Stat: New Report Says Covid-19 Pandemic Has Caused Historic Setbacks In Global Health
A new report paints a bleak picture of the far-ranging impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a major backsliding in the percentage of children around the world getting essential vaccinations, food insecurity on the rise, and a sharp increase in the number of people living in extreme poverty. The first six months of the pandemic saw the number of people living in extreme poverty around the globe rise by 7%, after declining year after year for the past two decades. (Branswell, 9/14)

Politico: 25 Years Wiped Out In 25 Weeks: Pandemic Sets The World Back Decades 
Vaccination coverage, seen as a good indicator for how health systems are functioning, is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s, it says. “In other words, we’ve been set back about 25 years in about 25 weeks,” the report says. “What the world does in the next months matters a great deal." Global action to stop the pandemic would prevent illness and deaths caused by Covid-19, but there's more at stake: The crisis sets back strides made in global poverty, HIV transmission, malnutrition, gender equality, education and many more areas. Even if the world manages to get the coronavirus under control soon, it could take years to claw back lost progress. (Paun, 9/14)

The New York Times: Gates Offers Grim Global Health Report, And Some Optimism
The assessment comes as the United States, stung harder by the virus than any other country, is retreating from the global health stage and seems focused primarily on saving itself. Could it ever return to its role as the world’s leader in both competence and generosity? In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Gates devoted a half-hour to explaining why he was optimistic that it would. “It’s my disposition,” he said. “Plus, I’ve got to call these people up and make the pitch to them that this really makes sense — and I totally, totally believe it makes sense.” (McNeil Jr., 9/14)

Stat: Bill Gates Slams 'Shocking' U.S. Response To Covid-19 Pandemic
In an interview with STAT, Gates sounded exasperated at times as he described the badly bungled launch of Covid-19 testing, the enlisting of a neuroradiologist — rather than an epidemiologist or infectious diseases specialist — to help guide the White House’s response decisions, and the recent move to discourage testing of people who have been in contact with a known case but who aren’t yet showing symptoms. “You know, this has been a mismanaged situation every step of the way,” Gates said in the wide-ranging interview. “It’s shocking. It’s unbelievable — the fact that we would be among the worst in the world.” (Branswell, 9/14)

Also —

CNBC: Bill Gates Doesn't Expect A Coronavirus Vaccine Before Year-End
Bill Gates doesn’t believe any of the coronavirus vaccines currently in development are likely to seek U.S. approval before the end of October — something that would be bad news for President Donald Trump, who has hinted at a viable vaccine to counter the pandemic before the country’s November 4 election. “None of the vaccines are likely to seek approval in the U.S. before the end of October,” the billionaire Microsoft-founder-turned-philanthropist told CNBC via video conference last week.  (Turak, 9/15)

CNBC: Bill Gates: 'Next Big Question' Is How To Distribute Coronavirus Vaccines
Bill Gates expressed confidence that a coronavirus vaccine will be available by 2021. But he remains concerned that doses won’t be made available to lower-income groups, particularly in less developed countries. On a conference call, Gates told reporters that the “next big question” his foundation is thinking through is how to manufacture and distribute the vaccines to those most in need. “It shouldn’t just be the rich countries winning a bidding war,” he said. “Misallocating the vaccine would cause dramatic additional deaths.” (Higgins-Dunn and Farr, 9/14)

The New York Times: Trump Health Aide Pushes Bizarre Conspiracies And Warns Of Armed Revolt 
The top communications official at the powerful cabinet department in charge of combating the coronavirus made outlandish and false accusations on Sunday that career government scientists were engaging in “sedition” in their handling of the pandemic and that left-wing hit squads were preparing for armed insurrection after the election. Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of harboring a “resistance unit” determined to undermine President Trump, even if that opposition bolsters the Covid-19 death toll. (LaFraniere, 9/14)

CNN: Top HHS Spokesman Runs Through Conspiracies In Video And Claims Without Evidence CDC Scientists Are Working To Resist Trump 
Michael Caputo, a fierce defender of Trump who was appointed to the agency earlier this year by the President, made the accusations during a live video hosted on his personal Facebook page, which -- along with his Twitter account -- was deactivated at some point following the Sunday diatribe. Caputo confirmed the comments he made during the video, which were first reported by The New York Times, to CNN on Monday. (Cole and Acosta, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Michael Caputo Warns Trump Supporters Of ‘Armed Insurrection’ After Election 
Caputo is viewed as a Trump loyalist, but several White House officials said his behavior has been erratic and some of his ideas have been regarded as extreme. ... “I don’t like being alone in Washington,” Caputo said in the video, describing “shadows on the ceiling in my apartment, there alone, shadows are so long.” (Abutaleb, Sun, Dawsey and Helderman, ,9/14)

Another Trump aide's agency leadership raises public health concerns —

Stat: Top Health Official Echoes Trump’s Covid-19 Views, Drawing Accusations Of Politicizing U.S. Mental Health Agency
Reopen the schools, diminish the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic, and the economy comes first. President Trump and White House aides have been pushing these views for months. Now a top public health official is joining the chorus. In a new podcast, and in other public statements, the head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) strongly echoes the president’s talking points on reopening schools and businesses, angering current and former agency officials who say she is politicizing the office and reinforcing administration arguments about Covid-19 that aren’t supported by sound scientific evidence. (Insinger, 9/15)

Politico: Democrats Launch Probe Into Trump Officials' Covid-Report Tampering 
House Democrats are launching an investigation into how Trump appointees have pressured officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change or delay scientific reports on coronavirus, citing POLITICO reporting that found political interference in the publishing process. "During the pandemic, experts have relied on these reports to determine how the virus spreads and who is at greatest risk," Rep. Jim Clyburn, chair of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and his Democratic colleagues write in a letter shared first with POLITICO. "Yet HHS officials apparently viewed these scientific reports as opportunities for political manipulation." (Diamond, 9/14)

The Hill: House Democrats Launch Investigation Of Political Interference In CDC Science Publications 
The lawmakers said they are investigating the scope of political interference with the CDC’s scientific reports and other efforts to combat the pandemic, the impact of the interference on the CDC’s mission, whether the interference is continuing and any "steps that Congress may need to take to stop it before more Americans die needlessly." "Political appointees’ attempts to interfere with CDC’s scientific reports, or MMWRs, risk undermining the scientific integrity of these reports and of the CDC itself," the Democrats wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield. (Weixel, 9/14)

Politico: White House Blocks Navarro From Testifying To House Panel About Ventilator Deal
The White House has blocked trade adviser Peter Navarro from testifying at a House oversight hearing Wednesday about a partially canceled Defense Production Act contract to manufacture ventilators. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who heads the Oversight Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee, issued a staff report in late July that argued the administration vastly overpaid Philips Respironics, agreeing to a $646.7 million deal without even trying to negotiate a lower price. (Lim, 9/14)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: In Exclusive Interview, Trump Slams Sisolak, Defends Indoor Rally
President Donald Trump told the Review-Journal in an exclusive interview Sunday that he did not believe he was subject to Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s order limiting gatherings to 50 people when when he addressed a crowd of thousands at an indoor rally in Henderson. (Saunders, 9/14)

The New York Times: Trump Defends Indoor Rally Amid Covid, But Aides Express Concern 
President Trump and his campaign are defending his right to rally indoors, despite the private unease of aides who called it a game of political Russian roulette and growing concern that such gatherings could prolong the coronavirus pandemic. “I’m on a stage, and it’s very far away,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday, after thousands of his supporters gathered on Sunday night inside a manufacturing plant in a Las Vegas suburb, flouting a state directive limiting indoor gatherings to fewer than 50 people. (9/14)

The Hill: Indoor Trump Nevada Rally Site Fined $3,000 For Violating State Ban On Large Gatherings 
The host of President Trump's indoor campaign rally in Nevada on Sunday has been fined $3,000 for defying state guidelines that prohibit large gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. CNN reports that Xtreme Manufacturing, which allowed the Trump campaign to use one of its facilities, is accused of six coronavirus violations and has been issued a penalty. (Seipel, 9/14)

Fallout continues from Bob Woodward's new book —

NBC News: Woodward: 'The President Of The United States Possessed The Specific Knowledge That Could Have Saved Lives'
Journalist Bob Woodward said Monday that he was shocked when he learned that President Donald Trump "possessed the specific knowledge that could have saved lives" in January. In an interview with Savannah Guthrie on NBC's "TODAY" show, Woodward said he found out about a briefing the president had received from his national security advisers on Jan. 28 about the pandemic's coming to the United States and that, only a few days later, on Feb. 4, Trump didn't share the information in his State of the Union address, which 40 million people watched. (Shabad, 9/14)

