. (5/25)

The Washington Post: Local Maryland Officials Say Hogan Abandoned Them In Reopening Decision
Montgomery County rushed to create its own data dashboard last week, so elected leaders could justify to constituents why they remain stuck in a coronavirus shutdown. In Anne Arundel County, local officials secured their own virus tests, contact tracers and protective equipment, skeptical the state would provide enough. (Cox, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Spike In D.C. Numbers, Crowds At Maryland, Virginia Beaches And Boardwalks Renew Coronavirus Concerns
As the total number of coronavirus infections in the Washington region topped 90,000 Sunday and fatalities hit 3,880, a one-day spike in the District’s numbers raised questions about whether it can begin reopening as expected on Friday. And social media ­images of a crowded Ocean City boardwalk and an unmasked Virginia governor mingling with beachgoers had many wondering whether safety guidelines meant to contain the disease were being taken seriously enough. (Heim, Tan, Vozzella and Zauzmer, 5/24)

The Wall Street Journal: In Coronavirus Fight, Uncertainty Emerges As The New Enemy
When it comes to economic recovery, the coronavirus remains Public Enemy No. 1. But not far behind is an equally insidious force: uncertainty. In conversations with business leaders in recent days, it’s clear that simple uncertainty, as much as any particular policy or public-health imperative, is holding back the economy. Here are the kinds of questions they are asking: Are consumers ready to venture out in force even if they are free to do so? How does a big business navigate a patchwork of different state and local reopening plans and policies? How do we make mass transit safe enough for workers and consumers alike to return to normal life with confidence? (Seib, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Cities Are Closing Streets To Make Way For Restaurants And Pedestrians
The forced distancing required by the coronavirus prompted several cities to quickly close some public roads to make room so cooped-up residents anxious to get outside for exercise could do so safely. Now, following moves to shut, narrow or repurpose streets from Oakland to Tampa, cities including Washington are seeking to understand how those emergency closures might have lasting impacts on some of urban America’s most important, and contested, real estate. (Laris, 5/25)

NBC News: Second Stylist At Same Missouri Hair Salon Tests Positive; Nearly 140 Exposed To Coronavirus
One hundred-forty clients at a hair salon in Missouri may have been exposed to COVID-19 after a second hairstylist at the location tested positive for the coronavirus. On Friday, the city of Springfield said 91 people — 84 clients and seven employees — had been exposed after a stylist worked for eight days while showing symptoms. Now, 56 more clients have been "potentially directly exposed," the city said Saturday, saying the second stylist at the Great Clips salon tested positive and worked for five days while "experiencing very mild symptoms." (Kesslen, 5/24)

ABC News: African Americans In The Hair Industry Say COVID-19 Social Distancing Is Crushing Them 
As the rapid spread of COVID-19 disproportionately devastates black communities across the country, African Americans in the hair care business say stay-at-home orders and social distancing has crushed an industry which relies solely on clientele for a steady income. "When COVID hit it was like losing my livelihood overnight," Tiana Brown, 34, owner of That Chics Hair Suite in New Jersey, told ABC News. "I am a full-time stylist. That is my only income." (Eubanks, 5/26)

ABC News: California Lays Out Pandemic Rules For Church Reopenings
Rabbi Shalom Rubanowitz looks forward to reopening his synagogue doors — if his congregation can balance the laws of God and California during the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, the state released a framework that will permit counties to allow in-person worship services. They include limiting worshipers to 100 or less, taking everyone's temperature, limiting singing and group recitations and not sharing prayer books or other items. (Dazio and Jablon, 5/26)

Politico: California Reopens Churches 3 Days After Trump Threatened To 'Override' States
Church services, which had been banned since Newsom's March 19 order, would look dramatically different under new state Department of Public Health guidelines. Religious services and funerals can host a maximum of 100 people, or 25 percent of building capacity, whichever is lower. The state also advised caution around church singing. A religious choir practice in Washington state became a "superspreading" event in March that resulted in the majority of attendees contracting Covid-19 and two deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Mays, 5/25)

The Hill: California To Allow Places Of Worship To Reopen, In-Store Retail Shopping To Resume 
Trump said Friday he was designating all houses of worship nationwide as essential, claiming he would “override the governors” if they did not allow them to reopen. While several lawsuits have been filed challenging Newsom’s restrictions on in-person religious services, the state’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last week found in his favor against San Diego’s South Bay United Pentecostal Church, 2-1. (Budryk, 5/25)

KQED: California Issues Guidelines For Places Of Worship To Reopen At Limited Capacity
Places of worship in California can reopen for services, but only after they make major modifications based on a set of guidelines released Monday by state health officials. The guidelines, issued by the California Department of Public Health, leave it to the discretion of individual counties to decide whether religious gatherings in their jurisdictions can resume. If local officials give the go-ahead, places of worship must limit attendance to 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees — whichever is lower — for at least the first 21 days after reopening. (Federis, 5/25)

Politico: Places Of Worship 'May Not Be Safe' For Some, Birx Says
Places of worship "may not be safe for those with preexisting conditions" despite orders from President Donald Trump that they be allowed to reopen immediately, White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx said Sunday. "Although it may be safe for some to go to churches and social distance, it may not be safe for those with preexisting conditions," Birx told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday.” "That's why in 'phase one' and 'phase two,' we've asked for those individuals with vulnerabilities to really ensure that they are protected and sheltering in place while we open up America." (Mueller, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Some Churches Tentatively Open As Memorial Day Crowds Descend On Tourist Hot Spots
No holding hands during the Lord’s Prayer. No hymnals or holy water. And no congregating with friends outside after services. More than two months after much of the United States shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, some houses of worship are beginning to reopen their doors, albeit with a long list of social distancing guidelines in place. (Sonmez, Kornfield and Hawkins, 5/24)

The New York Times: As Meatpacking Plants Reopen, Data About Worker Illness Remains Elusive
The Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, N.C., is one of the world’s largest pork processing facilities, employing about 4,500 people and slaughtering roughly 30,000 pigs a day at its peak. And like more than 100 other meat plants across the United States, the facility has seen a substantial number of coronavirus cases. But the exact number of workers in Tar Heel who have tested positive is anyone’s guess. Smithfield would not provide any data when asked about the number of illnesses at the plant. Neither would state or local health officials. (Corkery, Yaffe-Bellany and Kravitz, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Meat Industry Trying To Get Back To Normal, But Coronavirus Persists 
Tyson Foods, the largest meat processor in the United States, has transformed its facilities across the country since legions of its workers started getting sick from the novel coronavirus. It has set up on-site medical clinics, screened employees for fevers at the beginning of their shifts, required the use of face coverings, installed plastic dividers between stations and taken a host of other steps to slow the spread. Despite those efforts, the number of Tyson employees with the coronavirus has exploded from less than 1,600 a month ago to more than 7,000 today, according to a Washington Post analysis of news reports and public records. (Telford, 5/25)

The Associated Press: Worker Shortage Concerns Loom In Immigrant-Heavy Meatpacking
When Martha Kebede’s adult sons immigrated from Ethiopia and reunited with her in South Dakota this year, they had few work opportunities. Lacking English skills, the brothers took jobs at Smithfield Foods’ Sioux Falls pork plant, grueling and increasingly risky work as the coronavirus sickened thousands of meatpacking workers nationwide. One day half the workers on a slicing line vanished; later the brothers tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. (Groves and Tareen, 5/26)

ABC News: California City Sees COVID-19 Outbreaks At 9 Facilities, Including Food Processing Plants 
One California city is grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks at nine of its industrial facilities, including one food processing plant that reported having at least 153 positive cases, according to health officials. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said the largest outbreak occurred at the Farmer John meatpacking plant in Vernon, California, which is owned by Smithfield Foods and produces Dodger Dogs, among other products. (Effron, 5/25)

