AP: US Virus Cases Surge To Highest Level In 2 Months
New coronavirus cases in the U.S. have surged to their highest level in two months and are now back to where they were at the peak of the outbreak.The U.S. on Tuesday reported 34,700 new cases of the virus, according to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University that was published Wednesday. There have been only two previous days that the U.S. has reported more cases: April 9 and April 24, when a record 36,400 cases were logged. (Perry and Moritsugu, 6/24)

CBS News: Coronavirus Symptoms: As COVID-19 Cases Rise, Here Is What To Look Out For 
As the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise in many parts of the country, health officials say it's important to know what symptoms to look out for. Though COVID-19 has been commonly known as a respiratory illness, many patients experience a wide range of different symptoms. Last month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added congestion, nausea and diarrhea to its list of potential COVID-19 symptoms. (McNamara, 6/23)

NPR: Coronavirus Map And Graphics: Track The Spread In The U.S.
More than 2 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 115,000 have died. The growth in new cases overall had slowed in late spring but new hot spots began to emerge as others subsided. By mid-June new cases began to trend upward nationally as several states saw surges. (6/21)

AP: Fauci: Next Few Weeks Critical To Tamping Down Virus Spikes
The next few weeks are critical to tamping down a disturbing coronavirus surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Congress on Tuesday — issuing a plea for people to avoid crowds and wear masks just hours before mask-shunning President Donald Trump was set to address a crowd of his young supporters in one hot spot. Fauci and other top health officials also said they have not been asked to slow down virus testing, in contrast to Trump’s claim last weekend that he had ordered fewer tests be performed because they were uncovering too many infections. Trump said earlier Tuesday that he wasn’t kidding when he made that remark. (Neergaard and Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/24)

The Hill: Fauci Gives Congress COVID-19 Warning 
Anthony Fauci, the administration’s top infectious disease doctor, told a House panel on Tuesday that rising U.S. cases of COVID-19 are “disturbing” as new signs emerged of the United States falling further behind other countries in containing the novel coronavirus. The coronavirus is surging in more than half the country, and states like Florida, Texas and Arizona are setting records of new cases almost daily. (Weixel, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Fauci, Redfield Testify On Coronavirus In Congressional Hearing 
The health officials also warned of a difficult fall and winter because the U.S. health-care system will probably battle two highly contagious, respiratory viruses then: the novel coronavirus and the seasonal flu. They also said it was inevitable the country would see more cases as states continued to reopen and emphasized the importance of getting the outbreak under control to allow local health officials to isolate confirmed cases and conduct contact tracing to prevent cases from spiraling out of control. (Wagner, Sonmez, Abutaleb, Sun and McGinley, 6/23)

ABC News: Fauci, Other Health Advisers At Odds With President Trump On Whether To Slow Testing 
The nation's top health experts on Tuesday directly contradicted President Donald Trump's suggestion that coronavirus testing should slow down, telling lawmakers that more tests -- not fewer -- are needed to curb the rate of COVID-19 infections. In a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the senior administration officials also warned that America remains gripped by the crisis and that the situation could grow worse by fall. (Flaherty and Khan, 6/23)

Politico: Fauci Says Trump Hasn't Ordered Slowdown Of Coronavirus Testing
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the administration continues to focus on scaling up testing capacity and that, to his knowledge, none of the White House coronavirus task force members had been told to do otherwise. "It's the opposite,” Fauci said in response to a question referencing Trump's remarks. “We’re going to be doing more testing, not less." (Ehley, 6/23)

Stat: Top U.S. Officials Say They Weren't Ordered To ‘Slow Down’ Covid-19 Testing
Four key government health care officials said Tuesday that despite recent remarks from President Trump, they were never ordered to “slow down” diagnostic testing for Covid-19. Their testimony at a congressional hearing came just three days after the president, at a campaign rally, told supporters that he had ordered a deceleration of Covid-19 testing. During a rally in Tulsa, Okla., Trump misleadingly escalated his long-standing claim that the high U.S. case count is simply a result of thorough testing. (Facher, 6/23)

NBC News: Breaking With Trump, Fauci Says U.S. Will Do 'More Testing, Not Less'
Fauci's comments come in stark contrast to Trump's remarks Saturday, when he told a crowd of his supporters at his first campaign rally in months that he wanted to slow down testing for the coronavirus. (Shabad and Smith, 6/23)

Politico: Fauci Says White House Told NIH To Cancel Funding For Bat Virus Study
The White House directed the National Institutes of Health to cancel funding for a project studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people, the government's top infectious disease expert said Tuesday. “Why was it canceled? It was canceled because the NIH was told to cancel it," said Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in response to a question during a House Energy & Commerce Hearing. "I don’t know the reason, but we were told to cancel it.” (Lim and Ehley, 6/23)

CIDRAP: Fauci, Redfield Testify To Congress On COVID-19 Surge, Vaccines
Fauci said the increase in cases is due to community spread of the virus—and not just increased testing. "That's something that I'm really quite concerned about, and you know that this has been something that's been in the press over the past couple of days," Fauci said. "Over the past couple of days, we were going down from 30,000 to 25 [thousand] to 20 [thousand]. And now we sort of stayed about flat, and now we're going up. A couple of days ago, there were 30,000 new infections. That's very troublesome to me." (Soucheray, 6/23)

PBS NewsHour: Fauci Tells Congress More Testing Needed To Combat ‘Disturbing Surge’ In Virus
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress Tuesday, referring to the spread of COVID-19 in a dozen U.S. states as “a disturbing surge.” Fauci and other top health experts reiterated the need for more testing, even as President Trump claimed that “testing is a double-edged sword” in the pandemic fight. (Desjardins, 6/23)

CNN: Trump Ignores Viral Surge As Fauci Warns Of Disturbing Trend
President Donald Trump's top health advisers say that the coronavirus pandemic has driven America to its knees amid a disturbing surge in cases. But Trump is ignoring the new danger, instead using the worst domestic crisis in decades as a racist punchline. (Collinson, 6/24)

Politico: ‘I Don’t Kid’: Trump Says He Wasn’t Joking About Slowing Coronavirus Testing
President Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted he was serious when he revealed that he had directed his administration to slow coronavirus testing in the United States, shattering the defenses of senior White House aides who argued Trump’s remarks were made in jest. “I don’t kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear,” Trump told reporters, when pressed on whether his comments at a campaign event Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., were intended as a joke. (Forgey, 6/23)

CBS News: Trump Says He Wasn't Joking About Testing Slowdown: "I Don't Kid" 
President Trump doubled down on his recent comments about ordering his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, contradicting several White House officials who defended his remarks by claiming they were made in jest. During a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday, Mr. Trump said, "When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more people, you're going to find cases. So I said to my people, 'Slow the testing down, please.' They test and they test. We got tests for people who don't know what's going on." (Segers, 6/23)