The Hill: Woodward: Restricting Travel From China Wasn't Trump's Idea 
Journalist Bob Woodward said early Monday that restricting travel from China in response to the coronavirus pandemic was not President Trump’s idea. Host Savannah Guthrie noted on NBC's "Today" that Woodward’s book “Rage” claims that Trump implemented the restrictions on the advice of his administration’s health experts, including Anthony Fauci, after a Jan. 28 meeting. (Budryk, 9/14)

In other news from the Trump administration —

The Hill: Trump Administration Seeks To Extend Mexico City Policy On Abortion 
The Trump administration is looking to expand a ban on global health aid for foreign organizations that provide or promote abortions. The proposed change from the State Department would require that foreign groups receiving global health aid through contracts from the U.S. government agree to not provide or promote abortions — even with funding from other sources. (Hellmann, 9/14)

USA Today: Trump Administration Has Not Paid USPS For COVID-19 Postcards Featuring Trump's Name
The Trump administration has not yet repaid the United States Postal Service more than six months after the agency sent out COVID-19 guidelines on postcards prominently featuring the president’s name. USA TODAY reported earlier this year the total cost of printing and mailing the postcards was $28 million, with a total printing cost of $4.6 million, and the Trump administration was negotiating the reimbursement with the Postal Service for the cost.But the bill for the postcards sent to 138 million residential addresses has still not been paid. (Wu, 9/14)

ProPublica: Emails Show The Meatpacking Industry Drafted An Executive Order To Keep Plants Open 
In late April, as COVID-19 raced through meatpacking plants sickening and killing workers, President Donald Trump issued a controversial executive order aimed at keeping the plants open to supply food to American consumers. It was a relief for the nation’s meatpackers who were being urged, or ordered, to suspend production by local health officials worried about the spread of the coronavirus. But emails obtained by ProPublica show that the meat industry may have had a hand in its own White House rescue: Just a week before the order was issued, the meat industry’s trade group drafted an executive order that bears striking similarities to the one the president signed. (Grabell and Yeung, 9/14)

USA Today: COVID-19: Meat Plants Sought Feds' Protection From Local Health Depts.
Adam Pulver, a Public Citizen attorney, said the “degree of collaboration” between Trump administration officials and industry in the emails is “astounding.” “As outbreaks continue to emerge in meatpacking plants, it is stunning to see the cavalier attitude officials took to the health and safety of workers in the early part of the pandemic,” he said. Julie Ann Potts, the president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute, said her group and many other trade organizations “routinely suggest legislative language.” (Chadde, Bagenstose and Axon, 9/14)

Politico: Frustrated Lawmakers Draft Their Own Pandemic Aid Package 
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Tuesday will put forward their own plan to deliver badly needed coronavirus relief amid a bitter stalemate between their party leaders. The House Problem Solvers Caucus has assembled a roughly $2 trillion plan that includes a second round of stimulus checks, unemployment aid and small business loans that they say would last through at least next spring. Lawmakers involved described it as a final attempt to pry loose some kind of bipartisan relief deal before Congress leaves Washington for the election season, with the U.S. economy sputtering and millions still out of work. (Ferris, 9/15)

The New York Times: Amid Stimulus Impasse, Bipartisan Group Offers $1.5 Trillion Compromise
But the bulk of its proposed spending would fall somewhere in the middle of what the two parties have championed. The measure would reinstate lapsed federal jobless aid at $450 per week for eight weeks, then replace up to $600 weekly in lost wages for an additional five weeks. That is more than Republicans wanted, but less than the flat, $600-a-week benefit that lapsed at the end of July, which Democrats have insisted must be extended in full. And the proposal would send $500 billion to strapped state and local governments, less than the nearly $1 trillion Democrats included in their $3.4 trillion stimulus plan that passed the House in May, but roughly double what the White House has signaled it could support. (Fandos and Cochrane, 9/15)

The Wall Street Journal: Some Democrats Press For Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Before Election Day
There is no vote on coronavirus-related aid scheduled for the House’s current three-week session. Anxious Democratic lawmakers, including incumbents defending competitive seats, want negotiators to return to the table to strike a deal before Congress takes a monthlong break for campaigning. “We’ve got to get something across the finish line now,” said Rep. Kendra Horn, an Oklahoma Democrat who represents a district President Trump won in 2016. This back-and-forth, us-versus-them, tit-for-tat, it doesn’t help my community, it doesn’t help people in my district who need it.” (Andrews and Peterson, 9/15)

Vox: Congress’s Failure To Pass Stimulus Hurts Unemployed Black Americans And People Of Color
With white unemployment in single digits, minority unemployment in double digits, and policymakers cutting federal unemployment insurance by triple digits, the country finds itself in a situation similar to the one it faced during the Great Recession. Now, just as then, minorities are bearing the brunt of the recession. Now, just as then, policymakers are failing to account for that fact — and in doing so, are threatening to reinforce the United States’ long-simmering racial inequalities. The national unemployment rate fell to single digits in August, at 8.4 percent. However, that number conceals America’s racially stratified economy. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while white unemployment fell to 7.3 percent in August, the Black unemployment rate was at 13.0 percent, the Hispanic rate at 10.5 percent, and the rate for Asian Americans was 10.7 percent. (Ross Coleman, 9/14)

In other legislative news —

NPR: 'So Skeptical': As Election Nears, Iowa Senator Under Pressure For COVID-19 Remarks
On Labor Day weekend, a parade of tractors brandishing Trump flags rolled down Highway 30 through the northwest Iowa town of Denison.Farmer Leon Venteicher, a Trump enthusiast who receives chemotherapy to treat his cancer, pulled off the road when he and his wife noticed the parade. "We are very cautious," he said. "We wear our masks if we can't control the crowd." (9/13)

The Hill: Democratic Senate Candidate 'Hesitant' To Get COVID-19 Vaccine If Approved This Year 
Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham said on Monday night that he would be "hesitant" to get a coronavirus vaccine if it is approved by the end of the year, raising concerns about potential political interference with the approval process. "Yes, I would be hesitant, but I'm going to ask a lot of questions. I think that is incumbent on all of us right now, in this environment, with the way we've seen politics intervening in Washington," Cunningham said during a debate against Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). (Carney, 9/14)

AP: Texas Rep. Ron Wright Hospitalized Due To Cancer Treatment
U.S. Rep. Ron Wright of Texas was admitted to a Dallas hospital due to complications surrounding his cancer treatment, his campaign said Monday. Wright, a 67-year-old Republican, was elected in 2018 to Texas’ 6th congressional district in Arlington. His campaign said in a statement that Wright has “been in a tough battle with cancer this year” and was admitted to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland for treatment earlier this month before returning home. (9/14)

Politico: States Plow Forward With Pot, With Or Without Congress
Roughly 1 in 3 Americans could have access to legal recreational marijuana if voters approve state ballot initiatives this November. While a planned House vote on legalizing weed at the federal level is scheduled for later this month, the real action remains in the states. That’s because even if the House measure passes, there’s zero chance the Republican-controlled Senate will take up the bill, which would eliminate federal criminal penalties and erase some past marijuana convictions. (Demko, Zhang and Fertig, 9/13)

AP: Choking Air From Western Fires Just Won't Ease Up
Relief from putrid, dangerous air spewing from massive wildfires across the West won’t come until later in the week or beyond, scientists and forecasters say, and the hazy and gunk-filled skies might stick around for even longer. People in Oregon, Washington and parts of California were struggling under acrid yellowish-green smog — the worst, most unhealthy air on the planet according to some measurements. It seeped into homes and businesses, sneaked into cars through air conditioning vents and caused the closure of iconic locations such as Powell’s Books and the Oregon Zoo in Portland, the state’s biggest city. (Cline and Flaccus, 9/15)

The Washington Post: Oregon’s Wildfires Smother Portland Residents In Smoke 
It’s been a week since Deborah Stratton breathed clean air. The 54-year-old and her friend evacuated their homes in Estacada, Ore., last week as flames approached. They spent days sleeping in their cars in a Walmart parking lot, using their last $12 on showers at a truck stop. Finally, they found their way here, to a shopping mall about 20 miles away from their town, in a parking lot where a Red Cross volunteer began pitching them a tent. (Schmidt, 9/14)

