The New York Times: As Trump Pushes To Reopen, Government Sees Coronavirus Toll Nearly Doubling
As President Trump presses states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in coronavirus infections and deaths over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1 — nearly double the current level. The projections, based on data collected by various agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and laid out in an internal document obtained Monday by The New York Times, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of May, up from about 30,000 cases now. There are currently about 1,750 deaths per day, the data shows. (Stolberg and Sullivan, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Government Report Predicts Coronavirus Cases Will Surge To 200,000 A Day By June 1 
The work contained a wide range of possibilities and modeling was not complete, according to Justin Lessler, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who created the model. He said he didn’t know how the update was turned into a slide deck by government officials and shared with news organizations. The data was first reported by the New York Times. (Wan, Bernstein, McGinley and Dawsey, 5/4)

ABC News: Trump's Reopening Push At Odds With New 100K Death Toll Prediction, New Draft Projections 
"These preliminary analyses were provided to FEMA to aid in scenario planning—not to be used as forecasts—and the version published is not a final version," the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a statement. "These preliminary results are not forecasts, and it is not accurate to present them as forecasts." (Phelps and Gittleson, 5/4)

NPR: White House Rejects Government Report Projecting Rising Coronavirus Death Toll
The Trump administration on Monday pushed back against an internal government report, obtained by The New York Times, that predicts the daily coronavirus death toll could nearly double in the United States by early June. The Times story cites an internal CDC update, acquired from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that predicts the number of deaths per day from COVID-19 will reach about 3,000 by June 1. (Wise, 5/4)

The Hill: Startling New COVID-19 Death Projections Highlight Challenges Of Reopening 
The White House sought to throw cold water on the CDC model, with a spokesman saying it had not gone through interagency vetting or been presented to the coronavirus task force led by Vice President Pence. “This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed,” deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement. (Samuels, 5/4)

Reuters: Researchers Double U.S. COVID-19 Death Forecast, Citing Eased Restrictions
A newly revised coronavirus mortality model predicts nearly 135,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by early August, almost double previous projections, as social-distancing measures for quelling the pandemic are increasingly relaxed, researchers said on Monday. (Caspani and Layne, 5/4)

Politico: Models Shift To Predict Dramatically More U.S. Deaths As States Relax Social Distancing
Dr. Christopher Murray, the director of IHME, told reporters on a call Monday the primary reason for the increase is many states’ “premature relaxation of social distancing.” For the first time, Murray explained, the model is factoring in data from four different cell phone providers showing a major uptick in Americans’ going out in public. This rise of mobility in the last week or 10 days is likely leading to an increase in transmission, he said. (Ollstein and Oprysko, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Officials Warn Of New Virus Surge As States Reopen
“Growing contacts among people will promote transmission of the coronavirus,” the institute said. Factors such as warming temperatures won’t offset the rising mobility, “thereby fueling a significant increase in projected deaths,” it said. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-disease official, cautioned to CNN on Monday that relaxing the social distancing helping to contain the spread could bring a rebound in cases, considering the virus’s “phenomenal capabilities of spreading like wildfire.” (Lyons, 5/5)

CNN: Relaxed Restrictions Across US Will Have A Dire Impact On Coronavirus Death Toll, Experts Warn 
"It's the balance of something that's a very difficult choice," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease expert, told CNN Monday night. "How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept to get back to what you want to be some form of normality, sooner rather than later?" (Maxouris, 5/5)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In The U.S.: An Unrelenting Crush Of Cases And Deaths
In New York City, the daily onslaught of death from the coronavirus has dropped to half of what it was. In Chicago, a makeshift hospital in a lakefront convention center is closing, deemed no longer needed. And in New Orleans, new cases have dwindled to a handful each day. Yet across America, those signs of progress obscure a darker reality. The country is still in the firm grip of a pandemic with little hope of release. For every indication of improvement in controlling the virus, new outbreaks have emerged elsewhere, leaving the nation stuck in a steady, unrelenting march of deaths and infections. (Bosman, Smith and Harmon, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Search Is On For America’s Earliest Coronavirus Deaths
The first known death caused by the new coronavirus in Chicago occurred in mid-March. But the medical examiner’s office in Cook County, which includes the city, now plans on poring over records of much earlier cases in search of evidence that people may have died from Covid-19 as far back as November. Across the U.S., health investigators have launched efforts to find previously unidentified deaths from Covid-19, in some cases looking far back enough to potentially rewrite the timeline of when the coronavirus first came to the country and began killing Americans. (Frosch, Rana and Kamp, 5/4)

CBS News: Second Wave Of Coronavirus Is "Very Likely," Doctor Warns 
As states begin to reopen and social distancing rules are relaxed, public health officials are warning about a possible second wave of coronavirus cases later this year. Dr. Shoshana Ungerleider, an internal medicine physician at Sutter Health in San Francisco, said Monday on CBSN that public health officials agree another round of cases is "very, very likely to happen." (Leser, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Trump Cheers On Governors As They Ignore Coronavirus Guidlines From White House In Race To Reopen
States across the country are moving swiftly to reopen their economies despite failing to achieve benchmarks laid out by the White House for when social distancing restrictions could be eased to ensure the public’s safety during the coronavirus pandemic. These governors’ biggest cheerleader is President Trump. (Olorunnipa, Witte and Bernstein, 5/4)

Politico: ‘Viewers Will Get Tired Of Another Season’: Trump And Governors Shrug Off White House Guidance
President Donald Trump and many governors are heralding a reopening of the American economy — even though a majority of states ending their coronavirus shutdowns this week have not met the White House’s most basic thresholds for testing, tracing and a prolonged drop in new cases. The White House has tried to distance itself from governors’ actions by insisting its reopening guidelines are merely suggestions, not the rule of law. But Trump is latching himself on to the message that America is ready to reopen, traveling on Tuesday to Arizona — one of the states not yet meeting all of the administration’s criteria — to visit a Honeywell plant and promote the reopening of huge swaths of the nation. (Cook, Goldberg and Cancryn, 5/4)

Politico: Trump Pushes To Reopen Country, But His Own Workforce Isn’t Rushing Back
President Donald Trump wants America to go back to work, but his administration is struggling to bring back many of its own employees. With Covid-19 infections still rising in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and other major cities with big government operations, it could be months before federal workers are back in the office at normal, pre-coronavirus levels. (Lippman and McCaskill, 5/4)

The Associated Press: As Trump Resumes Travel, Staff Takes Risks To Prepare Trip
For much of the last two months, President Donald Trump has rarely left the grounds of the White House as he’s dealt with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and sought to minimize his own exposure to the disease. But that changes Tuesday, when Trump is scheduled to travel to Arizona to visit a Honeywell facility that makes N95 masks in what the president suggests will mark the return to more regular travel. (Madhani and Superville, 5/5)

NPR: President Trump Will Visit N95 Mask Facility In Phoenix
Arizona remains under a modified stay-at-home order until May 15, though Republican Gov. Doug Ducey allowed some retail establishments to begin to open voluntarily Monday. The state hasn't yet notched the two consecutive weeks of reduced COVID-19 cases called for as a first step in the White House guidelines for reopening. In fact, the number of confirmed cases in the state is on the rise. And Trump's trip itself will be anything but normal. Those traveling with the president or coming in close proximity to him in Arizona are being tested for the coronavirus. Social distancing measures are expected. (Keith and Gonyea, 5/5)

ABC News: In 1st Major Trip In Months, President Trump To Travel To Battleground State Arizona To Observe Mask Production 
The day-trip mirrors recent travel by Vice President Mike Pence, who has tested the waters of what types of official excursions are possible in a time of social distancing and as the Trump administration had for a month and a half encouraged Americans to avoid unnecessary travel. Pence found himself in hot water last week for not wearing a mask during a stop at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, despite the clinic's policy requiring visitors to don face coverings. Later in the week, he donned one for a trip to a Wisconsin factory producing ventilators, and on Sunday, he said he had made a mistake in Minnesota. (Gittleson and Phelps, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump's New Vaccine Timeline Met With Deep Skepticism 
Public health experts are pushing back on President Trump's claim that a COVID-19 vaccine will be available by the end of the year. The Trump administration is racing to get a vaccine to the market quickly with "Operation Warp Speed" and has started to whittle down candidates. The project’s goal is to have 300 million vaccine doses available by January, an accelerated version of the administration’s previous projections of needing 12-18 months to get a vaccine ready for the public. (Weixel, 5/4)

ABC News: Is It Possible To Have A Safe Coronavirus Vaccine By New Year’s Eve? 
With top White House officials indicating a coronavirus vaccine may be available by January 2021, scientists and vaccine experts outside the Trump administration are cautious but optimistic that a vaccine could be delivered on such an accelerated timeline. Experts interviewed by ABC warned that developing a vaccine within a 12-month time frame could mean throwing normal scientific standards out the window, but added that a vaccine could be available by the new year if everything goes perfectly. (Salzman, 5/5)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: Fact-Checking Trump’s Knocks At Obama In His Fox Town Hall
President Trump’s virtual town hall on Fox News sounded like an oral reading of our Trump database of false or misleading claims (or our upcoming book, “Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth,” being published June 2 by Scribner). There were so many old chestnuts, from his false claims about NATO spending to his tale that the United States has spent $8 trillion on Middle East wars to his a historical bragging that he had built the greatest economy in the history of the world. (Kessler, 5/5)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Viral Post Alleging Obama-Era Device Tax Caused Current PPE Shortage Is Way Off
A social media post, which in April was shared widely on Facebook and made appearances on a conservative online discussion forum, asserts that former President Barack Obama signed legislation that caused companies to manufacture medical devices overseas, including items essential for the current coronavirus pandemic. Alongside a photo of Obama, the text of the Facebook post says: “Let me be clear. I signed the medical appliance tax bill that forced companies to outsource manufacturing of masks, gowns, gloves and ventilaors [sic] to China, Europe and Russia to avoid the tax.” (Knight, 5/5)

Politico: How A 96-Hour Project Helped Trump's Team Reverse Its Testing Debacle
Fifty-two days ago, the president vowed to a worried nation: Coronavirus testing is finally coming, and you won’t even have to leave your car. “The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed,” President Donald Trump said in an address in the Rose Garden on March 13, previewing a network of drive-thru tests in places like Walmart parking lots. “We have many, many locations behind us, by the way,” Trump added. “Stores in virtually every location.” (Diamond, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Key FEMA Leader To Depart Amid Coronavirus Effort
A senior leader at the Federal Emergency Management Agency is leaving amid the coronavirus crisis, according to current and former employees. Josh Dozor, who is deputy assistant administrator for FEMA’s response group, told colleagues he plans to leave in the coming weeks for personal reasons, according to these people. Mr. Dozor was involved in early discussions with the Department of Health and Human Services in coordinating the government’s response to the new coronavirus before FEMA became the lead agency in mid-March, some of the people said. (Levy, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Coronavirus Task Force Team Restricted From Congressional Hearings
The Trump administration has issued new guidance that bars members of the White House’s coronavirus task force from appearing at congressional hearings this month, according to an administration official and document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The task force includes such figures as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease official, and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator. Dr. Fauci is still expected to testify this month in the Senate, however. (Restuccia, 5/4)