ABC News: Trump Says 'I Don't Kid' After Aides Argue He Was Joking About Slowing Coronavirus Testing 
President Donald Trump flatly contradicted his aides on Tuesday when he said he does not "kid," after they had for days been arguing he was joking when he said at a weekend campaign rally he had told officials to slow down coronavirus testing. It was yet another instance of the White House scrambling to come up with language to play down one of his comments that had triggered a firestorm, only to have Trump himself, in the end, providing a completely different explanation. (Gittleson, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Administration Has Considered Ending COVID Emergency
The Trump administration, eager to claim victory over the coronavirus, has been considering scaling back the national emergency declared earlier this year to control the pandemic, according to healthcare industry officials who have spoken with the administration. The prospect has stoked alarm among public health leaders, physicians, hospital officials and others who are trying to control the outbreak and fear that such a move would make it more difficult for state and local governments and health systems to keep the coronavirus in check. (Levey, 6/23)

AP: AP FACT CHECK: Sober Science Weighs In On Trump's Virus Take
The U.S. government’s top public health leaders on Tuesday shot down assertions by President Donald Trump that the coronavirus pandemic is under control and the U.S. is excelling in testing for the virus. The pandemic that Trump has said is “fading” is actually surging in many states, they said, and the need to expand testing is “critical.” Dr. Anthony Fauci and other public health authorities also refuted Trump’s statement that he told them to ease up on testing because it looks bad to bring more sickness to light. (Woodward and Yen, 6/23)

AP: With Student Gathering, Trump Gets A More Boisterous Crowd
It wasn’t quite one of his signature big-stadium rallies. But President Donald Trump drew something closer to the jam-packed audience of political supporters he’s been craving as hundreds of young conservatives filled a Phoenix megachurch Tuesday to hear his call for them to get behind his reelection effort. The crowded Dream City Church for the gathering of Students for Trump offered a starkly different feel compared to Trump’s weekend rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, his first of the coronavirus era, which drew sparser attendance. (Lemire and Madhani, 6/24)

The New York Times: Waiting For Trump: Hats, Flags, Little Fear Of The Virus
President Trump’s most faithful supporters — intensely devoted, but ultimately fewer in number than the campaign had hoped — piled into tents or lounged in lawn chairs, some wearing masks and others dismissing the need for face coverings, as they waited hours and, in some cases, days to join in his return to the campaign trail. By Saturday afternoon, the line of voters waiting for Mr. Trump’s evening rally was bustling with attendees eager to enter the 19,000-seat BOK Center in defiance of public health recommendations — though as the program began in the evening, the arena was far from full and an overflow stage was dismantled. (Glueck an Herndon, 6/20)

NPR: Trump Campaign Moves To Arizona After Tulsa Rally Fizzles
Students for Trump includes a waiver similar to the one the Trump campaign gave to attendees of the Tulsa rally, acknowledging the health risks. "By attending this convention, you and any guest voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Turning Point Action, their affiliates, Dream City Church, employees, agents, contractors, or volunteers liable for any illness or injury," it reads. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden called the president's trip "reckless and irresponsible" and said it is a "distraction from Donald Trump's failed response to combat the spread of COVID-19." (Sprunt and Wise, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Delivers Fiery Speech In Arizona, An Emerging Election Battleground
[Trump] also went on an extended riff about mail-in ballots, alleging fraud and raising the idea that ballots could be printed by “foreign powers.” There is no evidence of large-scale fraud with mail-in ballots, and some states are turning to them as a safer alternative as the coronavirus continues to spread. “We can safely go to the polls and vote during Covid-19,” Mr. Trump said. (Leary, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Trump Visits Border Barrier In Push Of Immigration Message Amid Pandemic And Civil Unrest
The trip — more than three hours on Air Force One to a state dealing with a record spike in virus cases — was itself controversial, as Trump and his aides continued to flout public health guidelines at the same time that top administration officials were testifying before Congress about the growing threat of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. (Gearan, Miroff and Olorunnipa, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Trump Again Uses Racially Insensitive Term To Describe Coronavirus
President Trump again referred to the novel coronavirus as “kung flu,” eliciting laughter and wild cheers from a young crowd in Arizona on Tuesday. Trump was listing the different names he has heard for the virus, which has killed at least 119,000 Americans, during a speech for the student Republican group Turning Point Action. (Itkowitz, 6/23)

Reuters: Trump Slams Protesters At Phoenix Rally, Visits Border Wall In Arizona 
Phoenix police declared the demonstration an unlawful assembly after protesters started blocking a street. Then officers in riot gear used flash-bang grenades - military-style percussion devices for crowd control - to push protesters well away from the church, a Reuters photographer at the scene said. The city police department said it ordered demonstrators to disperse when the crowd began throwing objects at police, “blocking traffic and moving into an area protected for the presidential motorcade.” In addition to flash-bang devices, police also used “pepper balls deployed into the ground and a burst of pepper spray” against the protesters, the department statement said, adding that no arrests were made. (Holland, 6/23)

CBS News: Arizona Megachurch Hosting Trump Event Falsely Claims Its Air Purifier Kills 99% Of COVID-19 
The pastors of an Arizona megachurch that is holding an event featuring President Trump on Tuesday is claiming the church's air filtration system can kill "99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes." Dream City Church Senior Pastor Luke Barnett and Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastro make the erroneous claims in a promo video that has been circulating online this week. The video has been removed from the church's Facebook page. (O'Kane, 6/23)

In other Trump news —

AP: Trump Rally Flop In Tulsa, But A Hit On Television
Now it’s apparent where many of President Donald Trump’s supporters who stayed away from Saturday’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, were instead: they were home watching it on television. Fox News Channel, which aired Trump’s speech live, had the biggest Saturday night audience in the network’s 24-year history, the Nielsen company said. During Trump’s address at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Fox had 8.2 million people watching. (Bauder, 6/23)

AP: Trump Says 'Learn From History' Instead Of Removing Statues
As America grapples with racism in its past, President Donald Trump lined up squarely Tuesday with those who argue that the pendulum has swung too far in favor of removing statues and other symbols of that flawed history, saying mistakes will be repeated if not learned from and understood. Trump’s campaign also sees the divide over this latest cultural flash point as a way to boost the president’s standing, which has suffered during his handling of the coronavirus outbreak and the protests over racial injustice that followed George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. (Superville, 6/24)

Marketplace: Visa Freeze Could Harm Rural Communities In Need Of Doctors
Dr. Mukesh Gopalakrishnan is an emergency cardiologist at a retirement community an hour outside of Tucson, Arizona. “I’m the only cardiologist who is there at least five days of the week,” he said. These days he sees a lot of COVID-19 patients. He was born in India and is here on an H-1B visa. In America, around 28% of doctors, 35% of home aides and 20% of nursing assistants are foreign born, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. (Garsd, 6/23)

Reuters: Families Separated By New Trump Visa Order Frantic For Answers 
In early March, Poorva Dixit rushed to buy a ticket to India from the United States, her home for more than a decade, after she learned her 72-year-old mother had fallen from her bed and was in critical condition. She decided to leave her two young children and husband in California because of the risks of the novel coronavirus spreading around the world. Dixit and her husband are both Indian nationals while their children are U.S. citizens. (Rosenberg, 6/23)

Reuters: Explainer: Who Is Affected By Trump’s Suspension Of Foreign Work Visas? 
President Donald Trump temporarily suspended the entry into the United States of certain foreign workers on Monday despite strong opposition from business groups, including major tech companies. The ban, which the White House said was necessary to make jobs available for Americans, will go into effect on Wednesday and last until the end of 2020. (Hesson, 6/23)