Politico: ‘Something Isn’t Right’: U.S. Probes Soaring Beef Prices
Supermarket customers are paying more for beef than they have in decades during the coronavirus pandemic. But at the same time, the companies that process the meat for sale are paying farmers and ranchers staggeringly low prices for cattle. Now, the Agriculture Department and prosecutors are investigating whether the meatpacking industry is fixing or manipulating prices. (Nylen and Crampton, 5/25)

In other worker safety news —

The New York Times: What Role Should Employers Play In Testing Workers?
As the country reopens, employers are looking into how to safely bring back their workers. One recurring question: Should they be tested for the new coronavirus? Some businesses are moving ahead. In Indianapolis, the family-owned Shapiro’s Delicatessen tested about 25 employees in its parking lot this month. Amazon plans to spend as much as $1 billion this year to regularly test its work force, while laying the groundwork to build its own lab near the Cincinnati airport. (Eder, Gabler, Kliff and Murphy, 5/22)

ProPublica/MLK50: Nike Turned Away A Public Health Official From Its Warehouse Days After A Worker With COVID-19 Died
The security guard said no. It didn’t matter that the visitor was from the Shelby County Health Department. It didn’t matter that she was there to investigate health conditions at a Nike distribution center where, five days earlier, company officials learned a temporary worker had died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus. The security guard staffing the gate at the sprawling site said that without an appointment, no one could come in. (Thomas, 5/23)

The Washington Post: Grocery Workers Are In The Dark About Coronavirus Risks 
By the end of April, employees at a Walmart in Quincy, Mass., were panicking: Sick colleagues kept showing up at work. Other employees disappeared without explanation. The store’s longtime greeter was in the hospital and on a ventilator, dying of covid-19. Local health officials grew alarmed as employees and their relatives reported sick co-workers. Shoppers called to complain about crowded conditions. “We have had consistent problems with Walmart,” wrote Ruth Jones, Quincy’s health commissioner, in an April 28 email to the Massachusetts attorney general’s office. “They have a cluster of Covid cases among employees and have not been cooperative in giving us contact information or in following proper quarantine and isolation guidelines.” (Dungca, Abelson, Bhattarai and Kornfield, 5/24)

WBUR: Know Your Rights: What Your Employer Is Required To Do To Keep You Safe As You Return To Work 
As Massachusetts begins to slowly reopen its economy, people who are not able to do their jobs remotely may be asked to return to work. This brings up a lot of questions around safety for businesses and workers alike, as not everyone may feel safe coming to the workplace. ...For whenever you may return to work, here's what workers should know about what employers are required to do to keep them safe on the job, as well as what to do if they’re sick and how to report violations of state and federal rules. (Ruckstuhl, 5/26)

Boston Globe: Black And Latinx Activists Say State Is Reopening Too Soon 
Black and Latinx activists marched to the Massachusetts State House on Monday to advocate for communities of color, who they say are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus crisis and the state’s reopening plans. The group said it represents about 50 organizations in Boston, including the local chapter of Latinx organization Mijente and the Black Boston COVID-19 Coalition. The group gathered outside of steakhouse Davio’s on the corner of Arlington and Stuart Street surrounding a black chair painted with the words: “essential workers have no seat at the table.” (Gardizy, 5/25)

Boston Globe: Mass. Reports 44 New Deaths, 596 New Cases Of Coronavirus On Monday
The state reported Monday afternoon 44 new deaths from the coronavirus, bringing Massachusetts’ death toll to 6,416, while the number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 also rose to 93,271, with 596 newly reported cases. The state’s three-day average of COVID-19 deaths was 67 as of May 22, which marked the eighth straight day of decline. (Hilliard, 5/25)

WBUR: 'Drinking From A Firehose': Tapped As The Rule Enforcers, Local Health Depts. Brace For Reopening Calls 
Starting Monday, thousands of previously shuttered businesses will have the go-ahead to reopen — with lots of new COVID-19 related rules and restrictions. The state wants all businesses and workers — from hair salons to office spaces, to pet groomers and car washes — to practice social distancing, sanitizing and mask-wearing. The agency responsible, in large part, for ensuring they comply with all the rules? Your local health department. (Jarmanning, 5/25)

WBUR: Here's What To Expect As Mass. Doctors Reopen For Routine Medical Care 
Health care centers and hospitals are the first facilities in Massachusetts to roll out these changes, following Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan. The state’s largest health care center, the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, with more 300,000 visits a year, launches its plan for a new normal today. (Bebinger, 5/26)

The Associated Press: Florida Coronavirus Cases Near 52,000 With 2,252 Deaths
Total coronavirus cases in Florida neared 52,000 on Monday, with 2,252 deaths, as many residents took advantage of relaxed restrictions during the Memorial Day weekend. Numbers released Monday by the Florida Department of Health show 879 new cases since a day earlier, along with 15 new deaths. After setting quarantine and social distancing guidelines that forced many businesses to close in March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis began allowing restaurants and retail stores to open at limited capacities May 4 in all but the three South Florida counties. (5/25)

Texas Tribune: Texas Homeless Shelters Become Coronavirus Hot Spots
Nursing homes, jails and prisons have become well-known locations for coronavirus outbreaks, but Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has identified another major hotspot for COVID-19 cases in his city: homeless shelters. Speaking at a Houston food distribution drive Saturday, where he was volunteering, Turner said 77 of the 183 additional people who had tested positive for the virus lived in homeless shelters, ABC13 Houston reported." We are now testing people in our homeless shelter, and what we are finding is there are people who are infected with this virus,” Turner said, according to the news report. “We are engaging in social distancing and spreading them out.” (Davila, 5/24)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Homeless Remain A Blind Spot In Clark County’s COVID-19 Picture 
While testing for COVID-19 is becoming available to more Clark County residents, testing of the homeless remains haphazard even though they are considered at high risk from the disease. “We really don’t know what the prevalence of COVID is right now in our homeless population,” Southern Nevada Health District clinical services director JoAnn Rupiper acknowledged in an interview. (Erickson, 5/25)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Nevada Governor To Discuss State’s Reopening Plan Tuesday Evening 
Gov. Steve Sisolak will discuss the next phase of Nevada’s reopening at a news conference Tuesday evening, according to the governor’s office. ...Last week, Sisolak’s office said the governor could potentially announce a date for beginning the second phase of reopenings at a Tuesday briefing, depending on whether data collected through the holiday weekend continued to “reflect positive or consistent trends.” (Michor, 5/25)

The Oklahoman: New App Will Help Address Homelessness In Oklahoma City
This year, people in Oklahoma City will be able to interact with individuals experiencing homelessness in a new, high-tech way. Starting in July, City Care will begin rolling out an information campaign around a pilot program with a Seattle-based app company called Samaritan to offer a platform for community members to financially support a small group of people experiencing homelessness. (Branch, 5/25)

Indianapolis Star: Indiana Coronavirus Cases: State Reports 354 New Cases, 8 Deaths
The Indiana State Department of Health on Monday announced 354 additional coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 31,715 after the department made corrections to the previous day's total. The state also reported 8 new deaths, for a total of 1,832. As of today, the state reported 226,251 administered tests. Of those, 14% tested positive, according to the state health department's online dashboard. (Slaby, 5/25)

The Associated Press: UN Virus Therapy Trial Pauses Hydroxychloroquine Testing
The World Health Organization said Monday that it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine — the anti-malarial drug U.S. President Trump says he is taking — from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments, saying that its experts need to review all available evidence to date. In a press briefing, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems, there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global clinical trial. (Cheng and Keaten, 5/25)

Reuters: WHO Pauses Trial Of Hydroxychloroquine In COVID-19 Patients Due To Safety Concerns
“The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board,” Tedros told an online briefing. He said the other arms of the trial - a major international initiative to hold clinical tests of potential treatments for the virus - were continuing. (5/25)