ABC News: Twin Disasters: How The West Coast Fires Might Impact The COVID-19 Pandemic 
As the California wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic rage on in tandem, they may pose a serious double threat. "Now we're battling two public health crises," Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., a pulmonologist at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and volunteer medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association, told ABC News. (Croll, 9/15)

Also —

KQED: It Was Already Hard, Then It Got Worse: Resources For Coping Right Now
It's been a week. A month. A year. Even before wildfires devastated large parts of our state, we were dealing with a lot. Most notably, a pandemic that continues to kill and sicken thousands nationwide, and that's turned our lives upside down. And now? We get blistering heat, followed by terrifyingly dark, smoky skies and dangerously unhealthy air that's stopping us all from being in the one place that reduces our risk of transmitting COVID-19: Outside. (Severn, 9/11)

The Washington Post: Medicaid Rolls Swell Amid The Pandemic’s Historic Job Losses, Straining State Budgets
The unlikely portrait of Medicaid in the time of coronavirus looks like Jonathan Chapin, living with his wife and 11-year-old daughter in a gated community in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Chapin had a thriving Reno, Nev., production company, We Ain’t Saints, booking bands, managing weddings, hosting 600-strong karaoke nights at the Tahoe Biltmore Lodge & Casino. When the novel coronavirus came, forcing northern Nevada’s entertainment industry to go dark, he said, “everything I knew all disappeared.” (Goldstein, 9/14)

In other Medicaid news —

Modern Healthcare: CMS Kills Proposed MFAR Rule
CMS is withdrawing its much-maligned Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a tweet Monday. The proposed rule was opposed by a wide range of stakeholders, including providers, state regulators and governors, patient advocacy groups and members of Congress because it would have ramped up federal oversight of how states fund their Medicaid programs and possibly led to significant funding cuts. (Brady, 9/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: CMS Scraps Medicaid Fiscal Responsibility Rule
CMS has withdrawn its proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule, Administrator Seema Verma tweeted Sept. 14. CMS issued the proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule last November. The rule aimed to promote transparency and fiscal integrity by establishing new reporting requirements for state supplemental payments to Medicaid providers. In mid-August, some hospital associations called on CMS to withdraw the rule, arguing that it could exacerbate the challenges hospitals are facing in the U.S. (Paavola, 9/14)

The Hill: Trump Administration Backing Off Medicaid Rule That States Warned Would Lead To Cuts 
The Trump administration will not move forward with a proposed Medicaid rule that states, hospitals, insurers, patient advocates and members of both political parties warned could lead to massive cuts to the federal health care program for the poor. “The proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule (MFAR) was designed to increase transparency in Medicaid financing and ensure that taxpayer resources support the health care needs of our beneficiaries,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement Monday. (Hellmann, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Developing Quality Measures For Skilled-Nursing Facility-Acquired Infections
CMS on Monday opened public comment on a new measure that could be added to its Skilled Nursing Facility Quality Reporting Program this year. The program publicly reports quality measures on Nursing Home Compare. The new measure evaluates healthcare-associated infections that require hospitalization among residents in skilled-nursing facilities. The public comment period runs through Oct. 14. (Christ, 9/14)

In other updates on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services —

Modern Healthcare: IHI Releases National Action Plan On Patient Safety
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement along with nearly 30 federal and private stakeholders on Monday released a comprehensive plan for the industry to improve patient safety. The 41-page plan is part of the ongoing work by IHI's National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, which was formed in May 2018 over concerns that progress on patient safety has slowed in recent years due to a siloed approach and renewed attention on a national scale was needed. The committee involves 27 organizations including CMS, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Joint Commission, which collaborated over 18 months to assemble the plan. (Castellucci, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Proposes Full Phase-In Of Encounter Data Use For Medicare Advantage Payments
CMS on Monday pitched changes to Medicare Advantage payments for 2022 that would complete a multiyear phase-in of a new payment methodology in which plan payments are adjusted using diagnoses solely from encounter data, which is information created by healthcare providers about patients' medical conditions and treatment. In 2022, the agency wants to fully transition to a risk adjustment model first adopted for 2020, as required by the 21st Century Cures Act. (Livingston, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: Hackensack Meridian, Horizon Blue Cross And Blue Shield Launch N.J. Medicare Advantage Plan
Hackensack Meridian Health is launching a Medicare Advantage plan with Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey, and the partners hope to get RWJBarnabas Health on board, too. They'll offer the plan, called Braven Health, across eight New Jersey counties. The plan will use Horizon's existing Medicare Advantage network of physicians and hospitals and members choosing a PPO plan will have access to the Blues' national Medicare Advantage PPO network whenever outside of New Jersey. (Bannow, 9/14)

AP: Anti-Inflammatory Drug May Shorten COVID-19 Recovery Time
A drug company says that adding an anti-inflammatory medicine to a drug already widely used for hospitalized COVID-19 patients shortens their time to recovery by an additional day. Eli Lilly announced the results Monday from a 1,000-person study sponsored by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The study tested baricitinib, a pill that Indianapolis-based Lilly already sells as Olumiant to treat rheumatoid arthritis. (Marchione, 9/14)

The Hill: Drugmaker Says Anti-Inflamatory Medicine May Shorten COVID-19 Recovery Time 
The use of Baricitinib, a rheumatoid arthritis drug from Eli Lilly, led to a one-day reduction in recovery time for patients when combined with Remdesivir compared to patients who only took Remdesivir, according to a trial. The finding was statistically significant, Eli Lilly said in a statement. The company did not release the full results of the study but stated the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is expected to publish full results in peer-review studies and that additional analyses are ongoing to understand clinical outcome data, including safety and morbidity data. (9/14)

In other scientific developments —

Fox News: University Of Pittsburgh Scientists Discover Antibody That 'neutralizes' Virus That Causes Coronavirus
Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have isolated “the smallest biological molecule” that “completely and specifically neutralizes” SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the novel coronavirus. The antibody component is 10 times smaller than a full-sized antibody, and has been used to create the drug Ab8, shared in the report published by the researchers in the journal Cell on Monday. The drug is seen as a potential preventative against SARS-CoV-2. (Deabler, 9/14)

Fox News: Coronavirus Can 'Hijack' Brain Cells To Replicate Itself, Yale Researchers Discover
The coronavirus can affect the brain and “hijack” brain cells to replicate itself, Yale University researchers have discovered. A new study from Yale University, on BioRXiv, which is awaiting peer review, found that the brain is another organ susceptible to an attack by the novel coronavirus. (McGorry, 9/14)

Stat: 23andMe Research Finds Possible Link Between Blood Type And Covid-19
A forthcoming study from genetic testing giant 23andMe shows that a person’s genetic code could be connected to how likely they are to catch Covid-19 — and how severely they could experience the disease if they catch it. It’s an important confirmation of earlier work on the subject. People whose blood group is O seemed to test positive for Covid-19 less often than expected when compared to people with any other blood group, according to 23andMe’s data; people who tested positive and had a specific variant of another gene also seemed to be more likely to have serious respiratory symptoms. (Sheridan, 9/14)

WBUR: General Public Won't Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Until Mid To Late 2021, Doctor Predicts
When a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, it's a complex process to distribute it and make it accessible to everyone who needs it. Distributing a vaccine will require scaling up manufacturing, logistically planning storage and prioritizing who gets it first, says Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. (Hobson and Hagan, 9/14)

CNN: Why A Covid-19 Vaccine Will Not Stop The Coronavirus Pandemic Right Away
"Having" a vaccine does not mean having a vaccine approved, distributed and into the arms of more than 300 million Americans. First, any vaccine must either be approved or authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration. That's a process that under normal circumstances can take months or years. While the FDA has promised a speedier process for a Covid-19 vaccine, it must still go through a committee known as the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, or VRBAC. (Fox, 9/15)

In other vaccine news —

NBC News: Poll: Majority Of Adults Don't Trust Trump's Comments On Covid-19 Vaccine
A majority of American adults don't trust what President Donald Trump has said about a coronavirus vaccine, according to new data from the NBC News|SurveyMonkey Weekly Tracking poll, as the share of people who say they would get a government-approved vaccine has decreased. Fifty-two percent of adults say they don't trust the president's vaccine comments, while just 26 percent say they do. Twenty percent say they are "not aware" whether they trust what the president has said about a vaccine. (Kamisar and Holzberg, 9/15)