The New York Times: Hospitals Sued To Keep Prices Secret. They Lost. 
A federal judge has upheld a Trump administration policy that requires hospitals and health insurers to publish their negotiated prices for health services, numbers that are typically kept secret. The policy is part of a major push by the administration to improve transparency in health care. Insurers and health providers usually negotiate deals behind closed doors, and patients rarely know the cost of services until after the fact. (Kliff and Sanger-Katz, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Price-Transparency Rule Covering Hospitals Upheld
The hospital trade group had argued that the rule compelling the hospitals to publish their negotiated rates with insurers violates the First Amendment and goes beyond the statutory intent of the Affordable Care Act. President Trump welcomed the decision, tweeting Tuesday evening: “BIG VICTORY for patients – Federal court UPHOLDS hospital price transparency. Patients deserve to know the price of care BEFORE they enter the hospital. Because of my action, they will. This may very well be bigger than healthcare itself. Congratulations America!" (Armour, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Lose HHS Lawsuit Over Price Transparency
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington D.C. wrote that HHS had the right to issue the rule because it considered the concerns of providers and payers, acknowledged conflicting information and explained its decision. "The agency fulfilled its duty to examine the evidence before it and connect it to the final rule," Nichols said. "That the agency's proposed solutions may not have been to plaintiff's (hospital's) satisfaction does not render the rule the rule arbitrary and capricious," he wrote in his opinion. (Brady, 6/23)

The Hill: Trump Touts Court Ruling Upholding Push To Require Hospitals Disclose Secret Rates 
The American Hospital Association (AHA) claimed in a lawsuit filed in December that the federal government didn't have the authority to mandate the disclosure of negotiated prices. The organization alleged that the administration requirement was "unlawful." (Wise, 6/24)

CNN: Hospitals Lose Bid To Keep Secret The Rates They Negotiate With Insurers
The administration hailed the decision, saying American patients deserve to be in control of their health care. "Especially when patients are seeking needed care during a public health emergency, it is more important than ever that they have ready access to the actual prices of health care services," said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. (Luhby, 6/23)

In other hospital news —

Kaiser Health News: Ghost Bill: UVA Siphons Couple’s Tax Refund To Pay 20-Year-Old Medical Debt 
The notice from the Virginia tax department puzzled a Charlottesville couple last October. It said their state income tax refund had been reduced because of an outstanding medical debt to the University of Virginia Medical Center. Instead of $220, they got $110. Mystified, they contacted UVA for details about the unpaid bill. The answer astonished them. The medical center had asked the tax department to withhold the money for medical care their son received in 2001 and 2002. (Andrews, 6/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Morehouse School Of Medicine Gets $40 Million Grant To Fight COVID-19
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday it is providing a $40 million grant to Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine to fight COVID-19 in racially-diverse, rural and socially vulnerable communities. The medical school will work with the HHS Office of Minority Health on a three-year project with community-based organizations across the nation to deliver education and information on resources to help fight the pandemic, such as testing and vaccinations once one is developed and federally-approved. The partnership starts next month. (Stirgus, 6/24)

WBUR: Trump Appointees Join Census Bureau; Democrats Concerned Over Partisan 'Games' 
The Trump administration is adding two new political appointees to the U.S. Census Bureau, raising concerns among some Democrats about partisan interference with the ongoing national head count. Nathaniel Cogley, a political science professor at Tarleton State University based near Fort Worth, Texas, is joining the federal government's largest statistical agency in a newly created position of deputy director for policy, while Adam Korzeniewski — a former political consultant to a YouTube personality known for racist pranks — is serving as a senior advisor to Cogley, according to a statement by Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham in a press release issued Tuesday. (Lo Wang, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: New CMS Office Takes Aim At Clinician's Administrative Burden
CMS on Tuesday created the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics as the agency aims to reduce providers' administrative workloads. The new office will bolster the dialogue between regulators and healthcare workers as staff looks to weed out or modify outdated regulations, CMS said. It will also focus on interoperability and providing patients and clinicians with an individual's complete medical history, the agency said. (Kacik, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: VA Connected Care Office Has Spent $39 Million In CARES Act Funding
A telemedicine office at the Veterans Affairs Department has spent nearly $39 million in congressional funding amid the COVID-19 pandemic, VA leaders told lawmakers Tuesday. Congress had allocated $17.2 billion to the Veterans Health Administration under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to support operations during the pandemic, as well as an additional $2.15 billion specifically for the VA's Office of Information and Technology. Since March, the VA's Office of Connected Care has spent $39 million of that funding. (Cohen, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Senate Democrats Call GOP Policing Bill ‘Not Salvageable,’ Signal They Will Block Measure 
The Senate appeared on the cusp of failure Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats struggled to find consensus on how to address a national crisis over race and policing and answer the public demand to overhaul law enforcement tactics. Democrats criticized a Senate Republican plan as inadequate, arguing that it falls far short of a substantive transformation of controversial policing practices, and they laid the groundwork to stall the measure. Republicans countered that their proposal was a viable starting point for legislation and said Democratic resistance was a sign that the party was interested only in scoring political points months ahead of the elections. (Min Kim and Bailey, 6/23)

AP: Congress Stalls On Policing Overhaul, Despite Public Outcry
The standoff threatens to turn the nationwide protests over the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others into another moment that galvanizes the nation but leaves lawmakers unable to act. Common ground is not out of reach. A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows almost all Americans support some degree of criminal justice changes. (Mascaro, 6/23)

NPR: Partisan Fight Could Derail Plans For Congress To Act On Police Reform
One week ago, with his party's leadership behind him, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the chamber's lone Black Republican, unveiled the bill with hopes of voting on the measure ahead of the Fourth of July recess. Republicans said the plan addresses a national outcry for reform of the country's law enforcement departments and agencies. But by Tuesday, Democrats were demanding bipartisan talks before green-lighting floor debate. The move rankled Republicans, who say they already addressed Democrats' demands to quickly move a bill addressing police brutality. (Grisales and Snell, 6/24)

Politico: Amid VP Scrutiny, Kamala Harris Leads Charge Against GOP Police Bill
Senate Democrats are preparing to torpedo Republicans’ police reform proposal. And vice-presidential frontrunner Kamala Harris is leading the way. It’s a critical moment for Harris, who has faced scrutiny over her record as a former state attorney general. But as she finds herself in the middle of a messy congressional debate over how to stop police killings of Black people, she has a national platform that others in contention for vice president simply can't match. (Everett and Cadelago, 6/23)

WBUR: On Police Reform Policy, There's More That Ties Markey And Kennedy Than Divides
Sen. Ed Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy have had fiery disagreements on debate stages as the Democratic Senate primary draws nearer. But when it comes to addressing systemic racism in policing, there is more that unites them than divides. In separate interviews with WBUR, they cite similar concerns and proposed solutions: they want fewer police responding to non-criminal calls and more resources devoted to treatment, training and community outreach. And they say issues of over-policing and racism aren't just happening in big cities, but in the suburban and rural communities they represent. (Atkins, 6/23)