NBC News: WHO Temporarily Halts Trial Of Hydroxychloroquine Over Safety Concerns
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO's chief scientist, said the organization's investigators and regulators in individual countries have raised enough red flags to prompt the halt. "So the steering committee met over the weekend and decided that in the light of this uncertainty that we should be proactive, err on the side of caution and suspend enrollment, temporarily, into the hydroxychloroquine arm," she said. (Li, 5/25)

NPR: WHO Stops Study Of Experimental Drug Hydroxychloroquine
The WHO has 3,500 patients from 17 countries enrolled in what it calls the Solidarity Trial. This is an effort overseen by the WHO to find new treatments for COVID-19. The patients in the trial have been randomly assigned to be treated with hydroxychloroquine which is a common malaria drug, or 3 other experimental drugs for treating COVID-19 in various combinations. Only the hydroxychloroquine part of the trial is being put on hold. "The review will consider data collected so far in the Solidarity Trial and in particular robust, randomized available data to adequately evaluate the potential benefits and harms from this drug [hydroxycholoroquine]," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during an online press conference from Geneva on Monday. (Beaubien, 5/25)

CIDRAP: Malaria Drugs Tied To Risk Of Death, Heart Problems In COVID-19 Patients
The implications of the findings are limited by the fact that they are from an observational study and not a randomized controlled trial, which is the gold standard for evaluating whether a drug is truly safe and effective against a disease. Still, the authors of the study say they present another case against continued use of the drugs in COVID-19 patients outside of a clinical trial. (Dall, 5/22)

Politico: World Health Organization Pauses Study Of Hydroxychloroquine In Global Trial 
The meeting came a day after the Lancet published the largest observational study of the malaria drugs to date, and as some national regulators began expressing concern about using the drug. WHO officials estimated the pause would last a week or two as the trial’s data safety monitoring board considers information already collected from the Solidarity trial and other ongoing studies to determine whether it’s safe to continue with hydroxychloroquine. (Wheaton, 5/25)

The Hill: WHO Pauses Hydroxychloroquine Trial To Review Safety Data 
The other arms of the "Solidarity Trials" being overseen by the WHO, which involve multiple countries and potential treatments for COVID-19, will continue, Tedros said. "This concern relates to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in COVID-19," he added. "I wish to reiterate that these drugs are accepted as generally safe for use in patients with autoimmune diseases or malaria." (Wise, 5/25)

Stat: What A Big Covid-19 Study On Malaria Drugs Tells Us — And What It Doesn’t
A new study underlines safety concerns about using the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat Covid-19, and heightens questions about whether or not the drugs are effective at all. The study, which was published in the Lancet, cannot answer the question of whether or not hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can help patients fight off Covid-19 or whether the drugs increase or decrease the death rates in those patients. Those answers can only come from large studies in which patients are randomly assigned to either receive the drugs or a placebo. Dozens of such studies are ongoing. (Herper, 5/22)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Reuters: Fujifilm COVID-19 Drug Research Spills Into June, Dashing Hopes Of Quick Approval
Fujifilm Holdings Corp (4901.T) will continue research on Avigan into June, Japan’s government said on Tuesday, effectively dashing hopes by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that the drug would be approved as a COVID-19 treatment this month. (5/25)

Stat: First Generic Remdesivir Will Be Sold By Bangladesh Drug Maker
A drug maker in Bangladesh has become the first company to sell a generic version of remdesivir, the latest sign of how the push to ensure widespread access to Covid-19 medicines and vaccines has become an urgent issue in poor countries. Following an emergency decree issued by the Bangladesh government, Beximco Pharmaceuticals is donating copies of the Gilead Sciences (GILD) medicine to state-run hospitals free of charge, but will sell the intravenous treatment to private clinics. Moreover, the company is reportedly willing to export its version if other governments request the drug, although it does not have a license from Gilead to do so. (Silverman, 5/22)

Stat: Covid-19 Study Details Benefits Of Remdesivir Treatment, And Also Limitations
Remdesivir, the only drug cleared to treat Covid-19, sped the recovery time of patients with the disease, but its benefit appeared much more limited in patients who needed mechanical ventilation as part of their treatment, according to eagerly awaited results of a clinical trial. Initial results from the study, which led to the drug’s emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, were released late last month. Full data were published late Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (Herper, 5/22)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Vaccine Shows Promising Early Results In China
A vaccine developed in China appears to be safe and may protect people from the new coronavirus, researchers reported on Friday. The early-stage trial, published in the Lancet, was conducted by researchers at several laboratories and included 108 participants aged 18 to 60. Those who received a single dose of the vaccine produced certain immune cells, called T cells, within two weeks. Antibodies needed for immunity peaked at 28 days after the inoculation. (Mandavilli, 5/22)

Stat: Early Study Of Covid-19 Vaccine Developed In China Sees Mixed Results
Data on the vaccine, made by CanSino Biologics, were published Friday in the Lancet, the first time Phase 1 trial data from any Covid-19 vaccine have been published in a scientific journal. The results are likely to be closely examined, particularly in Canada, which recently announced it would test the vaccine and produce it there if results of the early studies were positive. The study found that one dose of the vaccine, tested at three different levels, appeared to induce a good immune response in some subjects. But about half of the volunteers — people who already had immunity to the backbone of the vaccine — had a dampened immune response. (Branswell, 5/22)

Politico: U.S. Is Ahead Of China In Vaccine Race, Former FDA Chief Says
The United States will have a "better" vaccine than China — and it will have it sooner, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb predicted Sunday. Data on the potential vaccines in clinical development in China "didn't look overwhelmingly strong," Gottlieb told Margaret Brennan on CBS' "Face the Nation." "Those vaccines, if they do work, probably are going to provide lower levels of immunity than the platforms that the U.S. and Europeans are working with," he said. "So I think we're going to have a better vaccine, and I think we're probably going to have it sooner based on where we are in clinical development, some of the early progress that we've shown." (Mueller, 5/24)

In other vaccine news —

Stat: FDA’s Woodcock To Stop Drug Approval Work To Focus On Covid-19 Vaccines
Food and Drug Administration stalwart Janet Woodcock will temporarily step aside as the director of the agency’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research to work solely on a White House initiative meant to accelerate Covid-19 treatments, Commissioner Stephen Hahn announced Friday in an agency-wide email obtained by STAT. The news is monumental for the FDA: Woodcock has served as the permanent director of CDER for more than a decade, since 2008. She joined the FDA in 1986 and is widely considered the most experienced regulator at the agency. (Florko, 5/22)

Stat: He Had A Severe Reaction To Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine. He's Still A Believer
Patients in clinical trials are usually faceless. But as the experimental Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Moderna Therapeutics has begun advancing through studies, it has found a much more visible advocate: trial volunteer Ian Haydon, a 29-year-old in Seattle. Haydon has spoken about the vaccine on CNN and CNBC. He even said he’d volunteer to be exposed to the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, if researchers want to test to see if the vaccine was actually effective. But up until now he has left out a key detail: He is, apparently, one of three people in the trial who had a systemic adverse reaction to the vaccine. (Herper, 5/26)

Stat: WHO Warns Millions Of Children At Risk As Pandemic Disrupts Vaccinations
Some 80 million babies around the world are at higher risk of diseases like diphtheria, measles, and polio as the coronavirus pandemic hinders routine vaccination programs, global health officials warned Friday. Vaccine campaigns have been disrupted in at least 68 countries, according to data released by the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The interruptions could affect 80 million children under 1 year old in those countries. (Joseph, 5/22)