Kaiser Health News: NIH ‘Very Concerned’ About Serious Side Effect In Coronavirus Vaccine Trial  
The Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to follow British regulators in resuming a coronavirus vaccine trial that was halted when a participant suffered spinal cord damage, even as the National Institutes of Health has launched an investigation of the case. “The highest levels of NIH are very concerned,” said Dr. Avindra Nath, intramural clinical director and a leader of viral research at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, an NIH division. “Everyone’s hopes are on a vaccine, and if you have a major complication the whole thing could get derailed.” (Allen and Szabo, 9/14)

In global vaccine news —

Reuters: China Coronavirus Vaccine May Be Ready For Public In November: Official
Coronavirus vaccines being developed in China may be ready for use by the general public as early as November, an official with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.China has four COVID-19 vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials. At least three of those have already been offered to essential workers under an emergency use programme launched in July. (9/14)

Nature: Researchers Highlight ‘Questionable’ Data In Russian Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Results
A group of researchers have expressed concern about repetitive patterns of data in a paper describing early-phase clinical trials of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine — the first jab worldwide to be approved for widespread use. In an open letter in The Lancet, which published the trial results1 this month, the researchers highlight values that seem to be duplicated, and warn that the paper presents its results only as box plots without providing a detailed breakdown of the data on which they are based. “While the research described in this study is potentially significant, the presentation of the data raises several concerns which require access to the original data to fully investigate”, the letter says. It has so far been signed by 38 scientists. (Abbott, 9/15)

AP: UK Tests If COVID-19 Vaccines Might Work Better Inhaled
British scientists are beginning a small study comparing how two experimental coronavirus vaccines might work when they are inhaled by people instead of being injected. In a statement on Monday, researchers at Imperial College London and Oxford University said a trial involving 30 people would test vaccines developed by both institutions when participants inhale the droplets in their mouths, which would directly target their respiratory systems. (9/14)

ABC News: 800 Chicago Nurses Strike For Safer Working Conditions 
At least 800 Chicago nurses and several hundred health care workers went on strike Monday, calling for safer working conditions and fair pay. "Nurses across the country are at the tipping point," said Doris Carroll, who has worked as a nurse at University of Illinois Health for more than three decades and is president of the Illinois Nurses Association board, the nurses' union. She said chronic staffing shortages were a problem even before COVID-19; now things have gotten even worse. "When the pandemic hit, it was awful," she said. (Schumaker, 9/14)

Chicago Tribune: More Than 800 Nurses At University Of Illinois Hospital Go On Strike; Hospital Put On Ambulance Bypass 
The strike was supposed to include about 1,300 nurses, but a Cook County judge ruled Friday that 525 nurses who work in critical care units couldn’t participate because it would endanger patients' safety. The University of Illinois Board of Trustees had sued to keep many of the nurses from striking. The union has said the strike could last seven days. No further negotiating sessions were scheduled for this weekend, as of Saturday. (Schencker, 9/13)

ABC7 Chicago: Replacement Nurses To Be Transferred In After More Than 800 Nurses Strike At University Of Illinois Hospital In Chicago 
Striking nurses at University of Illinois Hospitals say they are being replaced by nurses the hospital is shipping in from COVID-19 hot spots. ... The union also claimed Saturday that UIC is looking to bring in strikebreakers. "UIC is bringing in workers from states with higher COVID-19 transmission rates to break a strike from a workforce complaining that management risks worker and patient lives due to inconsistent COVID-19 safety protocol enforcement, " said Dian Palmer, SEIU Local 73 President. "We want to come to an agreement that is fair and just for UIC workers, but we're also ready to strike. UIC workers are not only fighting for their livelihoods, but for their lives, the safety of their families, and the communities being served." (Kirsch, 9/13)

Also —

PBS NewsHour: The Quest For Cleaner Hospital Air
The coronavirus pandemic has challenged the way hospitals think about the design of their facilities, changing how doctors and nurses move through the hallways and rearranging patients’ beds. (Booker and Rothman, 9/13)

AP: Longtime North Platte Doctor Dies From COVID-19
A longtime North Platte doctor is one of the latest COVID-19 casualties in the state, with his death coming as officials confirmed more than 38,000 cases of the virus in Nebraska. Dr. Leland Lamberty died Saturday after weeks of fighting the virus, the North Platte Telegraph reported. Lamberty was hospitalized in late August with the virus and was put on a ventilator about a week before his death. Lamberty was a physician at Great Plains Health hospital and Great Plains Family Medicine clinic in North Platte. (9/14)

And more health workers are targeted —

AP: Ex-Omaha Weatherman Accused Of Targeting Health Director
A former Omaha TV weatherman and spokesman for a former mayor has taken a plea deal months after being accused of emailing death threats to a local health department director over her handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Ronald Penzkowski, 57, pleaded no contest Friday to two misdemeanor counts of third-degree assault, the Omaha World-Herald reported Monday. He initially had been charged with a felony count of making terroristic threats. (9/14)

The Washington Post: Around The World, Health Officials Face Death Threats Amid Pandemic
A top Australian public health officer has become the latest in a string of health officials around the world to face death threats over their responses to the coronavirus pandemic. Jeannette Young, the chief health officer in the Australian state of Queensland, said the threats have taken an “enormous toll” on her, the Australian newspaper reported Monday. A police detail has been stationed outside her house. (Noack and Mellen, 9/14)

Becker's Hospital Review: Nearly 40% Of Americans Know A Coronavirus Patient Who Was Hospitalized Or Died
Four in ten Americans say they know someone who has been hospitalized or died after contracting COVID-19, a new poll shows. The survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center in August. The survey includes responses from 13,200 Americans. Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they know someone who has been hospitalized or died as a result of having COVID-19, up from 20 percent who said the same in a Pew Research Center conducted in late April and early May. (Vaidya, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: A New Prescription: A Dose Of Live Music For Hospital Patients
When Nancy Storino was at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for a week following a stroke, she didn’t expect the best medicine to be the strains of a viola. But over the course of several days the 72-year-old found herself listening to a violist play songs from her favorite artists. Sometimes she sang along. Other times she fell asleep. “It was very soothing,” says Ms. Storino, who is now back home in Lansing, Ill. “It helped with the pain, it relaxed me and put me to sleep. I really, really enjoyed it. It’s very comforting for people when they’re sick.” (Reddy, 9/14)

Crain's Chicago Business: Why Hospitals Don't Treat Everyone Equally
Uninsured and underinsured patients like [J.R.] Rivera often get turned away when they seek nonemergency treatment at leading hospitals. The unequal treatment is rooted in a financial model that favors patients with well-paying private coverage. As a result, low-income patients—many of whom are minorities—find themselves excluded from many of the area's top hospitals. (Goldberg, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: Cutting Exposure To COVID-19 In EDs Using On-Site Telehealth
Telehealth has been gaining ground as a breakout star of the COVID-19 pandemic. But while much of the recent attention has focused on using it to treat patients at home, the practice has also been vital to keeping clinical staff members safer as providers revamp emergency departments to curb the risk of infection. Telehealth played a major role when Renown Health set up a medical tent during the early days of the pandemic to expand its ED’s triage capacity for patients with COVID-19 symptoms. (Cohen, 9/12)

In biotech news —

Modern Healthcare: Fitbit's Atrial Fibrillation App Gets FDA Approval
An app in Fitbit's latest smartwatch has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to detect atrial fibrillation, the wearables company said Monday. The FDA granted the electrocardiogram app in Fitbit's Sense smartwatch, which the company launched last month, 510(k) clearance for its ability to take a point-in-time reading of the wearer's heart rhythm, which the app analyzes for signs of an irregularity known as atrial fibrillation. The smartwatch retails for $329.95. (Cohen, 9/14)

WBUR: Biogen Puts $250 Million Toward Goal Of Going Fossil Fuel-Free By 2040 
Cambridge-based Biogen is launching a $250 million initiative to eliminate fossil fuels from its global operations by 2040. The multi-national biotech company will also invest in research to study air pollutants produced from the burning of oil, gas and coal. (Gellerman, 9/14)