Politico: House Democrats Tack To Center With Election Year Health Care Bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday will unveil a centrist health care plan to shore up Obamacare while taking aim at Trump administration policies that critics say undercut the health care law. The House Democratic plan is less ambitious than the platform put forward by Joe Biden and doesn't include a public insurance option that could compete with private plans. It also would not expand eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid. (Luthi and Ollstein, 6/23)

Roll Call: House Democrats To Consider Measure To Strengthen Obamacare
The Rules Committee will meet Wednesday to approve a rule, which may not allow amendments, for the new version. The panel on Monday released the new text, which includes provisions to increase premium assistance for eligible consumers, incentivize states to expand Medicaid eligibility and reverse Trump administration rules that Democrats say weaken the health care law, among other things. The measure would make the law’s premium subsidies more generous and allow more people to get them. (McIntire, 6/22)

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill —

The Hill: Trump, GOP Clash Over New Round Of Checks 
Senate Republicans and President Trump are facing off over a new round of COVID-19 stimulus checks, with GOP senators warning Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday to mind the mounting federal deficit. Trump views the $1,200 “economic impact payment” checks that featured his name prominently as a political and economic winner. Many GOP senators, on the other hand, think a second round would be a huge waste of money. (Bolton, 6/23)

The New York Times: Lots Of Drama But Little Certainty In Kentucky And New York Primaries 
Voters in Kentucky and New York were selecting nominees in extraordinary circumstances on Tuesday, as fears about the coronavirus reduced the number of polling places and led to a surge in absentee balloting that was almost certain to delay the results, possibly for days. Kentucky Democrats were deciding who would be their nominee against Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, in a race that was testing the power of money against the potency of the grass-roots activism that has sprung up around the Black Lives Matter movement. (Martin and McKinley, 6/22)

Reuters: Amid Coronavirus, Kentucky, New York Report Few Voting Glitches 
Voters stood in long lines in one of Kentucky’s biggest counties, and some voters in New York complained their polling stations opened late. But the two states were mostly spared the delays and confusion seen earlier this year during elections in Wisconsin and Georgia. New York and Kentucky, which were holding statewide primaries, had encouraged mail-in balloting as a safe alternative to in-person voting, resulting in record numbers of absentee ballot requests. Both also encouraged early voting and cut back on polling locations amid a shortage of poll workers. (Whitesides, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Voting In Kentucky, New York Primaries: Officials Contend With Mail-In Ballots, Poll Worker Cancellations 
Michael G. Adams, Kentucky’s Republican secretary of state, projected that total turnout would exceed 1 million, including roughly 800,000 mailed ballots. The final figure would shatter the previous record of 922,456 primary voters set in 2008. Poll worker cancellations had forced election officials to staff fewer than 200 polling locations instead of the usual 3,700, but Adams said an avalanche of mail-in balloting and in-person early voting helped lessen demand on the polls Tuesday. (Gardner, Ye Hee Lee and Viebeck, 6/23)

Politico: Primary Voters In New York And Kentucky Turn Out Despite Pandemic
Brooklyn resident Jean Desrosiers is undergoing dialysis, putting him at high risk from Covid-19. He was among 1.7 million New Yorkers who requested a ballot, though like many others, his never arrived. “Even if I can’t walk, I’m going to come out,” said Desrosiers, who uses a cane. (Durkin and Montellaro, 6/23)

AP: 2 Republicans Opposed By Trump Win In Kentucky, N. Carolina
Voters rebuffed President Donald Trump and nominated two Republicans he opposed to House seats from North Carolina and Kentucky on Tuesday. Calls in higher-profile races in Kentucky and New York faced days of delay as swamped officials count mountains of mail-in ballots. In western North Carolina, GOP voters picked 24-year-old investor Madison Cawthorn, who uses a wheelchair following an accident, over Trump-backed real estate agent Lynda Bennett. The runoff was for the seat vacated by GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, who resigned to become Trump’s chief of staff and joined his new boss in backing Bennett. (Cassidy, Hudspeth Blackburn and Fram, 6/24)

Reuters: Black Challenger Bowman Leads In Bid To Oust Veteran Congressman Engel In U.S. Primaries 
Jamaal Bowman, a liberal Black middle-school principal, was ahead in early Democratic primary election results Tuesday in his bid to oust long-time U.S. Representative Eliot Engel from a congressional seat representing part of New York. The New York Times declared progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez the winner in her contest against a challenger in a neighboring New York district, in races that tested the strength of the Democratic Party’s left wing after moderate Joe Biden became the presumptive presidential nominee. (Cowan and Cornwell, 6/23)

NPR: Trump And Biden Campaigns Argue Over Presidential Debates
A presidential debate scheduled for Oct. 15 will no longer be held at the University of Michigan. ... The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the debate will instead be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. The venue hosted the first debates of the Democratic presidential primary last summer. (Detrow, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Trump Administration Says Insurers Off The Hook For Back-To-Work COVID-19 Tests
Insurers are not required to cover COVID-19 tests that employers may mandate as they bring employees back to work, according to a guidance released Tuesday by the Trump administration. Insurers had been waiting for clarity from the administration on whether they would be on the hook for potentially repeated COVID-19 screening tests as states relax social distancing restrictions and employees return to work. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act required insurers to cover COVID-19 tests without patient cost-sharing, but Tuesday's guidance clarified that the law only applies to tests that are deemed "medically appropriate" by a healthcare provider. (Cohrs, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Survey: 1 In 4 Physicians Had Patient Seriously Affected By Prior Authorization
Nearly 1 in 4 physicians say prior authorization led to a serious adverse event for one of their patients, according to a survey released Tuesday by the American Medical Association. Another 16% of physicians reported prior authorization caused at least one of their patients to be hospitalized. And more than 9 in 10 physicians said prior authorization regularly delays access to necessary care for their patients. The AMA said the results are evidence that insurers have made little progress in reforming prior authorization since the healthcare industry issued a consensus statement about the need for reform more than two years ago. (Brady, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Cigna, Oscar To Offer Small Business Plans In Three States
Health insurers Oscar Health and Cigna Corp. said Tuesday they plan to offer co-branded, small business insurance coverage in Atlanta, San Francisco and four cities in Tennessee starting in the fourth quarter of this year. The plans will include certain benefits that are featured in other Oscar plans, such as a concierge team, including a nurse, to help members navigate their coverage and set up doctor's appointments. Members will also have access to telemedicine at no cost and some will benefit from $3 prescriptions drug co-payments. The plans primarily will be available to companies with 50 or fewer employees but will be offered to companies with up to 100 workers in some states. (Livingston, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Erlanger Ends COVID-19 Furloughs, Executive Pay Cuts
Erlanger Health System has brought back furloughed staff and restored work schedules that were pared back due to cut costs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chattanooga, Tenn.-based health system also plans to restore in August leadership salaries that had been lowered due to the pandemic. On July 28, Erlanger will restore paid time off accrual and it will bring back retirement plan contributions starting July 26. (Bannow, 6/23)