The Associated Press: 1st Deadlines For Laid-Off Workers To Get Health Insurance
Many laid-off workers who lost health insurance in the coronavirus shutdown soon face the first deadlines to qualify for fallback coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Taxpayer-subsidized health insurance is available for a modest cost — sometimes even free — across the country, but industry officials and independent researchers say few people seem to know how to find it. For those who lost their health insurance as layoffs mounted in late March, a 60-day “special enrollment” period for individual coverage under the ACA closes at the end of May in most states. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/25)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Will Redistribute Provider Grant Funds Returned By Insurers
HHS will redistribute provider grant funds that insurers and other entities have returned to the department in future funding tranches, an agency spokesperson said. Several insurers have said they received and chose to return unsolicited payments from the $30 billion that the HHS sent out based on Medicare fee-for-service reimbursement. The widespread reduction in doctors' visits and elective procedures amid the COVID-19 pandemic has drained providers of revenue but has so far benefited insurers' bottom lines. Large, publicly traded insurers don't expect the pandemic to negatively impact their 2020 earnings. (Cohrs, 5/22)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Administration Slow To Distribute Grants To Medicaid Providers
Eight weeks after Congress created a $100 billion fund to aid providers struggling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some providers that serve women, children and vulnerable populations still haven't gotten any of the money. CMS sent payments at warp speed to hospitals and providers that bill fee-for-service Medicare, starting distribution two weeks after the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act was signed into law. The distribution wasn't perfect — HHS sent funds to hospitals that had closed and several insurers that ended up returning the money. But the department has taken the opposite approach in sending money to Medicaid providers. (Cohrs, 5/21)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Louisiana Hospitals Got Massive Payouts For Coronavirus -- But It Might Not Be Enough 
Louisiana’s health care facilities are set to receive over a billion dollars of federal coronavirus rescue funds, a staggering sum that demonstrates the depth of the crisis in area hospitals even as executives warn that the financial toll could end up being much bigger. The payout, which represents the state’s share of $72 billion in relief aid from the federal CARES Act that has been distributed so far to health care providers, was distributed to almost 5,000 facilities in Louisiana. (Woodruff, 5/25)

Modern Healthcare: April Was The Worst Month Ever For Hospital Operating Margins
Hospitals' operating margins continued to plummet in April as COVID-19 sunk revenues, new data show. Hospitals' median operating margin fell to negative 29% in April, dropping 282% relative to last year, according to Kaufman Hall's analysis of around 800 hospitals. As hospitals delayed non-urgent procedures to manage COVID-19 cases, operating room minutes decreased 61%—more than triple the decline seen in March. (Kacik, 5/21)

Modern Healthcare: OhioHealth CEO: Leaders Need Flexibility For COVID-19 Response
A former combat pilot and emergency room physician, Dr. Stephen Markovich knows a thing or two about performing under pressure. And those traits have certainly been tested as the president and CEO of Columbus-based OhioHealth has guided the 12-hospital system through the COVID-19 pandemic. He established an incident command center that meets daily and said he’s given his leadership team the autonomy they need to create a plan that’s flexible and adaptable. (Weinstock, 5/25)

Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: Tips For Surviving COVID With Your Financial Health Intact
In early April, Katelyn was in a financial bind. At home and sick with COVID-19, she hadn’t been paid in weeks. And her bills were due. “My landlord is kinda beating down my door right now,” she said in a voicemail to the podcast hotline: (724) 276-6534; that’s 724 ARM N LEG. Weeks later, Katelyn got back in touch: She had made it through with her financial health intact, thanks to a combination of playing hardball with one company and knowing how to play nice with others. (Weissmann, 5/26)

The New York Times: Uncertain Results In Study Of Convalescent Serum For Covid-19
A small study of patients who were severely ill from the coronavirus hints that treatment with antibodies from recovered patients may modestly help recovery and survival, scientists reported on Friday. The study, although far from conclusive, is said to be the largest of subjects recovering from Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Thirty-nine hospitalized patients were given intravenous infusions of antibodies from patients who had recovered from the condition. (Kolata, 5/22)

The New York Times: CDC Says Coronavirus Does Not Spread Easily On Surfaces 
Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention making the rounds this week on the internet are clarifying what we know about the transmission of the coronavirus. The virus does not spread easily via contaminated surfaces, according to the C.D.C. For those who were worried about wiping down grocery bags or disinfecting mailed packages, the news headlines highlighting this guidance in recent days might have brought some relief. But this information is not new: The C.D.C. has been using similar language for months. (Fortin, 5/22)

USA Today: Obesity Makes COVID-19 Risk Larger, Hospitals' Challenges Much Harder
The parents and two brothers of Silvia Deyanira Melendez, 24, are all in therapy after losing their daughter and sister to COVID-19 on March 28. "I don’t have the words to say how beautiful and nice to the family she was," her father, Marcos Melendez, said Friday. She weighed more than 300 pounds with a body mass index of 60, double the BMI considered obese. This most likely contributed heavily to her Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and a heart condition that required open heart surgery two years ago.  (O'Donnell, 5/23)

ABC News: What Is R0 For The COVID-19 Virus And Why It's A Key Metric For Re-Opening Plans 
If you've been reading coronavirus news coverage, you've likely stumbled across a reference to a term called "R0." ... Pronounced "R-naught," the reproductive number is an indicator of how contagious a disease is, or how easily it spreads from person to person in a community. The number is important because government leaders are using R0 as a proxy for determining whether their respective COVID-19 outbreaks are growing, shrinking and or holding steady. (Schumaker, 5/26)

The Associated Press: Congress Weighs Choice: 'Go Big' On Virus Aid Or Hit 'Pause'
Congress is at a crossroads in the coronavirus crisis, wrestling over whether to “go big,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants for the next relief bill, or hit “pause,” as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insists. It’s a defining moment for the political parties heading toward the election and one that will affect the livelihoods of countless Americans suddenly dependent on the federal government. Billions in state aid, jobless benefits and health resources are at stake. As questions mount over Washington’s proper role, it’s testing the ability of President Donald Trump and Congress to do the right thing. (Mascaro, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Considers Back-To-Work Bonuses
Senate Republicans are examining offering cash incentives for unemployed Americans returning to work, looking for an alternative to the extension of enhanced jobless benefits supported by Democrats. Republicans are concerned that the current $600 a week unemployment payment—on top of state unemployment benefits—is so generous that it is discouraging people from going back to work and damping the economy’s reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic. Democrats want to extend the payments, which are set to end in July, into next year, an idea Republicans have rejected. (Hughes and Wise, 5/24)

Politico: As Residents Perish, Nursing Homes Fight For Protection From Lawsuits
As an unprecedented catastrophe unfolds in which more than 28,000 people have died of Covid-19 in care facilities, the nursing home industry is responding with an unprecedented action of its own: Using its multi-million dollar lobbying machine to secure protections from liability in lawsuits. At least 20 states have swiftly taken action within the last two and a half months to limit the legal exposure of the politically powerful nursing home industry, which risks huge losses if families of coronavirus victims successfully sue facilities hit by the pandemic. Now, the industry is turning its energies to obtaining nationwide protections from Congress in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill. (Severns and Roubein, 5/26)

Politico: Warnings Of Overrun Hospitals Put Nursing Homes At Risk, Health Official Says
Warnings of overrun hospitals were "an error" that resulted in the spread of coronavirus in nursing homes, and those who issued them should face "some accountability," AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson said Sunday. "The country was too concerned with hospitals being overrun, and there were consequences to that," Parkinson, a former Kansas governor and the current president and CEO of the American Health Care Association, told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "One of the consequences is that nursing homes were left out. Our residents weren't a high priority for testing. We weren't given the equipment that we needed." (Mueller, 5/24)

The Associated Press: White House Goal On Testing Nursing Homes Unmet
Nearly two weeks ago the White House urged governors to ensure that every nursing home resident and staff member be tested for the coronavirus within 14 days. It’s not going to happen. A review by The Associated Press found that at least half of the states are not going to meet White House’s deadline and some aren’t even bothering to try.Only a handful of states, including West Virginia and Rhode Island, have said they’ve already tested every nursing home resident. (Suderman, 5/25)