The Hill: Pelosi Slams White House For Blocking Coronavirus Task Force Members From Testifying: 'They Might Be Afraid Of The Truth' 
The Trump administration on Monday issued new guidance instructing coronavirus task force members not to accept invitations to participate in congressional hearings this month unless approved by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. The move came after the White House late last week blocked Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, from testifying before a House committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday. (Marcos, 5/4)

CNN: Fauci Says Calls For His Dismissal Are 'Part Of The Game'
Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, said Monday evening that calls for his dismissal are "part of the game" as he continues to urge Americans to practice social distancing. Fauci has been targeted by critics online who are unhappy with his recommendations to continue social distancing in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. (LeBlanc, 5/4)

NBC News: Did The Coronavirus Really Escape From A Chinese Lab? Here's What We Know
There has been a barrage of contradictory claims in recent days about how U.S. officials believe the coronavirus emerged from the Chinese city of Wuhan, what evidence they have and when President Donald Trump was first briefed about it. Here is what we actually know. (Dilanian, Kube and Lee, 5/4)

The Hill: Fauci Dismisses 'Circular Argument' Coronavirus Originated In Chinese Lab 
Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, shot down theories the virus that has caused a global pandemic was man-made or released accidentally from a Chinese lab. In a wide-ranging interview with National Geographic, Fauci said available research indicated the virus evolved naturally. (Bowden, 5/4)

Reuters: WHO Says Pompeo Remarks On Virus Origin 'Speculative', Seeks Data
The World Health Organization said on Monday that comments by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo citing “evidence” that the new coronavirus had emerged from a Chinese laboratory were “speculative”, and called for a science-based inquiry. (Nebehay and Farge, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Trump's Anti-China Rhetoric Aimed At Boosting US Leverage
The Trump administration is making ever louder pronouncements casting blame on China for the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to sidestep domestic criticism of the president’s own response, tarnish China’s global reputation and give the U.S. leverage on trade and other aspects of U.S.-China competition. President Donald Trump has vowed to penalize China for what U.S. officials have increasingly described as a pattern of deceit that denied the world precious time to prepare for the pandemic. (Riechmann and Miller, 5/5)

The Hill: Trump Steps Up Effort To Blame China For Coronavirus
The Trump administration is escalating an effort to blame China for the novel coronavirus pandemic as global pressure grows on Beijing to cooperate with an investigation into the origins of the outbreak. President Trump, who has endured consistent scrutiny for his own lagged response to the virus domestically, has accused China of covering up the outbreak and suggested that the virus wouldn’t have spread globally if Beijing had been more transparent to begin with. (Chalfant and Elis, 5/4)

Reuters: Exclusive: Internal Chinese Report Warns Beijing Faces Tiananmen-Like Global Backlash Over Virus
An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters. The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said. (5/4)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Orders Companies To Submit Antibody Test Data
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Monday that companies selling coronavirus antibody tests must submit data proving accuracy within the next 10 days or face removal from the market. The antibody tests are an effort to detect whether a person had been infected with the coronavirus, but results have been widely varied. Since mid-March, the agency has permitted dozens of manufacturers to sell the tests without providing evidence that they are accurate. (Kaplan, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Sets Standards For Coronavirus Antibody Tests In Crackdown On Fraud
At least 160 antibody tests for Covid-19 entered the U.S. market without previous FDA scrutiny on March 16, because the agency felt then that it was most important to get them to the public quickly. Accurate antibody testing is a potentially important tool for public-health officials assessing how extensively the coronavirus has swept through a region or state. (Burton, 5/4)

Reuters: U.S. Targets Fraud In Coronavirus Antibody Test Market With Tighter Rules
“Flexibility never meant we would allow fraud. We unfortunately see unscrupulous actors marketing fraudulent test kits and using the pandemic as an opportunity to take advantage of Americans’ anxiety,” the FDA said in a statement. Blood tests for antibodies are used to determine who has been previously been infected with the virus. As the new coronavirus can be easily spread by people with no symptoms, widespread antibody testing is seen as a critical piece in the effort to get Americans back to work safely, as the presence of antibodies to the virus many indicate possible immunity to future infection. (Humer, 5/4)

The Washington Post: FDA To Require Antibody Tests To Undergo Agency Review
The action was the latest about-face in the administration’s coronavirus effort as it seeks to fix a flawed testing response that has been criticized as either too restrictive or too lenient. Earlier this year, the FDA was hammered for moving too slowly in allowing academic medical centers and others to develop diagnostic tests for the virus that might have made them more widely available. Then, critics say, it swung too far in the other direction in allowing the antibody tests to go unvetted. (McGinley, 5/4)

Politico: FDA Reverses Policy That Let Over 100 Antibody Tests On Market Without Review
A senior FDA official told POLITICO the policy change was not a direct result of pressure from Congress. Instead, the official said that having a dozen authorized tests on the market was a natural inflection point to reevaluate the agency’s approach to oversight. FDA Deputy Commissioner Anand Shah and device center chief Jeffrey Shuren wrote in a blog post Monday that the agency is aware of several commercial tests that are “being promoted inappropriately, including for diagnostic use.” “Some test developers have falsely claimed their [antibody] tests are FDA approved or authorized,” Shah and Shuren wrote. “Others have falsely claimed that their tests can diagnose COVID-19 or that they are for at-home testing, which would fall outside of the policies outlined in our March 16 guidance, as well as the updated guidance.” (Lim, 5/4)

Stat: With Remdesivir, Gilead Finds Itself At Strategic Crossroads, With Its Reputation (And Far More) At Stake
Never in modern times have such high hopes for millions of lives rested on one single company. As the world struggles to fight off Covid-19, Gilead Sciences has been thrust in the spotlight with remdesivir, the antiviral drug that on Friday the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency authorization to treat coronavirus patients... But the 33-year-old biopharma company has a well-documented history of charging high prices for lifesaving therapies. And its next steps — notably how much it decides to charge for remdesivir — could determine whether Gilead, and even the drug industry itself, is lauded as the hero of the coronavirus pandemic or condemned anew as price gougers. (Florko and Garde, 5/5)

Stat: Were Researchers Wrong To Move The Goalposts On Remdesivir? In The End, It May Not Have Mattered
Last Wednesday, Gilead announced that its drug, remdesivir, sped the time it took patients to recover from Covid-19. Full data from the study were released by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in a statement at 1 p.m. By 3:35 p.m., Walid Gellad, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh, had noticed a problem. Was there any explanation, he asked in a tweet, for why the study’s main goal had been changed just weeks before? (Herper, 5/5)

In other news on drug and treatments —

Stat: The Response To Covid-19 Is Critical. It's Also Making Clinical Trials Harder
In March, a team of Chinese scientists studying whether the antiviral remdesivir was effective against Covid-19 ran into a problem. “Stringent public health measures used in Wuhan led to marked reductions in new patient presentations,” the researchers wrote. Without enough patients enrolled, the study ended early. Last month, another Chinese team reported that a trial of the drug hydroxychloroquine had bumped into similar issues. “The recruitment of eligible patients was unexpectedly difficult,” the scientists wrote, explaining they had failed to reach their enrollment goal. (Joseph, 5/5)

The New York Times: Avigan May Cause Birth Defects. Japan’s Pushing It For Coronavirus.
As President Trump was extolling the promise of a malaria drug in the desperate hunt for coronavirus treatments, one of his top global allies was selling the world on his own “trump card,” a pale yellow pill that he said could be crucial to fighting the pandemic. This supposed beacon of hope is an antiviral medicine known as Avigan, and its most vocal proponent is Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Mr. Abe has pushed the homegrown drug in news conferences and in meetings with world leaders, including a call with Mr. Trump and the other heads of the Group of 7. (Dooley, 5/4)

Stat: Without Showing Data, CytoDyn Touts Covid Drug — While CEO Sells Stock
While Nader Pourhassan, the chief executive of drug maker CytoDyn, filed his intention to sell nearly $17 million of his company’s shares last Thursday, he was simultaneously pitching the same CytoDyn stock to outside investors, claiming its lead drug is saving the lives of patients with Covid-19. Pourhassan’s plan to sell more than 4.8 million shares, disclosed in an SEC filing on Friday, amounts to more than half of his ownership stake in CytoDyn. The timing of the sale is troubling and should concern, even anger, any investor who’s bought CytoDyn stock based on Pourhassan’s coronavirus marketing pitch. (Feuerstein, 5/4)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Vaccine Research Gets $8 Billion In Pledges From World Leaders
Prime ministers, a king, a prince and Madonna all chipped in to an $8 billion pot to fund a coronavirus vaccine. President Trump skipped the chance to contribute, with officials in his administration noting that the United States is pouring billions of dollars into its own research efforts. A fund-raising conference on Monday organized by the European Union brought pledges from countries around the world — from Japan to Canada, Australia to Norway — to fund laboratories that have promising leads in developing and producing a vaccine. (Stevis-Gridneff and Jakes, 5/4)

Reuters: World Leaders Pledge $8 Billion To Fight COVID-19 But U.S. Steers Clear
“In the space of just few hours we have collectively pledged 7.4 billion euros ($8.1 billion) for vaccine, diagnostics and treatment” against COVID-19, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said after chairing the online event. “This will help kick-start unprecedented global cooperation,” she added. It was however unclear what was new funding, as commitments made earlier this year may also be included, EU officials said. (Emmott and Guarascio, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Declines To Join Global Vaccine Summit 
World leaders came together in a virtual summit Monday to pledge billions of dollars to quickly develop vaccines and drugs to fight the coronavirus. Missing from the roster was the Trump administration, which declined to participate but highlighted from Washington what one official called its “whole-of-America” efforts in the United States and its generosity to global health efforts. (Booth, Johnson and Morello, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: To Boost Research And Prevent Competition For Coronavirus Response, Europe Seeks Global Teamwork
The U.S. State Department said in a statement that the country “welcomes efforts by other countries to mobilize resources” against the coronavirus and commended the pledging conference. A senior State Department official at a briefing Monday declined to explain the U.S. decision to stay out of the conference. Organizers want to ensure that scientific breakthroughs on tests, treatments and vaccines are shared and deployed everywhere across developed and developing countries. (Norman, 5/4)

Politico: World Leaders Pledge To Fight Coronavirus, But The U.S. Skips The Meeting
In any event, nearly all of the leaders acknowledged that far more money would be needed down the line, especially when the time comes to manufacture and distribute a vaccine. And the precise location of the event's metaphorical finish-line was less of a question than the overall approach to counting the biggest pledges. At a briefing last week, senior Commission officials announced that they had decided that national government expenditures going back to January would qualify toward the overall goal. (Herszenhorn and Paun, 5/4)

CIDRAP: Global COVID-19 Drug And Vaccine Push Nets $8 Billion From Donors
At a WHO telebriefing today, the group's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, called the pledging commitments a powerful and inspiring demonstration of global solidarity. He said scientists are working at incredible speed to develop tools to battle COVID-19, but the measure of success isn't just how fast, safe, and effective they are, it's also how equally they can be distributed. "None of us can accept a world in which some people are protected while others are not. Everybody should be protected," he said. "None of us are safe until all of us are safe."(Schnirring, 5/4)