Stat: FDA Urged To Heighten Safety Warnings On Common Type 2 Diabetes Drugs
A consumer advocacy is urging the Food and Drug Administration to heighten warnings about a widely prescribed group of diabetes drugs known as SGLT-2 inhibitors, due to hundreds of cases of a potentially fatal reaction among people with type 1 diabetes, even though the medicines are not approved for those patients. In a citizen’s petition being filed with the agency on Wednesday, Public Citizen argued that a “black box” warning, the most serious safety warning found in prescription drug labeling, should note SGLT-2 inhibitors can cause ketocacidosis. (Silverman, 6/24)

Stat: Fate Of Intercept's NASH Drug Clouded By Murky FDA Review Delays
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to announce its decision on whether or not to approve the first treatment for the fatty liver disease known as NASH. But that plan has apparently been postponed for reasons that are still not clear. The FDA hasn’t offered an explanation, nor has Intercept Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the NASH drug under review. (Feuerstein, 6/23)

Stat: Sana Biotechnology, A Secretive Startup, Lays (Some) Cards On The Table
After years of rumors, Sana Biotechnology is officially biotech’s newest unicorn. The company announced Tuesday that it has raised $700 million — one of the largest initial financing rounds for a biotech startup ever. The cash itself is not new — the money was actually raised in 2018 — but Tuesday’s announcement is the first time the company has disclosed any details about its financial position. (Sheridan, 6/23)

CNN: Should You Take A Dietary Supplement To Prevent Disease? 
If you've been more concerned about your health lately, you might be wondering if taking a nutrition supplement containing vitamins, minerals or a combination is worthwhile. It's estimated that more than half of Americans take one or more dietary supplements daily or on occasion... But are you wasting your money on vitamins and minerals you don't need or possibly harming yourself by taking high doses? (Drayer, 6/24)

Prescription Drug Watch: For news on rising drug costs, check out our weekly roundup of news coverage and perspectives of the issue.

The New York Times: Women With Cancer Awarded Billions In Baby Powder Suit
A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday ordered Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary to pay $2.1 billion in damages to women who blamed their ovarian cancers on the company’s talcum products, including its iconic baby powder. The decision slashed by more than half a record award of $4.69 billion in compensatory and punitive damages to the women, which was made in July 2018. (Caryn Rabin, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Missouri Court Cuts Talc-Powder Verdict Against J&J To $2.1 Billion 
Mark Lanier, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the appellate court’s decision Tuesday “carefully holds companies responsible for reprehensible conduct, while recognizing limits of jurisdiction and punitive damages.” ...The 2018 verdict, following a six-week trial in state court in St. Louis, was the biggest award of damages in a series of trials arising from lawsuits over the safety of Johnson’s Baby Powder, as well another talc-containing powder, Shower to Shower, that J&J used to sell. (Loftus, 6/23)

The Hill: Johnson & Johnson Ordered To Pay $2.1 Billion In Baby Powder Lawsuit 
Johnson & Johnson had appealed the verdict, requesting the court throw out the decision entirely, which the court declined to do, saying it had found “significant reprehensibility” in the company’s conduct. The court cited in its decision internal memorandums as far back as the 1960s indicating the company's talcum products contained asbestos, a known carcinogen. ...Last month, the company announced it would discontinue its talc-based products in the U.S. and Canada, citing decreased sales and “misinformation around the safety of the product and a constant barrage of litigation advertising.” (Coleman, 6/23)

CNN: Black Lives Matter Protests Have Not Led To A Spike In Coronavirus Cases, Research Says
Despite warnings from public health officials, new research suggests Black Lives Matter protests across the country have not led to a jump in coronavirus cases. A new study, published this month by the National Bureau of Economic Research, used data on protests from more than 300 of the largest US cities, and found no evidence that coronavirus cases grew in the weeks following the beginning of the protests. (Asmelash, 6/24)

Boston Globe: Fewer Than 3 Percent Of Protesters Who Sought Tests Were Positive For Coronavirus, Baker Says
Fewer than 3 percent of the thousands of demonstrators who visited a series of free state testing sites last week tested positive for the novel coronavirus, offering what officials called a hopeful sign that the waves of protests against police brutality aren’t feeding a new spike in the virus across Massachusetts. The results, disclosed Tuesday by Governor Charlie Baker, sprung from 17,617 tests over roughly two days, and marked the largest testing effort in Massachusetts aimed specifically at those who participated in protests or demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. (Stout, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: LAPD Coronavirus Cases Spike Following Protests
Coronavirus infections among Los Angeles police officers spiked in recent weeks, reflecting a broader increase in cases regionally and raising fresh questions about the role of protests in the spread. Police officials have said that officers were exposed on skirmish lines as they worked to disperse screaming crowds. Protesters say officers recklessly arrested people en masse without wearing masks, exposing not just themselves but others. (Rector, 6/23)

The New York Times: Gun Violence Spikes In N.Y.C., Intensifying Debate Over Policing 
It has been nearly a quarter century since New York City experienced as much gun violence in the month of June as it has seen this year. The city logged 125 shootings in the first three weeks of the month, more than double the number recorded over the same period last year, police data show. Gunmen opened fire during house parties, barbecues and dice games, and carried out coldly calculated street executions. (Southall and MacFarquhar, 6/23)

WBUR: Why There's A Push To Get Police Out Of Schools 
At least two-thirds of American high school students attend a school with a police officer, according to the Urban Institute, and that proportion is higher for students of color. Now, the national uprising for racial justice has led to a push to remove police officers from security positions inside schools. School systems in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver, Portland, Ore., and two districts in the Bay Area have all moved in recent weeks to suspend or phase out ties with police. (Kamenetz, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Trump Tweets D.C. Protesters Will Be Met With 'Serious Force' If Autonomous Zone Established 
D.C. police lined streets around the White House on Tuesday, periodically clearing out tents, barricades and other structures built by protesters seeking to create an autonomous zone in the area that has been at the center of weeks of protests against police brutality. The action came after President Trump tweeted early Tuesday that protesters would be met with “serious force” if they tried to establish an autonomous zone and that federal officials would seek long sentences against anyone who toppled statues or vandalized monuments. (Lang, Svrluga, Heim, Kunkle and Jouvenal, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Seattle Police Will Return To East Precinct As Future Of CHOP Remains Uncertain 
Around dusk in Seattle on Monday night, dozens of protesters linked arms outside the police department’s East Precinct, forming a human chain to function as a steadfast wall. They were preparing for police to return to the building, the heart of what they call the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP. Neither Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) nor Police Chief Carmen Best have said exactly when police will come back, just that it was time. In a Monday news conference, they pledged a peaceful return of police in the near future, after back-to-back shootings in CHOP have left residents, business owners and demonstrators on edge. (Flynn, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Madison Protests Turn Violent As Wisconsin State Senator Tim Carpenter Attacked, Statues Torn Down
Amid heated demonstrations that left two statues destroyed and windows smashed in Madison, a Democratic state senator was reportedly attacked by protesters near the Wisconsin State Capitol. State Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee) told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he had been heading to the Capitol to work late Tuesday when he stopped to snap a photo of the protesters. (Chiu, 6/24)

Kaiser Health News: For A Black Social Media Manager In The George Floyd Age, Each Click Holds Trauma 
Recently, as I scrolled the more than 1 million tweets connected to the hashtag #Black_Lives_Matter, this is what flashed before my eyes: the black-and-white dashcam video of Philando Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, in handcuffs crying, her 4-year-old daughter trying to comfort her; protesters in Berlin standing in solidarity with the BLM movement; a Now This video of a young Black girl calling herself ugly; police attacking protesters and protesters fighting back; an image of George Floyd unable to breathe. Suddenly neither could I. My chest tightened, my heart beat faster and hot tears began to bubble from my eyes. (Giles, 6/24)