Stat: AI Could Help Rid Health Care Of Biases. It Also Might Make Them Worse
Hospitals and health care companies are increasingly tapping experimental artificial intelligence tools to improve medical care or make it more cost-effective. At best, that technology has the potential to make it easier to detect and diagnose diseases, streamline care, and even eliminate some forms of bias in the health care system. But if it’s not designed and deployed carefully, AI could also perpetuate existing biases or even exacerbate their impact. (9/15)

Modern Healthcare: Kaiser First Health System To Become Carbon Neutral
Eight years after making its first pledge to reduce its carbon footprint, Kaiser Permanente has achieved the landmark of becoming the nation's first health system to become carbon neutral. The health system on Monday announced it gained carbon-neutral status certification by the CarbonNeutral Protocol, an international recognition by global consulting firm Natural Capital Partners. (Johnson, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: Labs Struggling To Comply With UnitedHealthcare Test Registry Requirements
New billing rules from UnitedHealthcare have the lab industry concerned about additional administrative burdens and the potential for an increase in denials from the nation's largest health insurer. At the beginning of March, the payor began rolling out notices of its new test registry protocol, under which labs must register with UHC the tests they offer and include a unique test code for each test they bill the insurer in order to be reimbursed. (Bonislawski, 9/11)

In merger and financial news —

Modern Healthcare: Lifespan, Care New England Merger Raises Antitrust Concerns, M&A Experts Say
The revitalized merger between Lifespan and Care New England Health System will likely raise antitrust concerns, and executives will have to prove their combined market share across Rhode Island won't significantly harm competition and that service reduction or closure is otherwise imminent, hospital merger and acquisition experts said. (Kacik, 9/11)

Crain's Chicago Business: Northwestern Medicine, Palos Health Eye Merger
Northwestern Medicine and Palos Health are looking to merge, the systems said this morning. The two have signed a letter of intent for Palos to join Northwestern Medicine, subject to regulatory approval and both their boards approving a definitive agreement, according to a statement. (Goldberg, 9/11)

Modern Healthcare: Blues Plans Report Mixed Earnings Results Amid Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic treated the health insurance sector well in the first half of 2020. Many Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans were no exception. A Modern Healthcare examination of not-for-profit Blues companies revealed that a number of them saw a big jump in income as they benefited from the widespread deferral of expensive elective procedures, which resulted in fewer claims to pay. (Livingston, 9/12)

Modern Healthcare: Atlantic Health, CentraState Healthcare Expand Affiliation
Atlantic Health System aims to become the majority corporate member of CentraState Healthcare System, the not-for-profit New Jersey health systems announced Monday. Under the proposed deal outlined in the letter of intent, which would require state and federal approval, both systems would hold seats on a single CentraState governing board, each with specific rights and responsibilities, executives said. It would build on their clinical affiliation in oncology and neuroscience. (Kacik, 9/14)

CIDRAP: Amid Spotty Response, COVID Silently Stalked US For Weeks 
Two new studies involving evolutionary genomics, computer simulations, and travel records from the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that inadequate travel monitoring, contact tracing, and community surveillance allowed the novel coronavirus to spread unchecked to and throughout North America and Europe in late January or early February. The studies, published late last week in Science, traced the United States' COVID-19 outbreak to a traveler who flew from China to Seattle in late January or early February, seeding the nation's first outbreak, which then went undetected for 3 to 6 weeks. (Van Beusekom, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Test Maker Examines False-Positive Results In Nursing Homes 
Becton Dickinson & Co. is investigating reports from nursing homes that federally provided rapid coronavirus testing equipment from the company is producing false-positive results in some cases. So far, the number of reports is small, nursing-home industry officials said. The American Health Care Association, a trade group representing nursing homes, said it has heard from roughly a dozen facilities that had seen a significant number of false positives and a similar number with just one or two. (Wilde Mathews, 9/14)

Crain's Cleveland Business,: University Hospitals Expands COVID-19 Testing With Mobile Testing Center
University Hospitals has designed a fully mobile, self-contained COVID-19 testing center that is visiting underserved areas across Northeast Ohio, according to a news release. The mobile testing center, which the Cleveland-based health system says is the first in the state, aims to help address gaps in access to testing. Black and Hispanic communities see more COVID-19 cases and deaths and have less access to testing, according to the release, which notes that UH is currently evaluating communities to determine exact locations for mobile testing. The health system will work with community leaders to inform residents about upcoming visits. (Coutre, 9/14)

AP: What Are The Different Types Of Coronavirus Tests?
What are the different types of coronavirus tests?There are three broad categories of coronavirus tests in the U.S. Two diagnose whether you have an active infection, and a third indicates if you previously had the virus.Here’s how they work. (9/15)

In updates on COVID tracing —

AP: Chicago Starts Hiring Hundreds In $56M Contact Tracing Push
Chicago officials announced dozens of community organizations Monday that’ll help with the city’s effort to hire hundreds of contact tracers in the fight against COVID-19. Mayor Lori Lightfoot first announced the $56 million initiative in May, saying the positions would be filled in August. (9/14)

AP: Europe Tests Gateway For Tracing Apps To Work Across Borders
Six European Union countries and the bloc’s executive Commission have begun testing a virtual “gateway” to ensure national coronavirus tracing apps can work across borders. The trial starting Monday will allow national computer systems that run tracing apps in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Latvia to communicate with each other via a central hub. (9/14)

AP: Officials: 500,000 Counterfeit N95 Masks Seized In Chicago
About 500,000 counterfeit N95 respirator masks have been seized in Chicago by Customs and Border Protection officers, federal officials announced Monday. The shipment of masks from China was seized Sept. 10 at O’Hare International Airport, according to the federal agency. It said the masks were headed to a company in Manalapan, New Jersey. The masks are used to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. (9/14)

The New York Times: Do Masks Impede Children’s Development?
Nothing about masks and masking has come easily in the United States, it seems. There were mixed and confusing messages back at the beginning of the pandemic, then political discussion that got in the way of sane public health decision-making, as well as circulating disinformation, anger, and a certain amount of shaming and finger-pointing, by those who wanted masks and by those who didn’t. But evidence keeps accumulating that masks help keep us all safer. Now, with many families thinking about the specifics of children returning to at least some classroom instruction and to child care, pediatrician colleagues who are helping to set guidelines are getting questions from parents about whether masks — on the children or on their caregivers — may interfere with children’s development, including speech, language and social interactions. (Klass, 9/14)

AP: Michigan Launches $5M In Ads To Urge Masks To Fight Virus
Michigan on Monday launched a $5 million advertising campaign to urge people to wear a mask to fight the coronavirus, with a focus on appealing to those who believe the state’s requirement infringes on their rights. The “spread hope, not COVID” message includes three public service announcements. Two feature military members saying they wear a face covering to protect their freedom and the freedom of others, saying it can reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 by 70%. A sergeant shown in both ads puts on a mask showing the American flag. (Eggert, 9/14)

USA Today: Hundreds Of People Turned Out For An Anti-Mask Protest In Utah. It's Being Mocked As 'A Straight Parody' On Social Media.
A weeks-old anti-mask protest in Utah has become the source of online backlash after a TV news report detailing the rally went viral on social media. The protest, which drew hundreds to the Washington County School District building in St. George, was held Aug. 21 in opposition to a school mask mandate required statewide by Utah Gov. Gary Herbert. A protester at the march, per The Spectrum, part of the USA TODAY Network, said during a closing prayer that "safety is not as important as our freedom and liberty." (Bote and Will, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: NYC Teachers Union Says Buildings Aren’t Ready To Open Monday 
The head of New York City’s teachers union said he has grave concerns about whether the city’s K-12 schools will be ready to reopen on Sept. 21 as planned, citing a teacher shortage, concerns about safety, and a lack of clarity on how many students will be showing up on opening day. In a Monday briefing, United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said the union will make a decision in the coming days on whether teachers should plan to return to schools on Monday, so that “everyone will have enough time to adjust.” (Hawkins, 9/14)

The New York Times: Parties Delay The Start Of In-Person Classes At Some U.S. High Schools 
Several K-12 school districts in the U.S. Northeast have delayed the start of in-person classes in recent days after high school students attended large parties, leading to concern about increased spread of the virus. After several weeks of partying college students complicating their schools’ reopening plans, high school students are now creating the same disruptions, underscoring the yawning gap between policy and enforcement — and the limitations of any school to control the behavior of young people. (9/14)