ABC News: US Absent From Global Conference To Raise Money For Coronavirus Vaccine 
While the U.S. did not participate, leaders of other countries addressed the summit directly, including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. (Finnegan, 5/4)

CBS News: Coronavirus Virtual Vaccine Summit Sees World Leaders Pledge Billions To Find COVID-19 Cure, But Trump Administration Skips It 
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lauded the fundraising effort as a good "down-payment" on the sum he expects will be required to immunize the world's population, but he noted that, "to reach everyone, everywhere, we likely need five times that amount." The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone committed $100 million to the pursuit. "COVID-19 has reminded us that viruses don't obey borders or customs laws. They don't care about what nationality you are," Melinda Gates told the other summit participants. (5/5)

In other vaccination news —

Boston Globe: Harvard-Affiliated Hospitals Launch New Effort To Make Coronavirus Vaccine, With Help From Celtics Co-Owner 
The global race to create the first approved vaccine for COVID-19 has a new entry, a collaboration by two Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals that has received a $1 million donation from Boston Celtics co-owner Wyc Grousbeck. Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Massachusetts General Hospital are working on a vaccine that uses a harmless virus as a Trojan horse to deliver the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus into human cells to produce an immune response that would protect people from the disease. (Saltzman, 5/4)

The New York Times: A Coronavirus Vaccine Project Takes A Page From Gene Therapy
Their work employs a method already used in gene therapy for two inherited diseases, including a form of blindness: It uses a harmless virus as a vector, or carrier, to bring DNA into the patient’s cells. In this case, the DNA should instruct the cells to make a coronavirus protein that would stimulate the immune system to fight off future infections. So far, the team has studied its vaccine candidates only in mice. Tests for safety and potency in monkeys should begin within a month or so at another academic center, the researchers said. But two of seven promising versions are already being manufactured for studies in humans. (Grady, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Country Continues Fitful Moves Toward Normalcy--For Now
At least nine states — including Florida, Colorado, Missouri and Arkansas — took some steps toward reopening, though they did so gingerly. Florida, for example, opened more of its beaches, along with restaurants and retail stores in much of the state, but at a reduced capacity, with patrons spaced six feet apart. Arkansas reopened gyms but required those coming to first be screened for symptoms of the virus. Health officials have warned that the coronavirus crisis is far from over and that a rushed resumption of business and social activity could spark a new wave of infections and death. The United States on Monday added more than 21,000 cases and more than 840 deaths to its daily toll. In total, more than 1.1 million Americans have now been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, and more than 68,000 have died of it. (Zapotosky, Iati and Wagner, 5/4)

Politico: States Were Supposed To Team Up On Reopening. It Hasn’t Gone As Planned.
When seven northeastern states announced they would reopen their virus-shuttered economies in lockstep when the time was right, it was seen as a very-public flexing of local government muscle when Washington was trying to push responsibility onto individual states. But it turns out that the politics of reopening still very much recognize state lines. (Gronewold, 5/5)

Stateline: County Leaders To Governors: Let Us Make Our Own Calls On Reopening
Counties across the country want the same control, even as scientists project cases and daily deaths to rise in the coming weeks. From California to Washington to North Carolina to Michigan, local officials are asking their state governments for the authority to loosen restrictions. Many counties seeking more local flexibility are smaller or rural and so far have been relatively unscathed by the virus. Leaders say their paralyzed economies are causing greater harm than the pandemic itself. (Brown, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Malls, Movies And More: A Look At Reopenings By State In US
The reopening of the economy and loosening of coronavirus-prompted restrictions remain uneven and varied throughout the U.S. as governors watch case numbers and weigh caution against desires to ramp up business. Texas, Oklahoma, and Montana are among states newly allowing restaurants to reopen. Malls, movie theaters and other venues are reopening in several states. Some states have outlined phased reopenings: North Carolina’s governor said he hopes to start such a process after this week if virus trends allow. (5/5)

The New York Times: Cuomo’s N.Y. Reopening Plan: 10 Regions, 4 Phases, Many Caveats
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday presented a soft blueprint for how New York State’s economy might begin to restart, a set of criteria that will determine which regions allow what sectors to reopen and when. In remarks at an event in Monroe County, where the coronavirus has killed more than 100 people, Mr. Cuomo reiterated that the entire state would remain locked down until May 15, when his stay-at-home order is scheduled to expire. New York City and its suburbs, which are still besieged by the virus, may be the last places to start returning to some semblance of normal, he suggested. (McKinley, 5/4)

Reuters: New York Governor Outlines Reopening Plan With Construction, Manufacturing First
Cuomo said he understood the feelings of protesters pushing for a faster reopening but also warned that moving too quickly could rekindle the virus, noting that the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic was deadlier in its second wave. “You can do it for a short period of time, but you can’t do it forever,” Cuomo said, referring to lockdown orders which have been in place since the middle of March. “But reopening is more difficult than the closedown.” (Layne and Caspani, 5/4)

NBC News: Violent Encounter In New York City Prompts Concerns About Unequal Policing Of Social Distancing
A violent encounter between a New York City police officer and a bystander that police said began as an attempt to enforce social distancing rules has prompted concerns about unequal policing. The city's public advocate, Jumaane Williams, posted pictures on Twitter on Sunday — one of swarms of white people sitting in parks and three images from what appeared to depict encounters between police and people of color. (Griffith, 5/4)

Reuters: California Sees 'Ray Of Sunshine,' Takes First Steps Toward Reopening
California on Monday announced the state’s first tentative steps to reopen from a lockdown designed to contain the spread of the coronavirus, giving a green light for retail stores to open this week, though with restrictions. (Whitcomb, 5/4)

NPR: Gov. Newsom Announces California Will Begin Easing Coronavirus Closures This Week
The businesses will include places such as book, clothing, toy, and sporting goods stores as well as music shops and florists, the governor said. This phase of California's reopening will not include malls, offices or sit-down service in restaurants. Those businesses that can reopen Friday will have to abide to restrictions, such as physical distancing and delivering orders at the curbside. Detailed guidelines about the Phase 2 reopening will be released on Thursday, according to Newsom. (Hagemann, 5/4)

KQED: Many Retail Shops In California Can Reopen Starting Friday, Newsom Says 
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced plans to further ease California's stay-at-home restrictions by allowing most lower-risk retail businesses to reopen in some capacity starting Friday. The changes, which will be formally announced Thursday, will move the state into the beginning of its second reopening phase, Newsom said. Under the order, a broad swath of retail shops can open for curbside pickup service by the end of the week, including clothing stores, bookstores and flower shops. However, offices, eat-in restaurants, shopping malls and other types of high-contact businesses will remain closed for now. (Wiley, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Northam Says He’ll Probably Ease Some Restrictions In Virginia On May 15
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam extended the state's business shutdown through May 14 on Monday but said he expects to begin rolling back restrictions after that, marking the Washington region's first shift toward the next phase of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Northam (D) said conditions are in place to allow the state to consider reopening dine-in restaurants and some other establishments under social distancing requirements. (Schneider, Vozzella and Nirappil, 5/4)

Politico: Kemp Dismisses ‘Ridiculous’ Criticism Of Georgia, Other States Moving To Reopen
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp rejected charges Monday that Republican governors who have begun reopening their states care more about saving businesses than saving lives. “That’s ridiculous,” Kemp told reporters during a web conference Monday morning. “All the decisions that we have made have been for our citizens’ safety and public health.” (McCaskill, 5/4)

Reuters: Coronavirus Health Fears Outweigh Concern For Economy: Global Survey
A substantial majority of people around the world want their governments to prioritise saving lives over moves to restart economies being hammered by measures aimed at halting the spread of the new coronavirus, a global survey found. (John, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: As Summer Camps Weigh Opening, Parents Scramble For Options
Nicole Ives had a plan for this summer—six weeks of various day camps for her daughter, Amelia, paid for in January with dates tracked in a Google spreadsheet. Many summer camps and recreational programs are still deciding how—and whether—to reopen safely. While some have said they won’t open, others are making changes to accommodate stricter health protocols. The vast majority of camps say they are in limbo as they figure out head counts, refunds and budgets—and if they can offer a genuine summer-camp experience. Parents are considering alternatives, just in case. They also are rethinking finances, summer schedules and if they are ready for their children to swim and share bunks with others. (Chaker, 5/4)

NPR: Alaska Restaurant Owner: Reopening Far From Profitable, But Still Worth It
In Alaska, some restaurants are easing their way back into the business of serving food to dine-in customers. Alaska has the lowest number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the 50 states, and on April 21, Gov. Mike Dunleavy unveiled the first phase of reopening the state's economy. It allowed some businesses, including restaurants, to reopen under new safety guidelines, beginning April 24. (Kelly, 5/4)

NPR: Coronavirus Distancing Measures In New York City Include Closing Streets To Cars
New York City has opened seven miles of streets to pedestrians and cyclists, in an effort to create more space for people to maintain a safe distance from one another while outside. Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council say 40 miles of streets across the boroughs will open during May, with an eventual goal of 100 miles in the coming weeks. (Wamsley, 5/4)

Los Angeles Times: Garcetti Says L.A. Might Not Begin Reopening By Friday, Vows 'careful Consideration'
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday that different cities will need to take different steps to emerge from the pandemic-induced shutdown and that city and county officials are still trying to determine the safest course. “Our timing on opening may vary from other parts of the state,” he said. “I will reopen our city with careful consideration, guided by public health professionals.” (Queally, Shalby and Luna, 5/4)

PBS NewsHour: Businesses In The U.S., Europe Begin Opening Doors To A New Chapter
The start of a new week marked more reopenings across the United States, whose death toll from COVID-19 is now over 68,000. In Washington, D.C., the Senate returned to the Capitol, while the House remained at recess due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, in hard-hit European countries like Italy and Spain, more workers were back on the job as virus cases and deaths fell to new lows. (Sy, 5/4)

Los Angeles Times: As States Reopen, Some People Reject Coronavirus Masks
In the bustling college town of Stillwater, Okla., residents are allowed to visit restaurants and retailers — freedoms that most of the country does not currently enjoy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet when the city issued an emergency proclamation Friday that required citizens to wear face coverings, store employees were “threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse,” according to a statement released by the city. In response, Stillwater quickly amended its wording to only “encourage” use of masks. (McCollough, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Police Investigate Shooting Over A Face Mask In Michigan Store
A Family Dollar store security guard was fatally shot in Flint, Mich., on Friday after telling a customer her child had to wear a face mask to enter the store, the prosecutor’s office said. The argument began when the security guard, Calvin Munerlyn, 43, told Sharmel Lashe Teague, 45, that customers needed to wear face masks in the store, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Monday. She yelled at him, spit on him and drove off, Leyton said. About 20 minutes later, her car returned to the store, and her husband and her son, Larry Edward Teague, 44, and Ramonyea Travon Bishop, 23, stepped out and confronted Munerlyn, according to investigators who spoke to witnesses in the store and reviewed surveillance video. Bishop pulled out a gun and shot Munerlyn, Leyton said. (Kornfield, 5/4)