AP: Cops In Misconduct Cases Stay On Force Through Arbitration
An Oregon police officer lost his job and then returned to work after fatally shooting an unarmed Black man in the back. A Florida sergeant was let go six times for using excessive force and stealing from suspects, while a Texas lieutenant was terminated five times after being accused of striking two women, making threatening calls and committing other infractions. These officers and hundreds of others across the country were fired, sometimes repeatedly, for violating policies but got their jobs back after appealing their cases to an arbitrator who overturned their discipline — an all-too-common practice that some experts in law and in policing say stands in the way of real accountability. (Bellisle, 6/24)

AP: Police Officer Involved In Breonna Taylor Shooting Fired
The Louisville Metro police department has fired one of the police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor, more than three months after the 26-year-old Black woman was killed in her home. A termination letter sent to Officer Brett Hankison released by the city’s police department Tuesday said Hankinson violated procedures by showing “extreme indifference to the value of human life” when he “wantonly and blindly” shot 10 rounds of gunfire into Taylor’s apartment in March. The letter also said Hankison, who is white, violated the rule against using deadly force. (6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Louisville Police Chief Fires Officer Involved In Breonna Taylor Killing 
The Louisville, Ky., police chief on Tuesday officially fired one of the three police officers involved in the March killing of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman. Ms. Taylor was asleep with her boyfriend when the three officers, who had secured a no-knock warrant to search her home in connection with a drug case, broke through her apartment’s front door. Her boyfriend, thinking they were intruders, shot at them, according to his attorney. Officers responded by firing more than 20 bullets, at least eight of which hit and killed Ms. Taylor, according to attorneys for her family. (Campo-Flores, 6/23)

AP: Icons Of 1960s Civil Rights Movement Voice Cautious Optimism
Bob Moses says America is at “a lurching moment” for racial change, potentially as transforming as the Civil War era and as the 1960s civil rights movement that he helped lead. “What we are experiencing now as a nation has only happened a couple times in our history,” said Moses, a main organizer of the 1964 “Freedom Summer” project in Mississippi. “These are moments when the whole nation is lurching, and it’s not quite sure which way it’s going to lurch.” (Sewell and Contreras, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Geico Removes Fort Pillow Ad After Criticism From Civil War Historians 
Historian Bob O’Connor could not believe the Geico ad was still on the radio, but there it was. The spot hawking homeowners insurance featured a woman talking about building a fort of pillows in her house, a normally innocuous description until she glibly dubbed it “Fort Pillow. ”The Civil War expert was appalled, especially at a time when Black Lives Matter had become an international movement. In 1864, he said, Confederate troops massacred around 300, mostly black, Union soldiers after they had lifted their hands in surrender at Fort Pillow outside of Memphis. O’Connor said the attack was led by Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest — who went on to become the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan — and was motivated by the Confederate’s outrage that the North had enlisted black soldiers. (Denham, 6/23)

Reuters: Woman Arrested Over Torching Of Wendy's Where Rayshard Brooks Died 
A woman accused of setting fire to the Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in Atlanta where police shot and killed Rayshard Brooks in the parking lot was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of arson, authorities said. Natalie White, 29, was taken into custody by Fulton County sheriff’s deputies on the same day that Brooks, a Black man who was slain by a white officer, was buried following a funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (McKay, 6/23)

The Washington Post: A Baltimore Restaurant Group Apologizes To A Black Woman And Son For Unequally Enforcing Its Dress Code 
A Baltimore restaurant group that has previously been accused of creating dress codes targeting nonwhite customers has apologized after a black woman posted a video showing a white manager refusing to seat her and her son because he said the boy violated a ban on athletic wear. The footage of the incident at Ouzo Bay in Baltimore’s Harbor East, which drew accusations of racism on social media, showed the boy’s mother pointing out a similarly dressed white boy whose family had been served. (Heil, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Mourners Recall Rayshard Brooks, Say His Death ‘Much Bigger Than Him’ 
ATLANTA — Mourners gathered for the funeral of Rayshard Brooks on Tuesday in Ebenezer Baptist Church, a historic Atlanta sanctuary that rose after the Civil War and Reconstruction, survived decades of Jim Crow laws, and for years served as a spiritual home for civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The years weighed heavily as family and friends clad in white and wearing masks amid the coronavirus pandemic filed into the red-brick church under cloudy skies, for yet another black man killed, with a white police officer accused of murder in his death. (Nirappil and Sacchetti, 6/23)

In other news —

AP: White Parents Of Black Children Navigate A Changing Nation
Izzy Simons has been fired up about the prospect of driving on his own.The 15-year-old has craved the freedom a license promises. He has proudly and effectively maneuvered the family’s vehicles around the church parking lot and beyond, and he’s confident he’ll pass his test in August. He imagines arriving at Southmoore High School in Moore, Oklahoma, someday in a navy blue crew cab Silverado truck with a lift kit. (Brunt, 6/23)

Stateline: Black Businesses Largely Miss Out On Opportunity Zone Money 
President Donald Trump says the opportunity zone tax break he signed into law in 2017 has created “tens of thousands of jobs” and is helping minority communities and Black businessowners. In a tweet earlier this month, he pointed to opportunity zones as proof he’d done more for the Black community “than any President since Abraham Lincoln.”There’s no way to prove that the tax break for wealthy investors who buy a stake in a business or property in the zones has created jobs or helped minority businessowners. (Quinton, 6/24)

The New York Times: Head Of NY Planned Parenthood, Laura McQuade, Ousted After Staff Complaints 
Facing mounting complaints about abusive behavior and unfair treatment of black staff members, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Laura McQuade, has been ousted from her job. The organization’s board of directors had supported Ms. McQuade as recently as last week. On Tuesday, however, the group reversed course, sending an email to staff members saying the board had “parted ways” with her the previous day. (Otterman, 6/23)

Kansas City Star: Former KC-Area Planned Parenthood CEO Steps Down From NY Job
McQuade’s exit follows open letters signed by hundreds of current and former staff in New York and Kansas City that accused McQuade of abusive behavior, financial mismanagement and systemic racism during her tenure. “Dozens of staff members have witnessed McQuade yell, berate, slam her fists, verbally abuse, humiliate, and bully employees, often brutally shaming staff members in internal meetings in front of their colleagues,” said the letter written by New York staff last week. The letter called for McQuade’s termination and for an independent investigation into the allegations as well as salary cuts for top officials earning more than $100,000. (Lowry and Thomas, 6/23)