Boston Globe: Teachers At High Risk For Coronavirus Still Don’t Know Whether They’ll Be Allowed To Work Remotely 
While most districts have given teachers an answer, scores of educators across the state are still in limbo, waiting to hear whether their own, or loved ones', preexisting health conditions qualify them to work remotely, adding mightily to the confusion of the most tumultuous back-to-school season in modern history. Without state guidance for how districts should handle this issue, teachers in different communities face a variety of responses — on a variety of timelines, according to Beth Kontos, president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts. Several have yet to finalize teachers' assignments, including Boston, Lowell, and others, Kontos said. (Martin, 9/14)

In other school and education news —

GMA: Free Lunch May Not Be Enough To Aid Hunger As Pandemic Impacts Food Security In US 
Back to school looks different in 2020 and as many students stay home for remote learning due to the pandemic, those who depend on free lunches are facing new challenges and disparities around food. The National School Lunch Program, managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), recently extended its flexible summer waiver program through the end of the year to help keep kids nourished. While the way meals are being prepared at school cafeterias, served, distributed and consumed will change, accessibility to those free lunches remains the driving force in keeping students fed. (9/14)

The Washington Post: Open-Air Schools: Before Coronavirus, Kids With Tuberculosis Learned Outside 
Nine schoolchildren sat at their desks wrapped in chunky layers of flannel, their feet resting on heated soapstones as the frigid New England air stung their faces. In January 1908, amid a tuberculosis epidemic, these Rhode Island students were part of a unique experiment to combat the infectious disease: America’s first open-air school. More than a century later, educators are touting outdoor classes as a way to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus among America’s schoolchildren. (Water, 9/14)

WBUR: At The University Of Missouri, Campus Anxieties Rise With Coronavirus Cases 
Students forced to quarantine due to a coronavirus outbreak at the University of Missouri say that school administrators have neglected them — and in some cases, forgot to bring them food. Boone County, Missouri, which is home to the university’s flagship campus in Columbia, has reported at least 1,194 student cases of COVID-19. And tensions between students and school administrators are rising along with the case count. (O'Dowd and Raphelson, 9/11)

The Hill: Michigan State Students To Quarantine Amid Coronavirus Outbreak 
Students at Michigan State University are being asked to quarantine within their student residences due to an "alarming" surge in coronavirus cases among the campus community and surrounding area, according to local health officials. A statement from Ingham County health officials on Saturday cited cases in 30 residences defined as "large" centers of student housing on and around the campus in an order requiring those affected to "quarantine immediately for the next two weeks." (Bowden, 9/14)

AP: MSU Frats, Sororities Ordered To Quarantine For 2 Weeks
A county on Monday ordered a two-week quarantine for 23 fraternities and sororities and seven large rental houses near Michigan State University following a coronavirus outbreak that a local health official said was turning into a “crisis.” The quarantine, which is mandatory, means students or others living in the buildings cannot leave except for medical care or necessities that cannot be delivered. The houses have known cases or exposure to COVID-19. (Eggert, 9/15)

AP: ASU President Alleges Some Bars Violating COVID-19 Protocols
Arizona State University President Michael Crow alleges several restaurant-bars near the school’s Tempe campus have violated the safety protocols businesses must abide by to operate amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arizona Republic reported Sunday that Crow sent a letter to Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ and the head of the state Department of Liquor Licenses and Control about the alleged violations by some Mill Avenue eating and drinking establishments. (9/13)

The Hill: LSU Says Students Who Get Tested For Coronavirus Have Priority For Football Tickets 
Officials at Louisiana State University (LSU) said Monday that students who get tested for COVID-19 will have priority for football tickets. An email to students first reported by The Advocate announced that students also would not be permitted to bring guests to games during the modified 2020 season. Students will have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to register for tickets, according to the email. (Bowden, 9/14)

The Washington Post: U-Md. Begins In-Person Classes As Virus Caseload Rises Among University Students 
The coronavirus caseload at two of the Washington region’s largest universities has jumped in recent days, while a small number of students at Maryland’s flagship university returned to the classroom Monday. Georgetown University reported about a dozen cases last week, according to the school’s virus dashboard. Just outside Washington, at the University of Maryland in College Park, officials were forging ahead with some in-person instruction — one of the few universities in the region to offer teaching on campus. (Lumpkin, 9/14)

The Hill: YouTube Stars' Account Demonetized After They Are Accused Of Throwing Parties Amid Pandemic
YouTube has temporarily demonetized the account of popular pranksters known as the NELK Boys after they allegedly threw massive college parties amid the coronavirus pandemic. The decision comes after the YouTubers, who have 5.7 million subscribers on the platform, were seen hosting parties at Illinois State University in what they reportedly called a “protest” of coronavirus regulations. (Gstalter, 9/12)

Stateline: Wanted: Poll Workers Able To Brave The Pandemic 
Election officials in many states are hoping more people like Stoker sign up because they are anticipating severe shortages of people to run the polls on Nov. 3. The shortage may lead to long lines or even numerous poll locations being closed. The pandemic has exacerbated an already-critical situation. In a 2018 survey by the Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency that helps local jurisdictions conduct elections, 70% of the nearly 6,500 jurisdictions surveyed in all 50 states plus territories responded that it was “very difficult” or “somewhat difficult” to get enough poll workers. In addition, more than two-thirds were 61 or older. (Povich, 9/15)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Exodus Fills Vacation Towns With New Medical Pressures 
The staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital is accustomed to the number of patients tripling or even quadrupling each summer when wealthy Manhattanites flee the city for the Hamptons. But this year, the COVID pandemic has upended everything. The 125-bed hospital on the southern coast of Long Island has seen a huge upswing in demand for obstetrics and delivery services. The pandemic has families who once planned to deliver babies in New York or other big cities migrating to the Hamptons for the near term. (Hawryluk, Houghton and Andrews, 9/15)

AP: Pandemic Vs. Pandemic: COVID-19 Hampers Fight Against HIV
As COVID-19 swept through the South, Mel Prince watched with alarm as some of the HIV positive patients she helps in the rural Black Belt stopped showing up for lab tests and doctor’s visits. “The virus has made it very challenging for us,” said Prince, executive director of Selma AIR. “We just continue to let people know we’re here, and we’re trying our best to take care of their needs.” (Thanawala, 9/14)

ABC News: Best Bet To Beat COVID-19 This Fall? Flu Shots 
Imagine a 50-year-old woman with uncontrolled diabetes walks into the emergency department with cough, fever and difficulty breathing. Two minutes later, a 75-year-old healthy woman walks into the same emergency department with the same symptoms. They both urgently need a ventilator to stay alive, with pus and fluid filling their lungs, but there is only one left in the city. Do you pick the older, healthier patient or the younger, sicker one? (Nakhasi, 9/14)

Modern Healthcare: VA Says Hack Exposed Personal Data On 46,000 Veterans
The Veterans Affairs Department on Monday said a recent data breach compromised personal information of roughly 46,000 veterans. The VA discovered the data breach after the agency's Financial Services Center determined unauthorized users accessed an online application as part of an effort to redirect payments meant for community providers who had treated veterans. (Cohen, 9/14)

In other public health news —

CNN: A Mother's Poor Mental Health May Harm Child Development, Study Says 
A mother's depression and anxiety from conception through the first year of the baby's life is associated with negative developmental outcomes through adolescence, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. That could affect a lot of women: About 15% to 23% of women worldwide experience anxiety during pregnancy, while 15% deal with anxiety after childbirth. Depression through pregnancy is estimated to affect 10% of women, and 15% face postpartum depression. The burden is greater for women who are experiencing poverty or are teen parents, according to Postpartum Support International. (Rogers, 9/15)

Kaiser Health News: New Dental Treatment Helps Fill Cavities And Insurance Gaps For Seniors 
Dental hygienist Jennifer Geiselhofer often cleans the teeth of senior patients who can’t easily get to a dentist’s office. But until recently, if she found a cavity, there was little she could do. “I can’t drill. I can’t pull teeth,” said Geiselhofer, whose mobile clinic is called Dental at Your Door. “I’d recommend they see a dentist, but that was often out of the question because of mobility challenges. So visit after visit, I would come back and there would be more decay.” (Crouch, 9/15)

Kaiser Health News: ‘It Seems Systematic’: Doctors Cite 115 Cases Of Head Injuries From Crowd Control Devices 
At least 115 people were injured this summer when police shot them in the head or neck with so-called “less-lethal” projectiles at protests over racial injustice and police brutality, according to a report published Monday. It’s the most comprehensive tally of such injuries to date, with about twice as many victims as KHN and USA Today cited in a July examination of how police across the U.S. wielded the weapons to control crowds. (Culver, 9/14)