CNN: Three Family Members Charged In Shooting Death Of Security Guard Who Told A Customer To Put On A Face Mask
"From all indications, Mr. Munerlyn was simply doing his job in upholding the Governor's Executive Order related to the COVID-19 pandemic for the safety of store employees and customers," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in the statement. Munerlyn got into a verbal altercation with Sharmel Teague after telling Teague's daughter she needed a mask, according to the prosecutor's office. Surveillance video confirms the incident, Leyton said. Sharmel Teague's daughter left the store, but "Teague began yelling at Munerlyn who then told her to leave the store and instructed a cashier not to serve her," the prosecutor's office said. (Snyder, Alsharif and Waldrop, 5/4)

CBS News: Projected Death Toll Spikes As Americans Protest Social Distancing Restrictions 
But there's dramatic evidence of rising tension after weeks of restrictions to halt the virus' spread — including a Colorado man planning to attend a protest of "stay at home" orders who was arrested after police found pipe bombs at his home. Authorities said the pipe bombs were found inside the home of 53-year-old Bradley Bunn, who was arrested by the FBI on Friday. Sources told CBS News that Bunn encouraged demonstrators to bring firearms to a May Day protest. (Shamlian, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Background Checks For Firearms Remain High Amid Pandemic
The number of April background checks to purchase a firearm showed Americans flocking to gun stores in high numbers for the second month in a row amid worries about the coronavirus pandemic. The FBI numbers were released Monday with anticipation since March smashed previous records with 3.7 million checks conducted. While the numbers leveled off a bit to about 2.9 million checks for last month, one week — April 13-19 — is now among the top 10 highest weeks since the system was tracked in November 1998. That week in April alone, the FBI conducted 766,739 checks. (Pane, 5/5)

The Washington Post: In San Diego County, Man Wore A Ku Klux Klan Hood As Coronavirus Face Covering At Grocery
Photos of a man wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood while shopping Saturday prompted a harsh rebuke from local leaders in San Diego County, and police now say they’re looking into the unsettling imagery. The incident took place one day after health officials in the county ordered residents to wear face coverings in public to stymie the spread of covid-19. (Brice-Saddler, 5/4)

The Hill: GOP Ohio State Lawmaker Refuses To Wear Face Mask Because Faces Are The 'Likeness Of God'
A Republican Ohio state representative cited his religious beliefs to explain why he would not wear a mask as recommended by Gov. Mike DeWine (R) to help limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. “This is not the entire world,” state Rep. Nino Vitale wrote in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday morning. “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles.” (Folley, 5/4)

ABC News: Man Allegedly Pushed Austin Park Ranger Enforcing Social Distancing Into A Lake 
Austin police have arrested a man who allegedly pushed a park ranger into a lake. The incident occurred on Thursday at Commons Ford, a public park that is home to Lake Austin, and was captured on a video posted on social media. In the video, a park ranger is seen standing near the lake's edge telling a crowd of people to stand six feet apart when a man pushes the ranger into the water and falls in himself. (Ghebremedhin, Parrish and Deliso, 5/4)

Boston Globe: How To Make A Mask Ahead Of Wednesday’s Face Covering Mandate In Mass. 
Starting Wednesday, anyone in Massachusetts who is out in public and can’t safely distance themselves from others will be required to wear a face covering to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. People who do not comply could be fined up to $300. (Reiss, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Coronavirus Cuts 'Deep Scars' Through Meatpacking Cities
As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo, Iowa. In the downstairs unit lived Jim Orvis, 65, a beloved friend and uncle who worked in the laundry department at the Tyson Foods pork processing facility, the largest employer in Waterloo. Upstairs was Arthur Scott, a 51-year-old father who was getting his life back on track after a prison term for drugs. He worked 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) away at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence, Iowa. (Foley, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Tyson Says U.S. Pork Production Is Down 50 Percent, Despite Trump’s Order To Keep Meat Plants Open
President Trump’s executive order last week requiring meat processing plants to stay open to ward off shortages may not be a cure-all for the food industry segment that has been hardest hit by coronavirus outbreaks. On Monday morning, Tyson Foods said during an investor call that U.S. hog processing capacity had dropped by 50 percent. (Reiley, 5/4)

NBC News: Tyson Expects To Keep Slowing Meat Production As Coronavirus Sickens Workers And Tanks Income
Major meat provider Tyson Foods reported a steep decline in income Monday, raising more fears about America's food supply chain during the world's fight against the coronavirus. Net income fell by 15 percent for the second quarter, ending March 28, compared to the same period the previous fiscal year, Tyson reported. (Li, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Amazon Executive Says He Quit To Protest Employee Firings
An Amazon executive said he quit his job at the online-retail giant to protest the firing of employees who spoke up about the conditions inside the company’s warehouses and its record on climate change. Tim Bray, a vice president at the company, wrote in a blog post that he left his job last week “in dismay” after Amazon fired several workers who publicly criticized the company. He said the firings were “evidence of a vein of toxicity running through the company culture.” (Pisani, 5/5)

The New York Times: 2 Die From The Virus At A Bronx Bus Depot, And Drivers Are Rattled
Angel Volquez was already on edge. For weeks, the New York City bus driver had watched as the city’s grim new reality played out in front of him through the large glass windshield like a dystopian movie. Streets had turned eerily empty of traffic and were now filled mostly with screeching ambulances racing to the hospital. At bus stops, exhausted nurses replaced his usual riders. (Goldbaum, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Kills Several FedEx Workers At Newark Facility
Several FedEx Corp. workers at the company’s Newark, N.J., air hub have died due to complications of the coronavirus, a sign of the toll that the outbreak has taken on front-line delivery workers. The outbreak among FedEx workers has prompted questions from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who wrote to FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith about safety protocols at the delivery giant. (Ziobro, 5/4)

NPR: U.S. Automakers Are Slowly Rolling Toward A Restart
Cars didn't change much between March and May. But the factories where they're assembled are shifting dramatically. Auto plants are starting back up — much more slowly than they shut down — with new extensive health precautions meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus: Plastic sheeting and clear shields installed on assembly lines. Mandatory temperature checks and symptom questionnaires. Solitary chairs in break rooms. (Domonoske, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Texas Inmates Ask Supreme Court To Impose Coronavirus Protections
Older inmates in a Texas prison asked the Supreme Court on Monday to reinstate protective measures against the coronavirus that have been blocked at the state’s request by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. The Supreme Court justice overseeing federal courts in Texas, Samuel Alito, gave the state until Friday to respond to the filing on the Wallace Pack Unit, a state prison in Navasota, Texas. The state attorney general’s office had no immediate comment. (Bravin and Gurman, 5/4)

The Washington Post: As Virus Spreads In Jails And Prisons, Correctional Officers Fear For Themselves And Their Loved Ones
Arnold Hudson Sr. started working as a correctional officer at the D.C. jail in 1997, just a year after he married his wife, Diane. Before that, he spent six years as a guard at the now-closed Lorton prison. Ensuring the safety of incarcerated men and women, and providing them some guidance, Hudson believes, is a noble profession. (Alexander and Morse, 5/4)

The Oklahoman: Coronavirus In Oklahoma: Up To 14 State Inmates Could Be Released On Medical Parole
The state’s Pardon and Parole Board will hear an emergency medical parole docket May 13 to expedite the release of up to 14 inmates who are at high risk for COVID-19. Oklahoma’s Department of Corrections classifies 126 individuals as having severe medical needs, but only 14 people within that group met the eligibility requirements set for parole. (Branch, 5/5)

Albuquerque Journal: Justices Deny Petition To Release Inmates 
The state Supreme Court on Monday rejected a petition to release large numbers of inmates from state prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic. The state Law Offices of the Public Defender, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association filed a petition last month asking the Supreme Court to order Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to release inmates who meet certain criteria to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the state’s prisons. (Carrillo, 5/4)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds Pledges To Clear Up Test Iowa COVID-19 Test Backlog
Iowa’s backlog of coronavirus test results should be cleared up by the end of the day, Gov. Kim Reynolds said Monday. ...Reynolds had initially pledged that those Iowans would have their coronavirus results by the end of the weekend. She said thousands of tests had been processed during that time, but the backlog wasn't completely clear by Monday morning, she said. (Pfannenstiel, Coltrain and Rodriguez, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Makes Coronavirus Testing Available To Those Who Leave Home To Work, Regardless Of Symptoms 
San Francisco is now making making free COVID-19 tests available to any worker who must leave their home and interact with the public — diminishing or eliminating their ability to practice social distancing — while on the job, regardless of whether they present symptoms of a coronavirus infection. The new testing policy, announced by Mayor London Breed and Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax on Monday, represents the city’s latest expansion of testing efforts. (Fracassa, 5/4)

KQED: Free Testing For All Essential Workers In SF; Breed Threatens To Close Dolores Park, Reinstate Street-Sweeping Tickets 
San Francisco is in a mad dash to expand testing, as it begins to ease restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The city's revised stay at home order—announced on April 29—took effect Monday and will be in place through the last day of May. (Stark, 5/4)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Testing Has Been A Problem For Months. Will This New Survey Help?
Worried you contracted the novel coronavirus? If you're an Ohioan with mild symptoms and no preexisting conditions, odds are you still won't have access to a test anytime soon. As Ohio ramps up testing – hoping to hit 22,000 tests per day by late May, the state will prioritize those who are hospitalized, health care workers, those older than 65 years old, first responders, nursing home residents and those receiving medical procedures. (Balmert, 5/4)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Tightens Time Frame For Handling Body After Death Amid Pandemic
Hospitals and funeral directors now will have 24 hours to contact designated parties to handle burial and cremation arrangements after a death amid the novel coronavirus pandemic. In an emergency order issued Monday, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon made multiple moves to deal with capacity concerns with the state handling more than 4,000 deaths thus far in the outbreak. (Moran, 5/4)