KCUR: Former Head Of Local Planned Parenthood Affiliate Departs From NY Affiliate Amid Scathing Criticism
McQuade led Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which is based in Overland Park and oversees clinics in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, from July 2014 to August 2017. She emerged as a forceful and fearless advocate on behalf of the organization during a tumultuous period when the organization was under fire as those states sought to strip it of Medicaid funding and restrict its ability to perform abortions. Her high profile here led to her hiring as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, the largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the country. Before taking the reins of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, then known as Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, McQuade was executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York. (Margolies, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Walmart, Baptists Pressure Mississippi To Change Confederate-Tribute State Flag 
Amid the vast protests against racial injustice that have flourished since George Floyd’s death, symbols of the Confederacy have fallen with startling speed from NASCAR racetracks to Southern city squares. But in Mississippi, the Confederacy’s battle flag still flies above the statehouse, emblazoned on the state flag. Pressure has mounted on state leaders this month to ditch the divisive symbol, and on Tuesday, both Walmart and the state’s largest Baptist group added their voices to that mix. (Elfrink, 6/24)

Reuters: Walmart To Stop Mississippi Flag Display; Reviews Third Party Sales On Canada Website 
Walmart (WMT.N) said it will not display in its stores the flag of the U.S. state of Mississippi, which includes a Confederate flag emblem, and is separately reviewing if items sold on its website in Canada breached its terms after online outrage over “All Lives Matter” products on the site. The company said on Tuesday it will no longer display the Mississippi state flag in its stores while the state debates whether to make changes to its design after it drew opposition. (Acharya and Singh, 6/23)

NBC News: Coronavirus Hospitalizations Surge In Arizona, Texas
Coronavirus hospitalizations in Arizona and Texas have hit record numbers as cases continue to surge in states in the South and the West, overwhelming medical professionals. Arizona reported a record high of 3,591 new cases Tuesday, with nearly 60,000 known cases in the state overall. The swell in cases comes as President Donald Trump is set to hold a rally at a Phoenix megachurch Tuesday. (Silva, 6/23)

ABC News: Arizona's New COVID-19 Cases, Hospitalizations Continue To Rise 
As to what's behind Arizona's rise, "it is hard to say with certainty," said Kacey Ernst, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Arizona. While it's possible localized outbreaks in long-term care facilities are driving the numbers, Ernst suspects it's more likely that loosening state restrictions lead to increased community transmission. "Many people equate reopening with being safe," Ernst said. "While there is certainly some uptake of masks and physical distancing, it is not ubiquitous." (Schumaker, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Cases Hit Daily Records In Some U.S. States
On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that he didn’t want to backtrack on reopening Texas and that residents would need to take it upon themselves to wear masks and practice social distancing. But on Tuesday he urged Texans to take greater precautions, saying people shouldn’t go out unless absolutely necessary. “The safest place for you is at home,” Mr. Abbott said. (Ansari, 6/23)

CNN: Several US States Are Reporting Thousands Of New Coronavirus Cases Each Day 
Officials are making desperate calls on residents to stay home, wear a mask and keep their distance after alarming coronavirus trends have emerged across several US states. California recorded a striking 5,019 new cases on Monday. In Florida, officials announced 3,289 confirmations in a day. And Arizona saw 3,591 new cases in a day. In Texas, health authorities have said new cases and hospitalizations are rising at their fastest rate yet -- a rate that Gov. Greg Abbott called "unacceptable." (Maxouris, 6/24)

NPR: Florida Doctor Urges Young Residents Not To Assume COVID-19 Is 'Benign'
Florida Gov. DeSantis recently announced a dramatic decline in the state's median age for coronavirus patients: from 65 years old in March to 37. Dr. Cheryl Holder, an associate professor at Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University, says that's likely due to older people heeding warnings about how to stay healthy. "It's really basically who gets exposed," Holder tells NPR. "If you look who is staying in and following the guidelines, [it's] older people who are at risk. The older folks got [the message]; the young people, not so much." (Greene, 6/23)

The New York Times: As The Virus Surges In South Florida, A Trump Resort Joins The Rush To Reopen 
Poolside at President Trump’s resort near Miami, dozens of guests sunned last weekend on lounge chairs and chatted in cabanas. Golfers fanned out across multiple courses, and the hotel lobby hummed with activity for the first time in months. But the reopening of Trump National Doral, the most important source of revenue for the president’s strained family business, came as new cases of the coronavirus spiked in surrounding Miami-Dade County and public health officials urged caution about resuming normal activity. (Lipton, Reisner, Eder and Protess, 6/23)

WBUR: Miami-Dade County Mayor Says Masks, Social Distancing Rules Aren't Enough, Enforcement Is Key 
The country’s top infectious disease specialist flagged Florida as a COVID-19 hot spot while speaking before a House committee on Tuesday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said he’s seeing a “disturbing spike” in infections across some parts of the country — and that the next few weeks in Florida will be critical. (Hobson. 6/23)

CNN: As Florida Emerges From Shutdown, Covid-19 Cases Surge
As Florida emerges from its coronavirus shutdown, the state is experiencing a surge of Covid-19 cases, with younger Floridians accounting for a significant number of positive tests. The Florida Department of Health reported an additional 3,286 cases of coronavirus on Tuesday, bringing the state total to 103,503. (Wood, 6/24)

Boston Globe: Officials Say They Need More Time To Comply With New Disclosure Law On Long-Term Care Deaths 
State public health officials say they need more time to comply with a new law requiring them to provide the precise number of COVID-19 deaths and cases at nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and other senior residences throughout Massachusetts. The Department of Public Health already has provided limited data about outbreaks at the facilities after pressure from news media, lawmakers, and advocates. A bill sponsored by Representative Ruth Balser, which requires the state to significantly ramp up the reporting for long-term care sites, was passed by the Legislature late last month and signed by Governor Charlie Baker early this month. (Wallack and Weisman, 6/23)

Kaiser Health News: COVID Pandemic Jeopardizes Vote On Oklahoma Medicaid Expansion
Oklahoma residents going to the polls June 30 have the chance to override state leaders’ decadelong refusal to expand Medicaid, which would cover more than 200,000 low-income adults and bring billions of federal dollars into the state. But advocates are concerned that turnout for the summer primary election could be hampered by fears of contracting COVID-19 at voting stations and by Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s about-face on the issue. Since the supporters got the measure on the ballot in October, the governor has gone from opposing Medicaid expansion to announcing in January he would institute his own expansion plan beginning July 1 that included work requirements and monthly premiums for enrollees. But he turned around and surprised many in May with a veto of state funding for his own proposal. (Galewitz, 6/24)

NBC News: Amazon Warehouse In Minnesota Had More Than 80 COVID-19 Cases
An Amazon warehouse in Minnesota was the site of a spike in COVID-19 cases, according to newly released data from the Minnesota Department of Health. The warehouse in Shakopee, Minn., had 88 positive cases in about 70 days. It employs about 1,000 people, meaning about 1 in 12 employees contracted the virus. (Garcia-Hodges, Kent and Kaplan, 6/23)

AP: Rural Missouri Pastor: Virus 'Just Started To Sprout Up'
Pastor Joshua Manning is waiting for test results, but he can tell by the persistent fever and body aches that he probably has the coronavirus. His wife and three kids have symptoms, too, and so many members of his Community Baptist Church in tiny Noel, Missouri, are infected that he’s closing the building until things improve. “We did all the things we were supposed to do,” Manning, 41, said. “We shut down for two months. But the cases have just started to sprout up.” (Salter, 6/23)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Eyeing A 2nd Coronavirus Surge, Here’s What Louisiana Doctors Learned From The 1st 'Tsunami' 
When the first case of coronavirus was diagnosed in Louisiana on March 9, doctors had little information about a disease that would soon threaten to overwhelm hospital systems in New Orleans, an early epicenter of the virus. Within a week, hospitals were knocking out windows and putting up plywood to create negative pressure rooms on the fly. (Woodruff, 6/23)