Kaiser Health News: Lights, Camera, No Action: Insurance Woes Beset Entertainment Industry Workers  
Before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the entertainment industry in March, Jeffrey Farber had a steady flow of day jobs in film and television, including work on “Hunters” and “Blue Bloods.” But when theaters, movies and TV shows stopped production, not only did Farber lose his acting income, he also stopped accruing the hours and earnings he needed to qualify for health insurance through his labor union, SAG-AFTRA. Without the acting jobs, his insurance would be ending this month. (Andrews, 9/15)

The Hill: Federal Judge Rules Pennsylvania's Coronavirus Orders Are Unconstitutional 
A federal judge ruled on Monday that Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) coronavirus orders, which shut down the state, closed businesses and limited gatherings, were unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge William Stickman IV, a Trump appointee, said in his opinion that COVID-19 orders from Wolf and Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Rachel Levine violated and continue to violate the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly and the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. (Coleman, 9/14)

In other news from the Northeast —

USA Today: Flesh-Eating Bacteria Infects 5 From Connecticut In Long Island Sound
Five people from Connecticut were hospitalized after they contracted flesh-eating bacteria in the waters of the Long Island Sound this summer, health officials said Saturday. Four men and one woman had pre-existing wounds or were injured during swimming, crabbing, or boating before getting Vibrio vulnificus infections in July and August, according to the Connecticut Department of Public Health. Two patients developed infections in their bloodstream, and three suffered serious wound infections.The infection is extremely rare. In the past 10 years only seven cases were reported in Connecticut. (Yancey-Bragg, 9/14)

Boston Globe: Ten COVID-19 Cases Linked To Maine Funeral And Reception
At least 10 cases of COVID-19 have been linked to a funeral and reception that took place in Maine on Aug. 31, and several social clubs in the Sanford area may have also been exposed to the virus, authorities said. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the Aug. 31 funeral took place outdoors at the Southern Maine Veterans Cemetery in Springvale and the reception was held both indoors and outdoors at the Sanford American Legion Post on Main Street in Springvale. Individuals now confirmed to have COVID-19 who attended the funeral and reception then went to several different social clubs in the area. (Sweeney, 9/14)

Boston Globe: Fitness Studio TrillFit Aims To ‘Decolonize Wellness’ 
If racism is a public health crisis, what role do those in the wellness industry have in combating it? That’s the question Heather White and her team at Trillfit studio in Mission Hill posed to other gyms, studios, and fitness centers in late August, asking the industry to pledge to incorporate six inclusivity measures to better serve and reflect the needs of communities of color. (Nanos, 9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Fight Over Manhattan Hotel Shows Challenges Of Housing Homeless During Coronavirus Pandemic 
New York City has halted a controversial decision to move people experiencing homelessness out of a luxury hotel-turned-shelter on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, as opposition has mounted on both sides of a fiery debate over where to house the city’s homeless during the pandemic. The widening dispute is the latest example of the challenges facing city officials, who must create shelters to mitigate a homeless crisis while dealing with resistance from neighborhoods where they are placed. As the number of people living in shelters has grown since 2014, when Mayor Bill de Blasio first took office, so have the protests over new facilities built to house them. (Yang and Honan, 9/14)

And from the Southeast —

The Hill: South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Tests Positive For COVID-19 
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette (R) said Monday she has tested positive for the coronavirus and is quarantining at home with mild symptoms. Evette said she “began feeling unwell” Thursday morning and “immediately began to self-quarantine.” She was tested Friday and got her positive results back Saturday. (Klar, 9/14)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Whistleblower Blasts Georgia Immigration Detention Center’s COVID-19 Response
A coalition of advocacy groups filed a federal complaint on Monday against the private company that operates an immigration detention center in South Georgia, alleging the company is failing to protect detainees and employees from the spread of COVID-19. Filed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, the 27-page complaint is based partly on the information supplied by a whistleblower identified as Dawn Wooten, a licensed practical nurse who worked in the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla. (Redmon, 9/14)

And elsewhere —

Dallas Morning News: Amid Debate To Defund The Police, Dallas County DA’s Plan To Divert Mentally Ill Offenders Does Something Better
It should not be against the law to be mentally ill. Yet the Dallas County jail is perennially the second largest mental health treatment facility in the state — trailing only its counterpart in Houston. That unjustly grim statistic has been reported so often that many Texans brush right past it, just as we do the mentally ill individuals loitering outside convenience stores or asking for money in shopping center parking lots. (Grigsby, 9/14)

Houston Chronicle: Switching To Electric Vehicles Could Save Lives, Cut Health Care Costs In Houston, Report Finds 
Houston in 2050 could save 148 lives, avoid 3,333 asthma attacks and reduce health costs by $1.7 billion annually by electrifying its entire transportation system, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Lung Association. The analysis, which concluded 582 lives could be spared each year in Texas, builds on other reports that say one of the most aggressive actions the nation can take to improve air quality is changing what is under the hood of Americans’ cars and trucks. (Begley, 9/15)

AP: 3 More Nebraska Prisons Employees Test Positive For Virus
Three more state corrections employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, state prisons officials said. An employee at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln and two employees at the state Diagnostic and Evaluation Center are the latest to test positive for COVID-19, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said in a news release Saturday. (9/13)

The Washington Post: Mexico Border Reopening As U.S. Downgrades Travel Warning 
The U.S. State Department has lowered its travel advisory for Mexico to a Level 3 from its highest possible Level 4, days before the U.S.-Mexico border closure is due to expire on Sept. 21. The modified travel advisory says U.S. travelers should “reconsider travel to Mexico due to covid-19” as well as “crime and kidnapping.” A border closure restricting nonessential travel has been in place between the United States and Mexico since March 21 in an effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. (McMahon, 9/14)

Fox News: Germany May Fine US Woman Over Coronavirus Outbreak In Alpine Resort 
A coronavirus outbreak in an Alpine resort in Germany is being blamed on a bar-hopping 26-year-old American woman who is now facing hefty fines for ignoring a quarantine order. The outbreak has been reported in the town Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the foot of the Alps. Authorities said the woman went on the pub crawl despite being told to quarantine after exhibiting coronavirus symptoms. She was awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test. In Bavaria, those violating quarantine orders face fines of more than $2,300. (Gearty, 9/14)

AP: Panama Lifts Gender-Based Restrictions On Movement
Panama lifted a five-month-old coronavirus measure Monday that had restricted women from going out one day, and men the next.The rules limiting when people can could go out for essentials proved controversial because it led to harassment and discrimination against transgender people. (9/14)

AP: Bosnian Serb Official Jailed For War Crimes Dies Of COVID-19
Momcilo Krajisnik, a former top wartime Bosnian Serb official who was convicted of war crimes by a U.N. court, has died after contracting the new coronavirus. He was 75. Krajisnik was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison by the U.N. Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for persecuting and forcibly expelling non-Serbs during the 1992-95 war. He was released from a British prison in 2013 after serving two-thirds of the sentence. (9/15)

The Washington Post:  It’s Time To Focus On Potential Long-Term Organ Damage From Covid-19
New cases of covid-19 are declining across the country, so it's tempting to wonder whether the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Not by a long shot. Even as cases decline, it is possible we could soon be grappling with the burden of prolonged or permanent organ damage among the millions of people who have survived covid-19. There’s still a lot we don’t know about the long-term effects of this disease, but they could cripple not just these “survivors" but also our health-care system and our economy, too. (William Li and Andrew von Eschenbach, 9/14)

WBUR: What Resilience During The Pandemic Really Means
As numbers in Massachusetts creep up again, and the governor considers backtracking on re-opening,  I worry about another surge this fall. I worry my kids won’t go back to school even for the hybrid half-time currently planned. I worry that people don’t understand that flattening the curve doesn’t mean we are off the roller coaster yet. Most of all, though, I worry that even when this crazy time in history is past and we all go back to “normal,” we will have learned very little, if anything, at all. (Ellen H. O'Donnell, 9/14)