NBC News: Los Angeles Clinic Puts Underprivileged Community At Greater Risk Of Contracting Coronavirus, Health Care Workers Say
The largest health care provider in South Los Angeles, which serves low-income African Americans and Latinos, is putting some of the city's most vulnerable residents at risk of contracting the coronavirus by having patients come in for routine appointments, according to some medical professionals who work there. As the coronavirus batters minority communities, some medical professionals said they are concerned that the facility, St. John's Well Child and Family Center, is disregarding a key federal guideline intended to protect people from the contagion, which recommends that medical facilities reschedule nonessential appointments. (Flaherty, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: How Many Have Recovered From Coronavirus In Bay Area? Why We May Never Know 
Amid last week’s coronavirus statistics came one piece of seemingly good news: Globally, the number of people who have recovered has risen to more than 1 million. So what does the data on COVID-19 recoveries look like for the Bay Area? Many readers have asked The Chronicle this question, seeking a hopeful counterpoint to the case counts, hospitalizations and deaths updating every day in The Chronicle’s Coronavirus Tracker. But many of California’s largest counties, including most in the Bay Area, are not providing data on how many people have recovered from the virus. (Hwang, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Nearly 100 Coronavirus Cases At Bay Area Nursing Home Outbreak In Vallejo 
At least 99 people, including 76 residents and 23 staff members, have tested positive for coronavirus at Windsor Vallejo Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, a skilled senior care facility in Vallejo. Jayleen Richards, the Solano County public health administrator who confirmed the number of infections at the facility, as of Monday morning, did not have an update on the conditions of the infected patients. (Vaziri, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Despite Coronavirus Challenges, UCSF On Track To Raise $5 Billion 
Despite new challenges facing fundraising campaigns in the Bay Area due to the coronavirus pandemic, UCSF said it is still moving forward with an ambitious plan it launched in 2017 aimed at raising $5 billion to address rising health care costs and tackle complex health and science initiatives. “We are on track with our overall fundraising and will be sharing our campaign results this fall,” the institution’s leaders said in a statement to The Chronicle on Friday. (Vaziri, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: Stanford Health Resumes Non-Emergency Care After Widespread Staff Testing Finds Few Coronavirus Cases 
Stanford Health Care is resuming elective surgeries and other non-emergency procedures this week — and is encouraging patients to seek out that care — after finding that less than 1% of its health care staff tested positive for the coronavirus and very few had markers of previous infection. More than 11,000 workers, out of about 14,000 total, have undergone testing for active infection and antibodies, Stanford Health officials said. Only a few dozen, or about 0.33%, tested positive and none had symptoms of illness. Fewer than 3% tested positive for antibodies, which indicate they had been infected at some point. (Allday, 5/4)

ABC News: Navajo Community Left To Fight COVID-19 With Limited Resources 
COVID-19 is surging through the Navajo community, which is suffering one of the highest infection rates per capita in the country. And the peak is still weeks away. (Gutman, Zepeda, Shakya and Yang, 5/4)

Houston Chronicle: With ‘Worst Budget In History’ Looming, City Weighs How It Can Spend Federal Pandemic Aid Funds
As the prospect of mass furloughs and severe spending cuts looms over the city’s next budget, Houston officials are sitting on a pile of coronavirus stimulus money that amounts to more than double the shortfall projected by Mayor Sylvester Turner. The rub, at least for now, is that the strings attached to the $404 million Houston received from the so-called Coronavirus Relief Fund — a $150 billion trove sent to states and local governments as part of the roughly $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — bar officials from spending the aid on expenses they already had budgeted. (Scherer, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Coronavirus Outbreak At Medford Nursing Home Kills 54 Residents 
The coronavirus has killed 54 residents of a Medford nursing home over the past four weeks and infected another 100, in the latest deadly outbreak at an elderly care facility in the state. The rising death toll at the Courtyard Nursing Care Center, a 224-bed facility located behind Lawrence Memorial Hospital, escaped widespread public notice for weeks. (Murphy and Fox, 5/4)

Modern Healthcare: Nuvance Delays Financial Filings While It Investigates Overstatement
Prior to its early 2019 merger with Western Connecticut Health Network, Health Quest overstated the amount it was owed by patients by an estimated $75 million. The resulting health system, not-for-profit Nuvance Health, made the announcement in recent fillings with bondholders to explain the delay in releasing its fiscal 2019 financial results as required under its debt agreements. Nuvance said it had enlisted legal and accounting professionals to investigate the matter. (Bannow, 5/4)

The Washington Post: More People In District Dying Outside Of Hospitals During Pandemic
The number of people in the District dying outside hospitals spiked as the novel coronavirus started its sweep through the nation’s capital, raising concerns that people suffering a wide range of critical ailments are not seeking medical attention. Some of those people contracted the virus; the city has so far confirmed such deaths at home for three residents. But officials suspect many of the deaths are not related to the virus and may be the result of heart attacks, drug overdoses or other causes. (Hermann, 5/4)

Louisville Courier Journal: Beshear Ignoring Coronavirus Rules At Governor's Mansion, Group Says
A conservative think tank is calling out Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear for continuing to have housekeepers and chefs working at the Governor's Mansion during the coronavirus pandemic. The Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions on Monday released results from an open records request, which shows about a dozen employees being paid for working at the Frankfort residence where Beshear and his family live. (Bailey, 5/4)

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting: Coronavirus In Mississippi: Cases At Mental Health Facilities
The Mississippi Department of Mental Health confirmed Friday that 56 patients and an unknown number of staff at four of its 12 facilities have confirmed COVD-19 infections — a much higher number than reported previously, according to figures from the agency. East Mississippi State Hospital in Meridian is the hardest hit, with 31 patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and 36 cases among staff, according to reporting by the Meridian Star. The hospital has 372 psychiatric beds, 35 chemical dependency beds, 226 nursing home beds. (Whitehead, 5/5)

Burlington Free Press: Vermont Child Abuse Reports Drop During Coronavirus Pandemic
The number of calls to the state reporting suspected child abuse and neglect has dropped during the new coronavirus pandemic. The drop in calls in March and April has Vermont DCF officials concerned, but not surprised. (Murray, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Senate Reopens Despite Risks As House Preps More Virus Aid
The Senate reopened Monday in a Capitol largely shuttered by the coronavirus, but prospects for quick action on a new aid package are uncertain with a deepening debate over how best to confront the deadly pandemic and its economic devastation. The 100 senators are convening for the first time since March, while the House is staying away due to the health risks, as the conflicted Congress reflects an uneasy nation. The Washington area remains a virus hot spot under stay-home rules. (Mascaro, 5/5)

The Washington Post: Lawmaking In The Time Of Coronavirus: The Senate Returns To Work, Warily
In eerily quiet hallways, with masks and disinfectant wipes aplenty, the Senate started to forge its new normal Monday — assembling en masse in Washington for the first time in five weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic. The adaptations made by what is perhaps Washington’s most hidebound institution were unmistakable, if uneven. (DeBonis, 5/4)

Politico: 'This Is Weird': The Senate Returns Amid The Pandemic
The Capitol is stirring to life after being hobbled for weeks by the coronavirus pandemic. But the halls are mostly empty, and the anxiety pulsing through the United States is reflected in the altered rhythms of Congress. Everyone is adjusting to a new normal. On Monday evening, the Senate held its first roll-call vote since March 25. Thirteen senators didn’t even show up in an institution in which roughly half the members are 65 or older and are at heightened risk of the virus. (Everett and Levine, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Most Senators Embrace Masks As Lawmakers Return To Work
Masked senators returned to work with a new set of rules. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, red signs advised people to keep their distance in the Capitol, which remains closed to the crowds of tourists that typically throng its halls. Yellow circles scattered throughout the complex marked spots on the floor for reporters, typically bunched elbow to elbow, to stand and maintain the 6 feet of distance federal guidelines advise. (Wise and Duehren, 5/4)

The Hill: Parties Divided Over Health Risks To Reopening Capitol 
House leaders are at odds over how the chamber can safely come back into session as the two parties engage in a fight over the optics of working through the coronavirus crisis while the Senate returns to Washington this week. The battle pits Republicans on one side, pressing Congress to move quickly to resume its work on Capitol Hill, not least as a political statement to workers around the country as more and more states — encouraged by President Trump — move to reopen their economies. (Marcos and Lillis, 5/4)

Politico: McCarthy Breaks With McConnell Over Trump’s Testing Offer For Congress
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday he disagreed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to decline the Trump administration’s offer to provide Congress with rapid-results coronavirus testing. “I do believe it would be critical to have the testing here because there will be a flare-up. Remember how many people from other parts of the country come to this location,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told POLITICO Playbook authors Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer in a virtual interview. (Forgey and Everett, 5/4)

CNN: Nancy Pelosi Defends Decision To Decline Trump Admin Testing Offer: 'They Don't Have Them' 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday defended her decision along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to decline an offer from the Trump administration to deploy rapid coronavirus testing capabilities to Capitol Hill and said that tests should go to Americans on the front lines of the crisis. Asked by CNN's Wolf Blitzer on "The Situation Room" why she didn't accept the tests, Pelosi responded, "Because they don't have them." (Foran, 5/4)

NBC News: As Senate Returns, Multiple Stumbling Blocks Threaten Next Coronavirus Bill
As the Senate returns Monday after having been forced from the Capitol by the coronavirus outbreak, the next round of emergency relief legislation could be weeks away as Democrats, Republicans and the White House are pushing conflicting priorities for the next bill. Republicans want liability protections for businesses. Democrats want more state and local government aid. And President Donald Trump wants to "pause" more legislation for now but won't consider anything that doesn't include a payroll tax cut. (Egan, 5/4)

Politico: Democrats Aim To Squeeze Republicans On Next Coronavirus Relief Package
Top House Democrats on Monday signaled they are forging ahead with the next sweeping coronavirus relief package, aiming to increase the pressure on GOP leaders who have rejected Democratic priorities in previous aid bills. On a private call with members Monday afternoon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her deputies sketched the outline of a trillion-dollar-plus package that would deliver aid to state and local governments — some on the brink of public service cuts — while shoring up safety-net programs for the nation’s most vulnerable. (Caygle and Ferris, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Liability Shield Is Next Coronavirus Aid Battle In Congress
Senate Republicans’ effort to shield companies from liability during the coronavirus pandemic sets the stage for a showdown with Democrats, as allies of businesses and labor fight over the terms under which the economy will emerge from its partial shutdown. Senate lawmakers returned to Washington on Monday to tackle confirmations of judges and officials and to start working out the next round of relief for households and businesses, on top of almost $3 trillion approved so far. (Hughes and Gershman, 5/4)

The New York Times: Lawmakers Ask I.R.S. To Help Companies That Keep Paying Health Benefits
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including the chairmen of the tax-writing committees in the House and the Senate, asked the Internal Revenue Service on Monday to allow companies that continue paying the cost of health benefits for furloughed workers to remain eligible for a new tax credit. At issue is a tax credit for retaining employees, which essentially reimburses companies for as much as half the wages they continue to pay workers who are furloughed amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Tankersley, 5/4)

ProPublica: Trump Hasn’t Released Funds That Help Families Of COVID-19 Victims Pay For Burials. Members Of Congress Want To Change That.
Democratic members of Congress are urging President Donald Trump to authorize FEMA to reimburse funeral expenses for victims of the coronavirus pandemic, citing ProPublica’s reporting about the administration’s policies. “Just as with all previous disasters, we should not expect the families of those that died — or the hardest hit states — to pay for burials,” said the statement issued Friday from Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, and Rep. Peter DeFazio, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “President Trump needs to step up and approve this assistance so FEMA can pay for the funerals of our fellow Americans so they can be buried in dignity. It is the least he can do.” (Torbati, 5/4)

Modern Healthcare: Insurer-Owned Medical Practices Received CARES Act Provider Grants
Medical practices owned by at least one insurer got some of the $175 billion grant fund Congress set up to help providers offset coronavirus-related expenses and losses.UnitedHealth Group, which has been a leader in acquiring physician practices in recent years, received $49 million from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act's provider relief fund, but returned the money to HHS. (Cohrs, 5/4)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Exposes A G.O.P. Divide: Is The Market Always Supreme?
Questions over whether the government should play a more active role in protecting Americans from global shocks like the coronavirus pandemic have exposed a widening divide in the Republican Party over whether the small-government, free-market brand of conservatism at the heart of its agenda — and a top priority of its biggest donors — is out of step with the times. The debate traces some of the same ideological fault lines that run through the party over President Trump’s economic and trade policies, which excite many of the voters who are drawn to his nationalist appeals but alarm the party’s more traditional, pro-business wing. (Peters, 5/5)