The Washington Post: In A Veterans’ Home Hit By The Coronavirus, Chronic Problems Aided A Disaster
Donald Bushey rarely talked about his military service. The Air Force veteran served for 14 years, including one in the Vietnam War, but he preferred to focus on hunting, fishing and his other passions. His military service, however, provided a lifeline to his family in recent years. As a veteran, Bushey qualified for a spot in the Soldiers’ Home in Holyoke, a state-run facility in western Massachusetts. Bushey’s placement in the home in January 2019 eased some of the pressure on his wife of 63 years, Jean, and their six children after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and suffered a stroke, one of their daughters said. (Lamothe, 5/24)

ABC News: As Nation Tries To Exhale, Coronavirus Still Carrying Infection, Death Into Nursing Homes, Data Show
With over 37,600 deaths, nursing home fatalities now account for nearly 40% of deaths from the novel coronavirus in the U.S., according to an ABC News analysis of the latest public health data. In at least 18 states, nursing home deaths account for over 50% of coronavirus-related deaths, placing a continued stress on the infrastructure for American elder care even as much of the nation tries to return to some sense of normalcy. (Mosk, Rubin, Pecorin and Freger, 5/26)

And in global news —

The New York Times: On A Scottish Isle, Nursing Home Deaths Expose A Covid-19 Scandal
On the Isle of Skye off the western coast of Scotland, residents thought they had sealed themselves off from the coronavirus. They shuttered hotels. Officials warned of police checks. Traffic emptied on the only bridge from the mainland. But the frailest spot on the island remained catastrophically exposed: Home Farm, a 40-bed nursing home for people with dementia. Owned by a private equity firm, Home Farm has become a grim monument of the push to maximize profits at Britain’s largest nursing home chains, and of the government’s failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens. (Mueller, 5/25)

Reuters: After Coronavirus, Italian Nursing Homes Face Fight To Survive
Italy’s nursing homes, ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic which claimed the lives of thousands of residents, face financial pressures that threaten to put many out of business and create a fresh elderly care crisis. (Parodi, 5/26)

The New York Times: The Price Of A Virus Lockdown: Economic ‘Free Fall’ In California
Locked down in their homes, the four former California governors clicked into a Zoom call and one after another described how they dealt with the crises that had defined their time in office. For Pete Wilson, it was the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Gray Davis evoked the electricity disaster that drove him out in a recall election, and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown lamented the Great Recession. But the former governors agreed that nothing they confronted was as dire or will be more consequential than what the current occupant of the office, Gov. Gavin Newsom, now faces. (Arango and Fuller, 5/26)

The Washington Post: Working Black Business Owners Fell 41 Percent During Coronavirus Pandemic, More Than Other Groups, Economist Finds
The number of working African American business owners in the United States plummeted more than 40 percent as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy — a far steeper drop than other racial groups experienced, according to an analysis confirming fears the pandemic would deepen inequalities in the business world. Closures and social distancing to slow the virus’s spread have taken a disastrous toll across racial groups, with the total number of active business owners dropping 22 percent from February to April, based on granular data from the federal government’s employment surveys that was made available last week. (Knowles, 5/25)

Stateline: Single Mothers Hit Hard By Job Losses 
In a pandemic, single mothers must shoulder all the responsibilities at home — educating schoolchildren, caring for aging parents, cooking, cleaning and household management. Now single moms have been hit particularly hard by the unemployment crisis, losing jobs at a far higher rate than other families with children, according to a Stateline analysis of census microdata provided by the University of Minnesota. (Henderson, 5/26)

The Hill: Women Suffering Steeper Job Losses In COVID-19 Economy 
The economic devastation caused by the coronavirus has hit women particularly hard, a contrast to the 2009 downturn that was known as "the men's recession." The latest employment figures show that women, by a 10-point margin, have seen the majority of the job losses as large parts of the economy have shut down. The difference could have implications for the recovery and what policymakers need to do to ensure it’s not drawn out. (Elis, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Why So Many Latinos Are Getting Coronavirus
Inside crowded courtyard buildings, where blue-collar Latino families share apartments meant for one, the sick are multiplying. Isabela Rivera was the first in her home to test positive for the novel coronavirus. Unable to fully isolate in the three-bedroom apartment she and her husband, Danilo, share with two other Northern Virginia families, the Riveras sent their 7-year-old son to live with a family friend. (Olivo, Lang and Harden, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: In Seattle, Coronavirus Fallout Opens Economic Divide
Seattle provides a pronounced version of the nation’s economic divide between companies and workers who can operate primarily online through the coronavirus pandemic and those who can’t. The Emerald City’s high-tech image stems from companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. —both based in the Seattle area and among its largest employers. Their businesses have remained strong during the national downturn, providing job security to headquarters employees who can generally work from home. Neither company has announced staff layoffs in the region since much of the country’s economic activity shut down in March to prevent the virus’s spread. (Mackrael and Tangel, 5/24)

The New York Times: For Families Already Stretched To The Limit, The Pandemic Is A Disaster 
The two-­bedroom apartment near an old cemetery in Glassboro, N.J., may not look like much, but it means everything to Chekesha Sydnor-­Jones and her family. After an eviction, they spent 2018 crammed into a motel room. After scrimping and saving, Sydnor-­Jones’s family was able to put a month’s deposit down on a rental in this middle-­class town and move into an actual home. The space is tight — Sydnor-­Jones’s three adult daughters shared the finished attic with her 10-year-old daughter; her 18-year-old son has one bedroom on the main floor, and she and her partner have the other. (Hannah-Jones, 5/23)

Detroit Free Press: Paid Sick Leave In Focus Amid COVID-19 Crisis, But Impact May Not Last
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed differences in how society values and treats workers and has led to a few temporary measures to modify the inequities baked into the system. Many relatively low-wage workers were deemed essential and have had to continue showing up at work during the COVID-19 outbreak. (Lawrence, 5/26)

Reuters: A Pregnant Doctor Navigates COVID-19 Fight In Low Income LA
After putting a coronavirus patient onto a ventilator to help him to breathe, Dr. Zafia Anklesaria noted to herself that her baby never kicked during emergency procedures. It was not until she was back in her office and had removed most of her protective equipment that he made his presence known. (Nicholson and Cooke, 5/26)

The Associated Press: N.Y. Will Provide Benefits To Families Of Workers Who Died From Virus, Cuomo Says
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said the state would pay death benefits to the families of frontline workers who died fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. (5/25)

Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: Lost On The Frontline 
A nurse who was crafting plans to open her own nursing home. An upbeat patient transporter who was also a sewing wiz. A surgical technician who was easy to befriend. These are some of the people just added to “Lost on the Frontline,” a special series from The Guardian and KHN that profiles health care workers who die of COVID-19. (5/26)

The New York Times: Fear Of Covid Leads Other Patients To Decline Critical Treatment
It was the call Lance Hansen, gravely ill with liver disease, had been waiting weeks for, and it came just before midnight in late April. A liver was available for him. He got up to get dressed for the three-hour drive to San Francisco for the transplant surgery. And then he panicked. “Within five minutes after hanging up, he started hyperventilating,” his wife, Carmen, said. “He kept saying: ‘I’m going to get Covid, and then I’m going to die. And if I die, I want my family there.’ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.” (Hafner, 5/25)

Bangor Daily News: Nearly Half Of Mainers Have Delayed Medical Care Because Of The Coronavirus
Almost 47 percent of Maine’s adult population has delayed medical care since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. That rate is third-highest among states, behind only Oregon and Virginia. It is a side effect of business restrictions put into place by the state and health providers because of the virus. (Schroeder, 5/26)

The Wall Street Journal: More People Are Taking Drugs For Anxiety And Insomnia, And Doctors Are Worried
Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medications and sleep aids have risen during the pandemic, prompting doctors to warn about the possibility of long-term addiction and abuse of the drugs. “Many physicians have a low threshold for prescribing them. It’s very problematic,” says Bruce J. Schwartz, deputy chair and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. “Many people do develop a dependency on these medications.” (Petersen, 5/25)