The BMJ: Understanding The US Failure On Coronavirus
On 9 August, the US passed the five million mark in cases of covid-19, representing slightly more than a quarter of all global cases. That day, more than half the states in the US qualified as coronavirus hot spots. The same day in South Dakota, the small town of Sturgis with a population of less than 7000 prepared to welcome 250 000 bikers to its annual biker rally. With no social distancing or face masks required by that mostly conservative rural state, it would be the largest known public gathering in the world in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. At the same time, 40 million Californians were living with that state’s mandatory mask order imposed by the governor when the state’s decision to open up its economy led to a resurgence in covid-19 infections. (Drew Altman, 9/14)

Bloomberg: Should You Go To The Doctor’s Office During Covid-19?
The safest course of action in the Covid-19 pandemic may not be to stay home as much as possible — not if you’re having symptoms of a stroke or heart attack or even if you have other health care needs that have been postponed for the last six months. But in yet another massive public health failure in the U.S., we still have no clear messaging about the relative risks and benefits of going to the doctor. (Faye Flam, 9/14)

WBUR: 'Mask Up' Is A Great Slogan. But People Need More Advice On Managing The Risk Of COVID-19 
Eight months into this pandemic, we need better and more specific guidance for people on how to live safely and to weigh risks effectively. A big part of this is collecting data on transmission more efficiently, largely through contact tracing efforts and outbreak investigations. That transmission data needs to then be communicated in a timely manner to the public in ways that they can understand and apply to their own lives. (Abraar Karan and Ranu Dhillon, 9/15)

Bloomberg: Spain, France And The U.K. Fail The Test-And-Trace Test
If Europe has a strategy to stop the spread of Covid-19, it’s keeping it well hidden. France’s President Emmanuel Macron has vowed not to go back to the dark days of national lockdown, preferring instead to “live” with the coronavirus disease, but his government is struggling to halt a jump in cases. France reported more than 10,000 new cases in 24 hours over the weekend, a grim postscript to its decision to cut the required quarantine for positive cases in half to seven days.It’s a similar story in Spain, the country with the most cases in Europe and the first to cross the barrier of more than half a million in total. (Lionel Laurent, 9/14)

Stat: Are Lung Function Algorithms Appropriate Or Perpetuating Discrimination?
"I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry against racism in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Eric Garner at the hands of the police. But chokeholds are far from the main cause of race-based disparities in respiratory deaths in the U.S. The Covid-19 pandemic is more likely to asphyxiate Black people than white people. They are also more likely to die from asthma, pneumonia, and non-Covid-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome. (Adam W. Gaffney, Steffie Woolhandler and David U. Himmelstein, 9/15)

The Hill: Are We Mapping A Path To CRISPR Babies? 
In November 2018, at a gene-editing “summit” hosted by scientific societies from the U.S., the U.K., and Hong Kong, a Chinese researcher announced that he had created the world’s first genetically modified babies. He Jiankui fully expected to be celebrated for a scientific breakthrough; he mentioned the Nobel Prize. Instead, he was almost universally condemned. (Katie Hasson and Marcy Darnovsky, 9/13)

Fox News: Anti-Trump Attacks Grow Uglier But President Gains In These Critical States
As we enter the final weeks of the presidential campaign, our politics are getting uglier, and the attacks on President Trump even more unhinged. That’s saying something. Gov. Andrew Cuomo blames the president for COVID-19 deaths in his state of New York while his brother, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., fell “under Trump’s influence,” which caused her to illicitly visit a hair salon. Seriously. Gov. Gavin Newsom blames Trump for the wildfires burning out of control in the West and, unimaginably, Joe Biden’s newest ad campaign says the president is responsible for the riots that have savaged our Democrat-led cities. Pelosi blames Trump for Democrats’ refusal to send more aid to Americans and Biden says it’s the president’s fault that schools can’t reopen. (Liz Peek, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Trump’s Indoor Rally In Nevada Risks Becoming A Superspreader Event
We know from reporter Bob Woodward’s new book, “Rage,” that last spring, when the coronavirus pandemic was spreading across the United States, President Trump was aware that it posed a grave threat. Still, he lied to the public frequently and unforgivably, saying the virus would just go away. Yet it may be even less forgivable that now, six months later, Mr. Trump is still lying and still denying the reality of the virus. His campaign rally on Sunday in Nevada is clear evidence. Thousands of Mr. Trump’s supporters crowded into a manufacturing hall in Henderson, a Las Vegas suburb, most of them forgoing face masks and not socially distanced, violating Nevada’s pandemic rules limiting social gatherings to 50 people or fewer. (9/14)

USA Today: Trump's COVID-19 Leadership Amounts To Happy Talk And It's Killing Us
It’s been said that you should never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. So I will take President Donald Trump at his word when he says he played down the threat of the coronavirus because he didn't want to "create a panic.” Unfortunately, that makes Trump look worse, not better.This isn’t leadership. It’s not even a parody of leadership. The three rules of crisis communications are: Be first. Be right. Be credible. In a crisis, a good leader lays out the facts, follows that up with a comprehensive plan, and then reassures everyone that, while it isn’t going to be easy, we are going to pull together and beat this. That’s not the way President Trump does things though. (Chris Truax, 9/15)

CNN: How Donald Trump's Indoor Campaign Rally Reveals How Little He Understands About Being President 
President Donald Trump's most basic calculation -- in, well, everything he does -- boils down to this: How does this affect me? So when his campaign made the decision to hold a campaign rally indoors in Nevada on Sunday night, Trump was, first and foremost, looking out for No. 1. "I'm on a stage and it's very far away," Trump told the Las Vegas Review Journal when asked whether he was nervous about getting Covid-19 from the indoor rally. "And so I'm not at all concerned." He went on to add: "I'm more concerned about how close you are, to be honest." (Chis Cillizza, 9/14)

The Washington Post: A Trump Official’s Insane Rant Should Reflect Back On Trump Himself
Everyone is talking about the insane rant that Michael Caputo, the senior communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services, delivered during a live video talk from his Facebook page on Sunday. Caputo, who is playing a leading role in dictating the administration’s public communications about the coronavirus pandemic, suggested that “deep state” scientists are shaping their handling of coronavirus around the deliberate goal of not allowing “America to get well, not until after Joe Biden is president.” And Caputo, who admitted that his “mental health has definitely failed,” also referred to leftist “hit squads being trained all over the country,” who will enter into a shooting war to depose President Trump after he’s reelected, and advised his supporters to prepare. (Greg Sargent, 9/14)

Buffalo News: It's Time For Caputo To Go
We generally approve of Western New York having an influential voice in Washington, but Michael Caputo’s is no longer needed. It’s hard to decide which is more outrageous – that Caputo and a top aide run Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports through a political vetting process, or that Caputo sees nothing wrong with that. (9/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Confessions Of A New Gun Owner
Even in suburbia, many are no longer confident our authorities would or could keep us safe. In a small suburb such as mine, what would happen if even 100 or 200 people bent on violence were to arrive at once? Could our small police force really handle it? Or would we be left to fend for ourselves like Mark and Pat McCloskey in St. Louis, who defended their home and were then treated as if they were criminals? A few years back, I asked a former colleague whom I knew to be pro-Second Amendment philosophically if he owned a gun. He answered no, and then asked if I had one. I said I wouldn’t know what to write down as my reason for wanting one.He told me, “Write down, ‘Because I don’t trust the government.’ ” (William McGurn, 9/14)

The Hill: Voters Rage Against Trump's Feeble Pandemic Fight 
The COVID-19 pandemic is the defining issue in the 2020 campaign, but other problems will also shape the outcome of the vital election that will dictate how the nation faces up to the threats to its survival. The sorry state of the economy and the destructive impact of racism will also play a decisive role in the verdict that voters hand down in November. (Brad Bannon, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Ignores Climate Change, Even As California Burns
President Trump arrived in California Monday to offer his own assessment of the wildfires that have left vast swaths of the West charred and smoky. It’s not climate change driving the ever worsening fires, in the president’s view. It’s the exploding trees. And all those dried leaves piled up on the ground. If California would just clean up its messes and do more forest management, Trump suggested, the problem could be solved. (9/14)

Sacramento Bee: Trump Faces Climate Change-Fueled Fires And COVID-19 In CA
Trump will join Gov. Gavin Newsom for a briefing on the state’s record-breaking fires, extreme heat and unprecedented air pollution. Massive wildfires made worse by climate change have turned most of the West Coast into a pollution-choked nightmare. Smoke from multiple fires around the state has reduced our air quality to hazardous levels and blotted out the sun. At least 10 people have died in California. (9/14)