WBUR: Coronavirus Conundrum: How To Cover Millions Who Lost Their Jobs And Health Insurance
The Worker Health Coverage Protection Act is one bill being considered as Congress tries to figure out what to do about the very real health care gap for those millions who have lost their jobs. Sponsors of the COBRA legislation say they hope their plan gets rolled into the next relief bill. But it's unclear when, how and whether the problem will get addressed in upcoming coronavirus relief measures. (Gorenstein and Walker, 5/4)

Politico: ICE Detention Centers First Brought Jobs To The Rural South. Now, They’re Bringing Covid-19.
When Dan Gibson, a local pastor and bed-and-breakfast owner, kicked off his current mayoral campaign in Natchez, he ran as a community man—someone with connections, someone who knows people. Natchez, a small town of 15,000 set on a bend of the Mississippi River, is the kind of place where news travels fast, and, in late March, Gibson’s phone began ringing nonstop. Alarmed townspeople all had the same concern: In the midst of a pandemic, the federal government was bringing some 200 people from around the country into their otherwise relatively isolated community. (Del Valle and Herrera, 5/5)

In other news on immigration —

ProPublica: Los New Yorkers: Essential and Underprotected in the Pandemic’s Epicenter
They’ve gotten to know New York City in a way many have not, through the low-wage work of cleaning its skyscrapers, serving its restaurants and crisscrossing its streets on bicycles, through long subway rides very early in the morning and very late at night. The saying goes: You’re not a true New Yorker unless you’ve lived here for a decade. They’ve done their time and felt a deep sense of belonging in this city of immigrants. But, in the epicenter of a pandemic, the undocumented have never felt more alone. (Gallardo and Goodman, 5/2)

The New York Times: Before Covid-19, Trump Aide Sought To Use Disease To Close Borders
From the early days of the Trump administration, Stephen Miller, the president’s chief adviser on immigration, has repeatedly tried to use an obscure law designed to protect the nation from diseases overseas as a way to tighten the borders. The question was, which disease? Mr. Miller pushed for invoking the president’s broad public health powers in 2019, when an outbreak of mumps spread through immigration detention facilities in six states. He tried again that year when Border Patrol stations were hit with the flu. (Dickerson and Shear, 5/3)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Has More Immigrant Detainees, Inmates With Coronavirus
The number of immigrant detainees in St. Clair County Jail with the coronavirus has more than doubled to seven, and now several immigrant inmates and staff at a federal prison in Baldwin have the virus, officials said. Last month, three Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in St. Clair County Jail tested positive for the coronavirus. (Warikoo, 5/4)

The Associated Press: Virus-Afflicted 2020 Looks Like 1918 Despite Science's March
Despite a century’s progress in science, 2020 is looking a lot like 1918. In the years between two lethal pandemics, one the misnamed Spanish flu, the other COVID-19, the world learned about viruses, cured various diseases, made effective vaccines, developed instant communications and created elaborate public-health networks. Yet here we are again, face-masked to the max. And still unable to crush an insidious yet avoidable infectious disease before hundreds of thousands die from it. (Woodward, 5/5)

The Guardian: The Big Picture: Spreading The Message About The 1918 Pandemic
his picture was taken in California in 1918, during the second wave of the Spanish flu pandemic that killed more than 50 million people around the world. In an effort to curb the spread of the disease, some states quarantined citizens; others made the wearing of face masks mandatory, at the same time as shutting down “all places of amusement." According to a law passed in San Francisco in October of that year, on the day that state-wide infections passed 50,000, anyone seen not wearing a gauze face covering was subject to fines that ranged from $5 to $100 and the possibility of 10 days’ imprisonment. (Adams, 5/3)

The Wall Street Journal: New York Fed Paper Finds Pandemic A Century Ago Fueled Nazi Rise
Nazis rose to power in Germany in part because of dislocations caused by a mass-death pandemic a century ago, research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday said. The paper, written by bank economistKristian Blickle, examined how the German political system reacted to the influenza pandemic that struck the world between 1918 and 1920. Those events have been back in the world’s consciousness as nations attempt to navigate the coronavirus crisis. (Derby, 5/4)

The New York Times: 15 Children Are Hospitalized With Mysterious Illness Possibly Tied To Covid-19
Fifteen children, many of whom had the coronavirus, have recently been hospitalized in New York City with a mysterious syndrome that doctors do not yet fully understand but that has also been reported in several European countries, health officials announced on Monday night. Many of the children, ages 2 to 15, have shown symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare illness in children that involves inflammation of the blood vessels, including coronary arteries, the city’s health department said. None of the New York City patients with the syndrome have died, according to a bulletin from the health department, which describes the illness as a “multisystem inflammatory syndrome potentially associated with Covid-19.” (Goldstein, 5/5)

CNN: 15 Children Are Hospitalized In New York City With An Inflammatory Syndrome That Could Be Linked To Coronavirus 
Fifteen children in New York City have been hospitalized with symptoms compatible with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome possibly linked to coronavirus, according to a health alert issued by the New York City Health Department on Monday. The patients, ages 2 to 15 years, were hospitalized from April 17 to May 1, according to the alert. Several tested positive for Covid-19 or had positive antibody tests. (Gumbrecht, Sutton and Silverman, 5/5)

CIDRAP: AHA Guidance Directs Resuscitation In Kids Amid COVID-19
Guidance from the American Heart Association (AHA) and other groups on resuscitating newborns and children with COVID-19 was published today in Pediatrics to bridge the gap between current practice and the need for healthcare workers to protect themselves amid worldwide shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic. While children are far less likely than adults to have severe illness or die from the novel coronavirus, the researchers noted that the prevalence of infection in children and their ability to spread the disease is likely underestimated, "presumably impacting how health care providers consider the risk associated with resuscitating children with unknown COVID-19 status." (Van Beusekom, 5/4)

The New York Times: In Harm’s Way
As countries ease restrictions on public life, health care workers around the world continue to risk their lives — and those of their families — to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Despite their stoic selfies, they are scared, grief-stricken, guilty they can’t do more. In submissions and interviews, they reflect on what they have witnessed, the decisions they have made and how the pandemic has changed them. The Times will continue adding the stories of frontline health care workers. (5/4)

Kaiser Health News/The Guardian: Lost On The Frontline
An EMT "so focused" on his job. A pediatric nurse who always put herself last. An Air Force veteran who went above and beyond for patients. 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. (5/5)

Stat: Intubation Boxes: Extra Safety Or False Sense Of Security? 
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, is so infectious that protecting health care workers from it as they treat patients is an important issue in the fight against this pandemic. Reliable personal protective equipment is central to that cause. But recent innovations, like so-called intubation boxes, could do more harm than good. (Turer, Chang and Ban, 5/5)

KQED: California Hospitals Begin Sterilizing Previously Worn N95 Masks For Reuse, But Nurses Call Them Unsafe
How does California plan to stem a personal protective equipment shortage? Hospitals will sterilize previously worn N95 respirator masks and reuse them. Across California, hospitals are readying machines to spray down masks with disinfectant, but nurses fear wearing previously used respirators may expose them to COVID-19 infection. (Rodriguez, 5/4)

The Associated Press: At Senior Home, Staff Stays Put 24-7 To Stop Virus Spread
As girls, Nadia Williams and her sister spent countless hours imagining their weddings. Now 30, Williams helped her younger sibling plan her big day, but when it came on Friday, she couldn’t be at her side as maid of honor. Instead, she put on a sequined dress, pulled her hair back, held a bouquet, and watched the ceremony alone, via Zoom, from a community for older adults. Williams is among about 70 employees who are sheltering in place alongside more than 500 residents at an upscale assisted-living facility just outside Atlanta. (Thanawala, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Testing, PPE Limitations Slow Restart Of Deferred Care
Most healthcare providers are not fully prepared to resume deferred care, citing a lack of COVID-19 testing supplies and personal protective equipment, according to a new survey. Around 60% of 364 frontline healthcare workers surveyed said they are not prepared or only somewhat prepared to take on more non-COVID-19 patients, according to a new poll from Bain & Co. conducted in late April. Around half said they don't have enough tests for caregivers and patients while about a quarter said they don't have enough masks, gloves, face shields, gowns and other PPE. (Kacik, 5/4)

The New York Times: The Morgue Worker Who Buys A Daffodil For Each Body Bag
A few days a week, a woman arrives at the Metropolitan Plant and Flower Exchange — a squat, lime-green bunker along Route 17 North in Paramus, N.J. They know her there by her hospital scrubs. She picks up her standing order: yellow daffodils. If there aren’t any daffodils, she’ll take carnations — yellow, please. That’s the most important part — bright yellow. She brings the flowers with her to work at Hackensack University Medical Center. They aren’t for her office. They’re not for co-workers or patients. She carries them out back and walks into a parking garage. (Wilson, 5/5)

CNN: Apple And Google Show What Their Contact Tracing System Could Look Like
Apple and Google just provided a first look at how public health apps could use the coronavirus contact tracing software they are jointly developing. The two tech companies shared a series of images and guidelines on Monday for governments and public health authorities to integrate with their contact tracing apps, including how users will be notified if they have been exposed to someone with the coronavirus. They also laid out some requirements for apps that use the system, including that they will not run any ads and will not collect any location data. (Iyengar, 5/4)

Reuters: Apple, Google Ban Use Of Location Tracking In Contact Tracing Apps
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday said they would ban the use of location tracking in apps that use a new contact tracing system the two are building to help slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Nellis and Dave, 5/4)

ABC News: Bringing America Back: Experts Warn Of Limitations Of Tech For Contact Tracing 
App developers and tech giants like Apple and Google are joining the fight against COVID-19 by developing digital systems for contact tracing. But for public health experts, the old-fashioned approach -- a labor-intensive process of re-tracing and notifying contacts of positive cases -- works best, and has fewer privacy concerns. (Deliso, 5/5)

PBS NewsHour: What Is Contact Tracing, And How Could It Help The U.S. Manage COVID-19? 
With COVID-19 cases in the U.S. still rising, many experts say the next phase in the pandemic response will require aggressive contact tracing. The technique has been used extensively in prior disease outbreaks elsewhere, but the U.S. currently lacks a nationwide tracing infrastructure. And while apps tracking movement and interactions could help, they raise privacy concerns. (Nawaz, Carlson and Natour, 5/4)

Modern Healthcare: Northwestern, AbilityLab At Work On COVID Detection Device
Chicago-area researchers are developing a wearable device about the size of a stamp that aims to detect early signs of COVID-19 and monitor infected patients. Created by teams at Northwestern University and Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, the wireless device, which adheres to the base of the neck, continuously measures body temperature, heart rate and respiratory activity, including irregular breathing, Northwestern said in a statement Monday. (Goldberg, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Is Causing A Historic Rise In Mental Health Problems, Experts Warn
Three months into the coronavirus pandemic, America is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma. Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. Just as the initial coronavirus outbreak caught hospitals unprepared, the country’s mental health system — vastly underfunded, fragmented and difficult to access before the pandemic — is even less prepared to handle this coming surge. (Wan, 5/4)