The New York Times: You’re Getting Used To Masks. Will You Wear A Face Shield?
The debate over whether Americans should wear face masks to control coronavirus transmission has been settled. Governments and businesses now require or at least recommend them in many public settings. But as parts of the country reopen, some doctors want you to consider another layer of personal protective equipment in your daily life: clear plastic face shields. “I wear a face shield every time I enter a store or other building,” said Dr. Eli Perencevich. “Sometimes I also wear a cloth mask if required by the store’s policy.” (Sheikh, 5/24)

ABC News: NYC Launches $100,000 Effort To Combat Anti-Asian Discrimination In COVID-19 Era 
The New York City Commission on Human Rights is launching a massive effort to combat anti-Asian bias as reports of COVID-19-related discrimination skyrocket. "This type of discrimination and harassment is not something that happens out of nowhere in a pandemic, this is based in deep-seated miseducation and racism," said Carmelyn Malalis, the commissioner of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. "I know that people doubt that there is any such thing as anti-Asian discrimination, and people have said that to my face." (Thorbecke, 5/26)

NBC News: Faith, Family And Plasma: How One Man Survived 'The Horror Of COVID-19'
Room 5 of the COVID-19 critical care unit was largely silent, save for the occasional alarms from machines keeping Ron Panzok alive. Few people entered the room. Physical examinations were limited to once per day to reduce the chances of spreading the coronavirus responsible for putting Panzok, 66, of New York City, in North Shore University Hospital, part of Northwell Health, on Long Island in mid-March. Hospital restrictions prevented his family from visiting. (Edwards, 5/25)

ProPublica: What Parents Should Know About Coronavirus As Kids Return To Babysitters, Day Cares And Camps
Reopening states after the COVID-19 lockdown raises unnerving questions for working parents who depend on some form of child care, from nannies to day camp. Instead of coming home with a snotty nose, is your child going to bring back the coronavirus? And how do you know your in-home babysitter or nanny, even your child’s teacher, isn’t a symptom-free spreader?The short answer is that there are no easy answers. Every family’s budget and needs and risk tolerance are going to be different. (Allen, Rose and Chen, 5/23)

The Washington Post: An Oral History Of Coronavirus: Testimonies About The Pandemic
People on the frontlines of the outbreak talk about how covid-19 has disrupted their lives. (5/26)

PBS NewsHour: How COVID-19 Reshapes Our Views Of Life, And Of Loss 
Many Western societies have not had to face death at the scale of COVID-19 since World War II, nearly 75 years ago. Could the grim reality of the coronavirus pandemic change the way we deal with life and loss? (Brabant, 5/25)

Kaiser Health News: Bringing ‘Poogie’ Home: Hospice In The Time Of COVID-19
After she landed in the hospital with a broken hip, Parkinson’s disease and the coronavirus, 84-year-old Dorothy “Poogie” Wyatt Shields made a request of her children: “Bring me home.” Her request came as hospital patients around the world were dying alone, separated from their loved ones whether or not they had COVID-19, because of visitation restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. Bringing home a terminally ill patient with COVID-19 bears extra challenges: In addition to the already daunting responsibility of managing their loved one’s care, families must take painstaking precautions to keep themselves safe. (Bailey, 5/26)

Kaiser Health News: ‘We Miss Them All So Much’: Grandparents Ache As The COVID Exile Grinds On
Across America, where more than 70 million people are grandparents, efforts to prevent infection in older people, who are most at risk of serious COVID-19 illness, have meant self-imposed exile for many. At the opposite extreme, some grandparents have taken over daily child care duties to help adult children with no choice but to work. “All the grandparents in the country are aching,” said Madonna Harrington Meyer, a sociology professor at Syracuse University in New York. “Some are aching because they can’t see their grandchildren — and some are aching because they can’t get away from them.” (Aleccia, 5/26)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Anxiety Driving You To The Brink? Listen To Your Friend With OCD 
Life for everyone in the Bay Area right now — with the intense handwashing, fear of leaving the home and fear of causing harm to others —resembles some of the classic OCD struggles. And indeed, OCD sufferers with contamination-related compulsions are facing heightened anxiety during the pandemic. But many others are reporting that years of therapy have made them the calmest person in their household. (Hartlaub, 5/25)

Modern Healthcare: Nearly 446,000 Patients Affected In April-Reported Breaches
Healthcare providers, insurers and their business associates reported 38 breaches affecting nearly 446,000 patients to the federal government last month. That's down 55.8% from the number of patients affected in breaches reported in April of last year, when organizations reported 50 breaches affecting just over 1 million people, according to data from the HHS' Office for Civil Rights, the agency that maintains the government's database of healthcare breaches. In March 2020, organizations reported 39 breaches that exposed data on more than 834,000 people. (Cohen, 5/22)

Reuters: Red Cross Urges Halt To Cyberattacks On Healthcare Sector Amid COVID-19
The Red Cross called for an end to cyberattacks on healthcare and medical research facilities during the coronavirus pandemic, in a letter published Tuesday and signed by a group of political and business figures. Such attacks endanger human lives and governments must take “immediate and decisive action” to stop them, the letter stated. (Bing, 5/26)

The Associated Press: Germany Divided Over Plans To Nix Rules Despite Outbreaks
Germany’s federal government and state governors squared up Monday for a battle over plans to end pandemic-related restrictions despite fresh clusters of cases across the country. The country has seen a steady decline in the overall number of COVID-19 cases thanks to measures imposed 10 weeks ago to limit personal contacts. (Jordans, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Germany's Coronavirus Contact Tracing Offers A Model For The U.S.
There's no sophisticated technology in the northern Berlin office where Filiz Degidiben spends her days tracking down contacts of people infected with the novel coronavirus. Her main tools are the phone by her side, a yellow calendar on the wall and a central database, accessible from her desktop computer, that was developed with infectious diseases such as measles in mind. “When coronavirus came, I wanted to help,” said Degidiben, who used to work assisting people with filling out forms in the social services department. (Morris and Beck, 5/25)

NPR: Stockholm Won't Reach Herd Immunity In May, Sweden's Chief Epidemiologist Says
Sweden's controversial approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic has so far failed to produce the expected results, and there are calls within the country for the government to change its strategy. "We have a very vivid political debate," Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden's ambassador to the United States, told NPR. "I don't think people are protesting on the streets but ... there's a very big debate, if this [strategy] is the right thing to do or not, on Facebook and everywhere." (Mai, 5/25)

Reuters: Japanese Face 'New Normal' After Coronavirus Emergency Lifted
A day after Japan ended its state of emergency, Tokyo residents took to the streets with a mixture of relief and trepidation as they prepared for a “new normal” of living with the novel coronavirus. (Okamoto and Kim, 5/26)

The New York Times: Spain’s Courts, Already Strained, Face Crisis As Lockdown Lifts
A flood of new court cases, some with little precedent, is expected to deluge a Spanish judicial system already gasping for breath, bogged down by delays and lagging in technology. In a country known for its litigiousness, lawyers and judges are bracing for a period of turmoil and disorder in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. One judge expects as many as 150,000 people to file for bankruptcy, up from a few thousand last year. Lawyers representing Spaniards who lost loved ones to the virus have already filed a lawsuit against the government, arguing that it is guilty of negligent homicide. (Minder, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Italy Coronavirus: Nightlife Returns And Politicians Worry 
Drawn outdoors by ideal weather, Italians this weekend gathered at beaches, bars and piazzas, drinking and sometimes flouting social distancing rules while soaking in the nation’s celebratory post-lockdown mood. But on Monday, as images of nightlife played on Italian TV, a chorus of politicians warned that the country had gotten reckless and risked backsliding in its fight against the coronavirus. “This weekend has not been serene,” Giuseppe Sala, the mayor of Milan, said in a message posted on Facebook. “We cannot imagine another one like it.” (Harlan and Pitrelli, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Wuhan Tests Nine Million People For Coronavirus In 10 Days
The central Chinese city of Wuhan said early Monday that it had collected coronavirus swab tests from more than nine million of its 11 million people over the past 10 days, an ambitious response to the re-emergence of a handful of fresh cases this month at the initial center of the pandemic. Most of those nine million samples have already been processed, according to a daily record of nucleic-acid tests by Wuhan health authorities. As of Sunday, they said, the mass testing identified 218 asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, who were put under quarantine and monitored for symptoms. Just one of those cases was later recategorized as a confirmed case. (Fan, 5/25)

The Wall Street Journal: China’s Plan To Make Permanent Health Tracking On Smartphones Stirs Concern
China created a smartphone tool to trace and track the movement of potential coronavirus patients. Now, plans to make that kind of health tracking permanent are stirring concerns in a country where personal privacy was once said to be an afterthought. Anger spread across Chinese social media sites over the weekend following an announcement that officials in the eastern city of Hangzhou could create a permanent version of a smartphone-based health-rating system developed to fight Covid-19. The news led some internet users to accuse the city of exploiting the pandemic to expand state monitoring of residents. (Lin, 5/25)

The Washington Post: Nearly 100,000 Americans Have Died Of Covid-19. Here’s How We Can Honor Them. 
Patricia Cabello Dowd was 57, worked for 28 years as a senior quality manager at a Silicon Valley semiconductor manufacturer, was married for almost 25 years, had a daughter, exercised regularly and loved reading, scrapbooking, traveling, going to movies and wine tasting. She is believed to be the first known U.S. casualty of the novel coronavirus, dying Feb. 6 of a ruptured heart caused by her body’s struggle to defeat the virus. In the 15½ weeks since Ms. Dowd collapsed in her kitchen in San Jose, nearly 100,000 other people in this country have died of covid-19. The U.S. death toll on Monday afternoon stood at more than 97,000. (5/25)

Boston Globe: The Death Toll From Coronavirus Merits A National Day Of Mourning 
As a nation, as a people we have always found solace in the ritual of mourning and of remembrance: the candles, the church bells, the gentle words, the flowers left to mark a spot where a life ended. When tragedy strikes — a terror attack, a natural disaster, a lone gunman with his sights set on an elementary school filled with children — we take the time to grieve. So how to wrap our brains around the number of deaths wrought by this pandemic? (5/26)

Stat: We Need A National Holiday To Honor Health Policy 
Let’s create a holiday for health policy. Not now. But eventually. A holiday that celebrates that the worst of the pandemic is behind us and makes a space to mourn what we’ve lost. A holiday to talk about health care policy. It’s an unrepentantly dry topic. But it has earned a holiday. (Dubin, 5/24)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: How The U.S. Can Mourn 100,000 American Deaths 
This week, the United States is set to pass another sorrowful milestone in the coronavirus pandemic: 100,000 dead from COVID-19. It bears repeating: One hundred thousand Americans dead since the first known coronavirus death in the U.S. in February. It’s a staggering figure, the equivalent of a Vacaville, Calif., or a Tuscaloosa, Ala., wiped out in just three months. It’s a number that’s no more or less meaningful than 99,337 or 100,152 to the people who died alone, hooked up to a ventilator in a hospital room or gasping for breath through fluid-filled lungs at home. And it’s certainly not as large a figure as it might have been but for widespread stay-at-home restrictions. (5/26)

USA Today: Trump's New American Exceptionalism: Nearly 100,000 Coronavirus Deaths
When our son was very young, we used to tell him he had won at miniature golf because he had the highest score. I think of that whenever I hear President Donald Trump use phrases like “amazingly well” and “badge of honor” to describe America’s response to the coronavirus. There is no disputing our high scores. We officially topped 1.6 million cases on Friday and now near the dreaded milestone of 100,000 deaths. (That’s 28% of the world’s COVID-19 deaths and 30% of its cases, though we account for only 4% of its people.) We’re heading toward 40 million unemployed and a 30% unemployment rate — a downturn “without modern precedent” and “significantly worse than any recession since World War II," in the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. (Jill Lawrence, 5/26)

The New York Times: My Mother Died Of The Coronavirus. It’s Time She Be Counted.
We recently received the death certificate for my mother, who died May 4 in an assisted-living facility near New York City. “Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome” was the primary cause. And the secondary — no surprise — was “suspected Covid-19.” The White House, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the states are debating the proper theoretical (and politically beneficial) way to tally Covid-19 deaths. One group, led by President Trump, feels the current tally is too high. The other, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, thinks it may be an underestimate. (Elisabeth Rosenthal, 5/25)

CNN: Coronavirus Is Like A War -- But Not In The Way Trump Thinks 
This year, Memorial Day comes as the US quickly approaches 100,000 deaths from Covid-19, surpassing the number of US military members who died in Vietnam. Soon, it may approach the number of American soldiers who died in World War I. President Donald Trump has ordered the flags to be flown at half-staff at federal buildings and monuments through Memorial Day to honor the nation's victims of the virus. (Janice Blanchard, 5/25)

The Washington Post: An Indelible Image Of This Pandemic: Trump, Without A Mask, On A Golf Course 
It was the murderous dictator Joseph Stalin who supposedly said that one death was a tragedy, one million deaths a mere statistic. One hundred thousand deaths are difficult to get one’s mind around. The toll in our nation from covid-19, as it reaches that horrific milestone, must be seen as a catastrophe — and an indictment. The long Memorial Day weekend gave the pandemic an indelible visual image: President Trump, wearing a ball cap but no mask, enjoying himself on his Northern Virginia golf course. Last week, you will recall, Trump declared it was “essential” that Americans be able to spend Sunday at church services. He chose to head for the links instead. (Eugene Robinson, 5/25)

NBC News: Trump's Coronavirus Failures Have Caused The 'American Carnage' He Promised To End
In his inaugural address Jan. 20, 2017, President Donald Trump painted an unrecognizably dark picture of our country culminating with the bizarre declaration, "This American carnage stops right here and stops right now." Just over three years later, almost 100,000 people in the United States have died from the coronavirus outbreak and almost 39 million have had to file for unemployment, all on Trump's watch. Trump's incompetence and failure of leadership have ushered in an unprecedented public health crisis that continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of countless Americans and has disproportionately impacted vulnerable communities. (Halie Soifer, 5/26)

CNN: Trump Pursues His Political Obsessions As Stark 100,000 Coronavirus Deaths Landmark Looms 
Sometime in the next few days, the 100,000th American will succumb to Covid-19 in a pandemic that President Donald Trump once predicted would just "miraculously" disappear. Yet despite, and perhaps because of, his earlier cavalier attitude, Trump spent the long holiday weekend bemoaning everything but the tragic roll call of death -- while also finding time to claim he got "great reviews" for handling the crisis. (Stephen Collinson, 5/26)

The New York Times: Covid Dreams, Trump Nightmares 
My corona dreams are so crazy and vibrant, with star turns by politicians, celebrities, zombies and my late mother, that sometimes as I wake, I groggily think the virus that devoured the globe has to be a dystopian vision. Then, still sliding into consciousness, I muse that Donald Trump lumbering around the White House must have been a dream, too. How is it possible that this man is actually president? But the Trump carnival of dread, with its twin fixations on masks and unmasking, is all too real. (Maureen Dowd, 5/23)