WBUR: Flood Of Calls And Texts To Crisis Hotlines Reflects Americans' Rising Anxiety
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration saw a fivefold increase at its National Helpline between the beginning and end of March. The Crisis Text Line says its volumes are up 40% in the pandemic, to about 100,000 conversations a month. Volunteer counselors and good Samaritans are responding by lining up to help. (Noguchi, 5/4)

The New York Times: The Pandemic May Mean The End Of The Open-Floor Office
The modern corporate office is renowned for open, collaborative work spaces, in-house coffee bars and standing desks with room for two giant computer monitors. Soon, there may be a new must-have perk: the sneeze guard. This plexiglass barrier that can be mounted on a desk is one of many ideas being mulled by employers as they contemplate a return to the workplace after coronavirus lockdowns. (Richtel, 5/4)

NBC News: Fever, Fatigue, Fear: For Some Recovering COVID-19 Patients, Weeks Of Illness, Uncertainty
Kate Porter has had a fever nearly every day for 50 days. She can't shake the extreme exhaustion that hit when she became infected with the coronavirus nearly two months ago. The longevity of her symptoms are unlike anything she's ever experienced. "I know it sounds crazy," Porter said, "but is this permanent?" (Edwards, 5/4)

ProPublica: She Made Every Effort To Avoid COVID-19 While Pregnant. Not A Single Thing Went According To Plan.
Last September, over pancakes at a diner in central Massachusetts, Molly Baldwin told her husband, Jonathan, they were going to have a baby. He cried into his coffee mug, elated and a little surprised. They had only been trying for about a week, and they had yearned for a summer baby, ideally in June, which would enable their parents to spend more time with their first grandchild. “We thought we had the best timing,” she said. (Waldman, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Pandemic Recovery Must Focus On Addressing Disparities, Experts Say
Marginalized and underserved communities throughout the country have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracking COVID-19 activity in 14 states found African Americans made up 33% of hospitalized coronavirus cases despite accounting for only 18% of the total population in those areas. (Johnson, 5/4)

Kaiser Health News: Palliative Care Helped Family Face ‘The Awful, Awful Truth’
Seattle mourned the news: Elizabeth and Robert Mar died of COVID-19 within a day of each other. They would have celebrated 50 years of marriage in August. But their deaths at the end of March were not the same. Liz, a vivacious matriarch at 72, died after two weeks sedated on a ventilator. Her analytical engineer husband, Robert, 78, chose no aggressive measures. He was able to communicate with their adult children until nearly the end. (Stone, 5/5)

Stat: A Cancer Patient Reconsiders Her End-Of-Life Wishes Amid Covid-19 
Even before she knew what kind of cancer she had, Robin Hodges knew she didn’t want to be resuscitated. If her heart and lungs began sputtering out, doctors should let them. Back in 1999, she’d watched her older sister die agitated and muttering, trying to pull herself out of a tube-tangled hospital bed. Hodges didn’t want that for herself. (Boodman, 5/5)

ABC News: With Face Coverings And Social Distancing, COVID-19 Ushers In New Age Of Air Travel 
As the aviation industry struggles to weather an unprecedented financial hit due to COVID-19, one thing is certain: Air travel will not look the same for the foreseeable future. Travelers boarding most U.S. planes must now wear a face covering, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at some airports sit behind plexiglass, and more than 3,000 planes have been taken from the skies to storage. (Kaji and Maile, 5/4)

Detroit Free Press: ER Visits Plummet Amid Pandemic: 'We Know More People Are Dying At Home'
Now they're saying come back because the original message, compounded with fears, came with a cost: Heart attack victims died at home. Stroke patients let symptoms go unchecked for too long. Fractures from falls were left untreated and worsened. This, doctors say, is fallout from COVID-19, a virus that has people so scared that they're letting life-threatening ailments go unchecked. Though exact data is hard to come by, hospitals across metro Detroit say emergency room visits for non-coronavirus symptoms have dropped by 50% since the shelter-in-place order went into effect six weeks ago — a trend they are now desperate to reverse. (Baldas, 5/5)

Boston Globe: Crime In The Time Of The Coronavirus 
No more roll calls, and no doubling up in cruisers. No questioning suspects without masks, and, at the prison, walking around anywhere without a mask. Arrests are down. Fewer guns and projectiles are being examined -- the director of the state crime lab said he allows only priority cases now. The nature of the work is about human contact, and yet the only way to prevent the spread of the highly contagious disease is to do as much work apart as possible. (Milkovits, 5/5)

NBC News: Herpes Virus Infects Billions Of People Worldwide. Why Isn't There A Vaccine Yet?
Billions of people around the world are living with herpes infections, prompting the World Health Organization to call for a vaccine against the incurable virus. About half a billion people ages 15 to 49 have genital herpes infections, which are mostly caused by herpes simplex virus type 2, which can raise the risk of HIV. Herpes infections can lead to recurring, often painful, blisters. Genital herpes infections plays a significant role in the spread of HIV globally, WHO researchers said in a report released May 1. (Carroll, 5/4)

Stat: Cellular ‘Backpacks’ Keep Immune Cells In Attack Mode Against Tumors
In a study recently published in Science Advances, Samir Mitragotri’s team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute engineered a new way to make one of the body’s own immune cells overcome a tumor’s defenses — the primary goal of immunotherapy. The immune cells are macrophages, quick-change artists that can flip from attack mode (good for battling attackers like cancer) to healing mode (good for promoting growth), depending on chemical cues in the microenvironment around them. (Cooney, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Money For Worldwide AIDS Fight At Issue In Supreme Court
The Supreme Court’s second day of arguments by phone is devoted to a new version of a case it decided seven years ago involving federal money to fight AIDS around the world. The justices are taking up the Trump administration’s appeal to force the foreign affiliates of U.S.-based health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition of receiving taxpayer money. As they did Monday, the justices and two lawyers representing the administration and the organizations will meet by telephone, with live audio available to the public. The court scheduled the arguments by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic. (Sherman and Gresko, 5/5)

Stat: Prosthetic Arm Enables Patients To Feel The Objects They Grip 
When electrician Rickard Normark lost his left arm after being electrocuted at work in 2011, he thought he had no other option than to endure the pain and discomfort of a conventional prosthesis. It would often slip off during his daily activities, and he scratched the irritated skin under the socket so much with his healthy hand that it began to lose sensation. Then three years ago, Normark received a new kind of brain-controlled prosthetic that was surgically attached to the bone, muscles, and nerves of his upper arm, allowing him to not only grip objects intuitively with his hand but feel the sensation of touching them. “You cannot even compare how things have changed for me,” Normark, 47, told STAT from his home in Sweden. (Zia, 4/30)

Bangor Daily News: With An Intellectual Disability, She Faced Months In Jail. How A Maine Court Created A New Path Out. 
Two jurisdictions in Maine — Cumberland County and Kennebec County, where Thibodeau’s case was resolved in February — have created streamlined processes to handle cases like hers to minimize the amount of time severely ill defendants spend in jail and to try to ensure they do not return. (Ferguson, 5/5)

Bangor Daily News: 1 Mainer Chose ‘Death With Dignity’ In New Law’s First 3 Months
A longtime Maine resident with prostate cancer was the only person to end their life using the state’s new death with dignity law last year, according to a new report. The death with dignity law, which allows terminally ill patients to end their own lives by requesting medication from a doctor, passed the Maine Legislature with close votes last year after previous unsuccessful attempts. It went into effect in September after Gov. Janet Mills signed it into law. (Andrews, 5/4)

Reuters: Global Coronavirus Deaths Exceed Quarter Of A Million: Reuters Tally
Global coronavirus deaths rose past a quarter of a million on Monday after infections topped 3.5 million, a Reuters tally of official government data showed, even as several countries began easing lockdowns designed to contain the pandemic. (Wardell and Issa, 5/4)

NPR: U.N. Warns Number Of People Starving To Death Could Double Amid Pandemic
The U.N.'s humanitarian chief has warned that without global cooperation and financial assistance, the number of people dying from hunger or hunger-related diseases could double this year due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. "The effect of that is going to be, for the first time in probably in 30 years, a big increase in the number of people in extreme poverty, people living on less than $2 a day," said Mark Lowcock, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. (Mai, 5/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Sweeps Across Brazil, A Land Ill-Equipped To Fight It
In the tiny, stifling home she shared with seven relatives in the Amazon, Maria Portelo de Lima began coughing, started feeling weaker and, over a week, got sicker and sicker. Her family tried to get the 61-year-old to a hospital in Manaus, a city of 2.2 million in the heart of the rainforest. They were told no ambulances were available or hospital beds free because of a flood of coronavirus patients. (Magalhaes and Sciaudone, 5/4)

The Washington Post: Want To Exercise In Spain? You Have To Wait For Your Shift.
For the first time in seven weeks, millions in Spain — one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus — ventured outdoors this weekend as the government gingerly eased Europe's strictest nationwide lockdown. But there were rules — and plenty of them. People were allowed outside to exercise — no lounging — only during specific times designated by age group, to keep crowds relatively thin and to protect seniors from possible exposure. (Rolfe, 5/4)

The New York Times: Hope And Worry Mingle As Countries Relax Coronavirus Lockdowns
Wearing a Plexiglas visor, large white mask and blue rubber gloves, Catia Gabrielli looked ready for whatever could come her way on Monday as Italy tentatively loosened some of its strictest lockdown provisions against the coronavirus. “I see a lot more movement,” Ms. Gabrielli, a bookstore owner, said in the historic center of Rome as she worried about the people around her, out taking walks without masks. “It’s a lot of people.” (Horowitz, 5/4)

Reuters: Masked And Standing Apart, The World Tiptoes Out Of Lockdown
Italy, among the world’s hardest-hit countries, allowed about 4.5 million people to return to work after nearly two months at home. Construction work can resume and relatives can reunite. “I woke up at 5:30 a.m., I was so excited,” said Maria Antonietta Galluzzo, a grandmother taking her three-year-old grandson for a walk in Rome’s Villa Borghese park, the first time they had seen each other in eight weeks. (Balmer and Heavey, 5/4)

Reuters: Israel Isolates Coronavirus Antibody In 'Significant Breakthrough': Minister
Israel has isolated a key coronavirus antibody at its main biological research laboratory, the Israeli defence minister said on Monday, calling the step a “significant breakthrough” toward a possible treatment for the COVID-19 pandemic. The “monoclonal neutralising antibody” developed at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) “can neutralise it (the disease-causing coronavirus) inside carriers’ bodies,” Defence Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement. (5/4)

The Associated Press: 4 New Cases In South Korea, China Show Work On Containment
China and South Korea, which had early, intense outbreaks of the coronavirus, together reported only four new infections Tuesday and were slowly resuming public events after months of containment efforts. Meanwhile, the U.S. was taking halting steps to lift some restrictions even as thousands of new cases continue to be reported each day. (Perry, 5/5)