Foreign Affairs: Sweden’s Herd Immunity Coronavirus Strategy Should Not Be The World’s
No country has been as simultaneously praised and criticized as Sweden has for its response to the novel coronavirus. Each day brings new discussion, much of it heated, of the merits of the Swedish model. In general, opinions fall into one of two camps: those saying the country has found a uniquely effective way to address the pandemic (as Nils Karlson, Charlotta Stern, and Daniel B. Klein have argued in these pages) and those saying it has found a uniquely reckless way of endangering the health of its people. What both sides agree on is that the Swedish experience holds lessons for others, either as a model to be emulated or as a cautionary tale. At the end of the day, however, the two camps are mostly talking past each other. (Josh Michaud, 5/20)

Stat: With A Covid-19 Vaccine In Hand, Who Should Get It First? 
The ethical challenges that have arisen so far in the coronavirus pandemic largely boil down to the age-old struggle between individual freedoms and the public good... Ethical questions in the next phase of the pandemic are bound to be more fractious. They will turn from our common goal of maximizing the greater good to brokering disagreements between individual groups that may not be so easy to resolve. (Jauhar, 5/23)

Los Angeles Times: How Coronavirus Is Revealing The Problem With 'Fast Science' 
Garlic and sesame oil will not, we repeat, will not safeguard you from the new coronavirus, unless the garlic keeps others at a safe distance. Nor is bathing in bleach a good idea. The myths traveling the social media circuits about COVID-19 are sometimes ludicrous and occasionally dangerous. Yet at the same time, the evolving advice from experts about this novel threat has left the public uncertain what to believe. The news media haven’t always helped matters by publicizing seemingly dramatic findings prematurely or without adequate vetting or context. (5/26)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus: The Pandemic Is Exposing The Limits Of Scientists
The 2008 financial crisis led the public to discover the limits of economics. The Covid-19 pandemic risks having the same effect on scientists and medical doctors. Since the start of the outbreak, citizens have struggled to get clear answers to some basic questions. Consider masks, for example: The World Health Organization said early on that there was no point in encouraging healthy people to use them, but now most doctors agree that widespread mask-wearing is a good idea. There was also confusion around lockdowns: In the U.K., scientists argued for weeks over the merits of closing businesses and keeping people at home — a quarrel that may have cost the country lives. And now that the outbreak is fading in Italy, there is growing debate between the country’s public health experts and doctors over whether the virus has lost strength or remains just as deadly. (Ferdinando Giugliano, 5/25)

Boston Globe: Mobilizing Health Care During Coronavirus 
The coronavirus pandemic has upended existing approaches to health care and forced the medical community to reimagine health care delivery. Patient visits not related to COVID-19 have dramatically decreased as facilities implement infection control strategies and patients stay home for fear of contracting the virus. Beyond COVID-19, patients experience several barriers to accessing essential health care services at traditional brick-and-mortar institutions. Financial instability, housing insecurity, lack of transportation, and stigma often render people unable or unwilling to enter health care facilities. (Elsie M. Taveras, Craig Regis, and Josh Kraft, 5/26)

The Hill: We Owe Front-Line Workers A Debt Of Gratitude For Their Courage And Compassion 
American workers are the best in the world. Hard-working, dedicated, committed and innovative. We can achieve anything with American might and ingenuity. In the history of this country, times have tested us but we always emerge stronger, better prepared, more enlightened and together. (Rep. Debbie Dingell, 5/21)

Los Angeles Times: Why Democracies Do Better At Surviving Pandemics
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the debate over whether authoritarian states are gaining the upper hand across the world. Although there are plenty of signs that strongmen leaders have used the crisis to try to tighten their grip on power, the coronavirus has revealed the vulnerabilities of autocracies rather than their strength. In contrast, democracies are showing their capacity for innovation and adaptation, as one would expect, and signs of renewal, as one would hope. (Robin Niblett, 5/26)

WBUR: How The Pandemic Could Help Our Deadly Fight Against Stress 
As the health-care system and society-at-large scramble to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, long-held norms and practices are being torn up like disposable paper gowns. Answering my patients’ questions, I’ve noticed another big change underway: Patients and providers are finally talking about how much stress is affecting our health. (Dan Henderson, 5/26)

Stat: Bubonic Plague Hit France In 1720. Officials Dithered. Sound Familiar?
On May 25, 1720, a ship named the Grand Saint-Antoine arrived in the port of Marseille, France, laden with cotton, fine silks, and other goods. The invisible cargo it also carried, the bacteria known as Yersinia pestis, launched the Great Plague of Provence, the last major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe. Over a two-year period, the bubonic plague spread throughout southeastern France, killing up to half of the residents of Marseille and as much as 20% of the population of Provence. (Cindy Ermus, 5/25)

Stat: We Need One Response — Not 50 — To Fight Covid-19
In ordinary times, states handle the public health crises that affect their residents. That usually works well, because challenges in California can vastly differ from those in Connecticut. But these are not ordinary times. Covid-19 does not respect state lines. So without explicit federal coordination of the response to and the recovery from this pandemic, the American people are left largely unaware of health and safety guidelines, unsure of best practices, and unnerved to see states competing against each other for lifesaving resources such as test kits, personal protective equipment, and ventilators. (Howard K. Koh, 5/22)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: It's Outrageous That Quarantined Nursing Home Workers Are Denied Sick Leave
For all the rhetoric praising front-line medical and support staff in the pandemic, St. Louis-area nursing homes are committing an appalling injustice against them: sending them home when their risky jobs expose them to the coronavirus but refusing to offer paid leave. This puts those workers in an impossible situation. This is the same nursing-home industry that’s asking Missouri for liability protection as it navigates the pandemic. As we’ve said editorially, such protection is a reasonable ask under these circumstances, provided there are some stringent conditions. Paid sick leave for infected workers should absolutely be among those conditions. (5/24)

The New York Times: The Pandemic Could Lead To Outbreaks Of Measles And Other Preventable Diseases
An unusual silence fills the waiting area of my fellow pediatrician’s office in suburban Maryland. On a typical day, one would expect to see the animated bustle of children. Nowadays, only two out of 10 scheduled visits might take place. Unused vaccine vials rapidly accumulate as families shelter at home. With lockdowns and fears of the pandemic, this scene has been playing out in pediatricians’ offices around the country. (Anita Shet, 5/26)

Stat: Hospitals Are Busier Than Ever — And Going Out Of Business 
At various points over the last few weeks, news reports have told stories of booming hospitals: emergency departments overwhelmed by patients, imminent shortages of both ICU beds and ventilators, and even the need to create makeshift field hospitals to accommodate extra patients. At the same time, they also showed how hospitals are furloughing staff and cutting salaries and retirement benefits. And Congress has allocated $100 billion to bail out hospitals in financial trouble. How can hospitals be so busy and still be losing so much money? (Zahir Kanjee, Ateev Mehrotra and Bruce Landon, 5/26)

Boston Globe: A Clean Transportation System Is The Prescription My Patients Need 
“How come this virus is making me so sick?” As a doctor taking care of COVID-19 patients, I get this question a lot. I’m trained to describe the biological pathways of this virus to them. But I also know that for some of my patients, most of whom are people of color, immigrants, and under-resourced, that part of the answer may be that society didn’t care enough to keep their air clean. (Gaurab Basu, 5/25)

The Hill: Stop Expelling And Separating Immigrant Children Parents During COVID 
The separation of children and families at the border was deemed unconstitutional with an executive order to stop back in June 2018. So why are children still at risk of the government separating them from their parents? (Dr. Suzan Song, 5/25)

Boston Globe: After COVID-19, A Better Way To Support The Elderly And People With Disabilities
Many long-term care facility residents would be far safer in their own homes, but they need assistance with everyday living. Even people already receiving services at home from home care workers are finding that, during the coronavirus pandemic, those workers are less available and that following stay-at-home orders can be complicated. There is a successful alternative to institutional care that allows people of all ages with disabilities to live at home with support: self-direction of home and community-based services, available under Medicaid and the Veterans Administration’s Veterans Directed Care program. (Kevin Mahoney, 5/25)