The Associated Press: Virus Deaths Hit Hard In Spain’s Shrinking Rural Villages
When someone dies in tightly knit Duruelo de la Sierra, the whole community walks from the church service to the cemetery, accompanying the deceased to their final resting place. In times of pandemic, just a few relatives are allowed. “You are used to seeing a funeral with lots of people,” said Alberto Abad, a 54-year-old carpenter who’s also the mayor and sees the virus as tearing at his town’s social fabric. “It touches you because you know all the people who live here.” (Dana and Wilson, 5/5)

Los Angeles Times: Mexico's Fragile Health System Running Out Of Room For Coronavirus Patients
They waited for hours outside Las Américas hospital for word about their loved ones. Then the small group ran out of patience and stormed inside. Upon discovering bodies on gurneys packed into the pathology ward, they accused the staff of murder. “I unzipped the bag of my son to confirm that it was him,” María Dolores Castillo later told a television interviewer, describing how she touched his head. “My son was still warm!” (McDonnell and Sanchez, 5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: How The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Even Worse Than We Thought 
The evidence is mounting that many more Americans have died of coronavirus complications than we know. It’s the grimmest of many unknowns about the pandemic whose spread could accelerate again as the president and some state and local officials push to resume business as usual. (5/4)

CNN: No, The CDC Isn't Fiddling With The Coronavirus Death Numbers 
Over the weekend, a "fact" about the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention downgrading the number of dead to 37,000 went viral. "Did I read this wrong or did the CDC just revised the national COVID-19 deaths to 37,308?!?!" tweeted Tim Young, who identifies himself as an author, host and comedian on his Twitter bio. Soon, the idea was everywhere on the conservative side of the internet. The CDC was openly admitting that the number of dead from coronavirus was FAR less than the 67,000+ deaths commonly being reported by the media. (Chris Cillizza, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Targeted Lockdowns Are Better 
Americans are paying a fearsome price for the government’s strict lockdowns of American life and commerce, and now comes evidence that targeted lockdowns aimed at protecting those who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus would be better for public health and the economy. That conclusion comes in a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research by MIT economists Daron Acemoglu, Victor Chernozhukov, Iván Werning and Michael Whinston. The authors compared relative risks of infection, hospitalization and death for the young, the middle-aged and those over age 65. They then compared strict lockdowns that treat all age groups the same with a more targeted strategy that protects the old. (5/4)

The Washington Post: ‘Serology’ Is The New Coronavirus Buzzword. Here’s Why It Matters. 
“Serology” is the new buzzword in covid-19 epidemiology, for good reason. Widespread tests to determine whether people are “seropositive” — carrying antibodies indicating that they have been infected with the virus — are essential to understanding where we are in the pandemic. But in the rush to generate and interpret serologic data, it can be hard for anyone, including experts, to understand what serologic studies can and cannot teach us. Why are they so important, and what decisions will they inform? If carrying the covid-19 antibody confers immunity, then half to two-thirds of the population must be seropositive before we can expect to control the virus without social distancing, contact tracing or other special measures. (Mark Lipsitch, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Research Is Locked Down, Too
I lead clinical trials for medications to treat crippling disorders such as stroke and brain hemorrhages. During the past few months, every one of these studies has come to a grinding halt. The pandemic has thrown clinical trials, the lifeblood of new treatments, into disarray. The consequences will be significant. Some studies won’t be able to restart. Others will be delayed for years. By my rough estimate, as many as 200,000 clinical trials across the world may be affected. At Yale, where I run a research program in brain injury, some 500 research protocols have been placed on hold. (Kevin Sheth, 5/4)

The New York Times: Food Stamps Can Help Fight Hunger During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Americans are lined up dozens, hundreds and sometimes thousands deep at food pantries across the nation. One in every six Americans has lost their job in the pandemic, and the number will likely grow much larger before we start adding jobs again. Since March when business shutdowns began to prevent exposure to Covid-19, 1.9 million Texans have filed applications for benefits. That’s more than double all the claims submitted in the state in the entire year of 2019. In Iowa, more people filed for unemployment in March than in all of 2019. (Matt Russell, Robert Leonard and Beto O’Rourke, 5/4)

The Hill: Our Hospitals' Outsourced Janitors Make Us All Sicker 
All indications are that COVID-19 survives for days on hard surfaces and possibly even soft ones. So, once doctors and nurses undertake their heroic work to save a patient’s life, someone has to mop the floor and wipe the room down, not missing a single drawer handle, light switch, or doorknob. This responsibility falls to “environmental service” or EVS workers, the label that health care administrators apply to hospital cleaners. And, roughly one-quarter of EVS workers are employed not by the facilities in which they work, but by a contract cleaning agency. (Adam Seth Litwin, 5/4)

Boston Globe: Coronavirus Can Mean A Death Sentence To Prisoners 
Many judges, federal and state, and many prosecutors and governors, have recognized that this is a humanitarian crisis. To the others, the pain of the imprisoned, their blinding fear of the infected surface or the unmasked sneeze, is irrelevant. The habits of mass incarceration die hard. (Nancy Gertner, 5/4)

The New York Times: In The Coronavirus Crisis, True Leaders Stand Out
Leadership may be hard to define, but in times of crisis it is easy to identify. As the pandemic has spread fear, disease and death, national leaders across the globe have been severely tested. Some have fallen short, sometimes dismally, but there are also those leaders who have risen to the moment, demonstrating resolve, courage, empathy, respect for science and elemental decency, and thereby dulling the impact of the disease on their people. The master class on how to respond belongs to Jacinda Ardern, the 39-year-old prime minister of New Zealand. On March 21, when New Zealand still had only 52 confirmed cases, she told her fellow citizens what guidelines the government would follow in ramping up its response. Her message was clear: “These decisions will place the most significant restrictions on New Zealanders’ movements in modern history. But it is our best chance to slow the virus and to save lives.” And it was compassionate: “Please be strong, be kind and united against Covid-19.” (4/30)

The Washington Post: Trump Trots Out His Latest Pandemic Fall Guy: Anthony Fauci 
At President Trump’s campaign infomercial Fox News town hall Sunday night, in which he declared his superiority to all predecessors, Trump explained why he didn’t act sooner against the coronavirus. “Everybody, even Tony Fauci, was saying, ‘It’s going to pass, not going to be a big deal,’” Trump said, naming the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases along with Democrats to his list of those to blame for his own delayed response. And how does Dr. Fauci defend himself? Let’s ask him.“Mmmph. Mmmph! MMMPH!!!” Ah, of course. I had forgotten. Fauci, who in February said he’s never been “muzzled,” has been muzzled. (Dana Milbank, 5/4)

The New York Times: How Dr. Amy Acton Helped Save Ohioans From Coronavirus
The coronavirus has turned several public health officials and local leaders into bona fide celebrities, and perhaps no one is more compelling than the Ohio Health Department’s Dr. Amy Acton. She wasn’t just the brains behind the state’s early, aggressive coronavirus response; she was also its most effective messenger. In the video above, we deconstructed Dr. Acton’s daily briefings to find out why this previously unknown public health official now has her own Facebook fan club, T-shirts, chalk drawings and ’70s sitcom parodies. (Adam Westbrook and Sanya Dosani, 5/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Personal Responsibility And The Coronavirus 
When Jerome Adams, the African-American U.S. surgeon general, made an impassioned appeal to segments of the black community to take more responsibility for their actions as a means of reducing their risk, he was demeaned and attacked by the black elite race-grievance merchants. Nikole Hannah-Jones—coordinator of the New York Times’s “1619 Project,” which declares that all the current problems of blacks in America are part of the inevitable, irrevocable legacy of slavery—and a band of other opportunists took to the airwaves and social media to condemn Dr. Adams and anyone else who dared suggest the fate of black America could be altered by any force within its control. To assert that blacks have the power to affect their own destiny was deemed racist, heartless and outrageous. (Robert L. Woodson Sr., 5/4)

The New York Times: You Can Beat Coronavirus Quarantine Fatigue
There have always been those who wrongfully believe that Covid-19 is nothing more than a glorified flu, and that no restrictions were ever necessary to fight it. But as the coronavirus spreads and the crisis deepens, more people — even those who take the pandemic and the science about how it’s transmitted seriously — seem to be growing weary of social distancing guidelines. Quarantine fatigue — exhaustion and waning discipline surrounding the restrictions to daily life needed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — is entirely understandable. Staying home is stressful, boring and, for many, financially devastating. ...Unfortunate as it may be, we have to ignore the overly optimistic messages of politicians and fight the urge to return to socializing and normal life. (Syon Bhanot, 5/4)

The Washington Post: ‘Dying Of Whiteness’ During The Coronavirus Pandemic
In his book “Dying of Whiteness: How the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland,” Jonathan Metzl, the director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Medicine, Health and Society, put a human face on the opposition to many policies that would save lives and livelihoods. We talked all about it when I interviewed him back in January. I brought Metzl back because the novel coronavirus is amplifying his argument. “It was kind of a warning of the lengths to which white working class voters could either have underlying racism or be manipulated to vote in support of wealthy donors and corporations, but against their own lifespans,” Metzl told me in the latest episode of “Cape Up.” “And it’s just been on steroids since this pandemic started.” (Jonathan Capehart , 5/4)

Des Moines Register: Immigrants And Iowa: Honor Front-Line Workers By Helping Families Stay
We have been forced by COVID-19 to dramatically change everything, including our definition of who our heroes are. In addition to the armed services personnel and first responders, heroes now include front-line soldiers in this war against the “invisible enemy,” as President Donald Trump described COVID-19. Health care soldiers are applauded and honored every night at 7 p.m. in New York City and elsewhere.Here in Iowa, we have increased appreciation for those who take care of our parents and grandparents in our nursing homes — some of the hottest infection spots. The latest additions to the honorees are our meatpacking plant workers. We have come to a somewhat belated realization of how essential these workers are in those plants in Iowa — again, some of the worst-hit hot spots.Honor is rightly due to these new American heroes.But what if they are not Americans? In fact, many of these heroes are not Americans. (Ta-Yu Yang and Jeanne K. Johnson, 5/4)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Shouldn't Lower California Medical Standards 
In the midst of the coronavirus emergency, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers want California Gov. Gavin Newsom to use some of his extraordinary power to sweep away their liability for substandard care and bad decision-making. They claim to need broad immunity because the pandemic requires them to divvy up limited lifesaving equipment and care. If they are to save as many lives as possible, they argue, they need to know they will not be second-guessed by criminal and civil juries some years after their heat-of-the-moment decisions to prioritize the care and resources available — for example, by selecting which critically ill patients should get ventilators and which should not when there aren’t enough to go around. (5/4)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Leaders Must Prioritize Children In Upcoming Budget
Children depend upon elected officials more than adults do. While children may have parents who wish to advocate for them politically that advocacy is unorganized. In contrast, adults run or are stockholders in corporations and run or are members of trade associations that dominate politics. Simply put, Newsom and the Legislature must cut programs aimed at adults before cutting programs aimed at still-growing children. Such programs include those that keep families — and hence children — out of poverty. (Robert Fellmeth and Jessica Heldman, 5/4)