CNN: At Least 17 High School Students Test Positive For Coronavirus After A Trip To Myrtle Beach 
At least 17 Ohio high school students tested positive for coronavirus after a recent trip to Myrtle Beach, when they returned to a county that had previously reduced infection rates to zero. Robert Sproul, Deputy Health Commissioner of the Belmont County Health Department, tells CNN that nearly 100 students from the Ohio Valley traveled to the South Carolina town and returned the weekend of June 13. The trip was not a school sanctioned event. (Kim and Joseph, 6/23)

Boston Globe: Nasal Swabbing Is The New Rhode Island Rite Of Passage 
At this point, more than 20 percent of Rhode Islanders have been tested for COVID-19 — the highest rate in the nation. So while this might be the smallest state, let there be no doubt: We are big on nasal swabbing. (Fitzpatrick, 6/23)

Detroit Free Press and Bridge Magazine: Report Shows Michigan Hospitals Got Less Than Other States In COVID-19 Relief
It was meant to be a financial booster shot, a way to help hospitals and health care systems survive the economic onslaught that COVID-19 brought. But a new report analyzing how federal coronavirus relief money was distributed shows stark disparities in which states got the biggest portions of $175 billion in aid from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. (Shamus and Erb, 6/24)

Reuters: New York City Allows Swimming At Beaches Ahead Of Independence Day Weekend
Beaches in New York City will be open to the public for swimming ahead of Independence Day, after partially being reopened for Memorial Day weekend celebrations last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted late on Tuesday.The mayor confirmed media reports that the city’s beaches would be officially open next week. (6/24)

Boston Globe: Maine Reports 23 New Coronavirus Cases, No Deaths For Sixth Day In A Row 
The Maine Center for Disease Control reported 23 new coronavirus cases and no additional deaths Tuesday afternoon, bringing the statewide case count to 2,994 as the death toll remained at 102. Cumberland and York counties reported the majority of new cases, with 12 cases and six cases, respectively, officials said. Cumberland has reported the highest case tally of the state’s counties with 1,554, followed by York with 472 and Androscoggin with 454. (Berg, 6/23)

AP: Iowa Finds No Violations At Tyson Plant With Deadly Outbreak
Iowa regulators say they found no workplace safety violations at Tyson Foods’ largest pork processing plant, which employed several people who died after contracting the coronavirus. The Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration closed its inquiry into the Tyson plant in Waterloo earlier this month without sanctioning the meat company. (Foley, 6/24)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Legislation Curbs Many Surprise Medical Bills, Not All
State lawmakers have passed legislation that could protect Georgians with individual insurance policies from massive, unexpected bills after emergency hospital visits. Right now, residents who don’t get their insurance through big employers — and instead buy through the federal marketplace or insurance agents — have little recourse when they wind up with surprises in their bills. (Hart, 6/23)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Senate Greenlights COVID Protections For Georgia Businesses
The Georgia Senate cleared legislation on Tuesday that would shield businesses and health care providers from lawsuits if workers or customers contract COVID-19 at their establishments. House Bill 167, passed on a largely party-line vote of 31-19, would limit legal liability for companies unless they engage in “gross negligence, willful and wanton misconduct or intentional infliction of harm.” (Hallerman, 6/23)

Albuquerque Journal: Bernalillo County Detox Goes Into Quarantine 
The Bernalillo County CARE Campus has temporarily stopped accepting clients and initiated quarantine measures after discovering a recently discharged detox client is at “potential risk” for COVID-19. The client started the detox program on June 19 and was asymptomatic during their three-day stay, according to a county news release. (Dyer, 6/23)

In other state news —

The New York Times: Head Of NY Planned Parenthood, Laura McQuade, Ousted After Staff Complaints 
Facing mounting complaints about abusive behavior and unfair treatment of black staff members, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, Laura McQuade, has been ousted from her job. The organization’s board of directors had supported Ms. McQuade as recently as last week. On Tuesday, however, the group reversed course, sending an email to staff members saying the board had “parted ways” with her the previous day. (Otterman, 6/23)

Detroit Free Press: University Of Michigan, Victims Of Sports Doctor To Enter Mediation
The University of Michigan and potentially hundreds of victims of former university doctor Robert Anderson will enter mediation in September, according to discussions held in federal court Tuesday. A federal judge also ordered a law firm hired by U-M to run an independent investigation outside of the lawsuit process to show up in her courtroom to discuss their investigation. (Jesse, 6/23)

State House News: Hunger Strike Launched In Effort To Change Name Of Faneuil Hall 
Boston-based New Democracy Coalition founder Kevin Peterson started a fast Monday, escalating a long-running effort to change the name of Faneuil Hall, which was named for a wealthy merchant who was an owner and trader of slaves. Peterson’s demand: that Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh identify a date to plan citywide hearings on changing the name. Through a spokesperson, the mayor had no comment. (Norton, 6/23)

Modern Healthcare: Beaumont Reduces Bed Count By 86 At One Hospital, Transfers Some To Other Facilities
Beaumont Health plans to downsize Beaumont Wayne by 86 beds, transfer 10 of those beds to its Beaumont Troy hospital, 22 to its main campus in Royal Oak and delicense the remaining 54 beds on June 30, according to an internal Beaumont email obtained by Crain's Detroit Business. The moves will have a small impact on staffing at Wayne but will save Southfield, Mich.-based Beaumont an unspecified amount of money and most likely will lead to higher revenue at the Troy and Royal Oak hospitals because it will be able to admit an increased number of patients over time, two healthcare experts told Crain's. (Greene, 6/23)

Reuters: Washington State Makes Face Masks Mandatory As Some States See New Coronavirus Surge 
The governor of Washington state on Tuesday ordered residents to wear face masks in public as officials across the country sought new means to control the coronavirus pandemic while easing clamp-downs on residents and reopening the economy. The move by Washington Governor Jay Inslee came as Arizona, California, Mississippi and Nevada reported record numbers of new cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus. Texas set a record on Monday. (Shumaker and Bernstein, 6/23)

CBS News: Washington State To Require Face Masks After County Runs Out Of Hospital Beds 
A county in Washington state has run out of hospital beds because of a recent spike in coronavirus cases — and now, Washington Governor Jay Inslee says the entire state is going to take a more aggressive approach to handling the pandemic. Everyone in the state, minus a few exceptions, will now have to wear a face mask, and will be charged with a misdemeanor crime if they fail to do so. (Cohen, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 6,000 Coronavirus Cases New California Daily Record
California shattered a daily record for new coronavirus cases with more than 6,000 infections reported Monday — the largest single-day count in the state since the pandemic hit the U.S. In Los Angeles County, officials on Tuesday reported more than 2,000 new cases for the fourth time in the last week, bringing the total number of infections to more than 88,200. Officials also reported 34 additional deaths, increasing the death toll to 3,171 — the bulk of the state’s total. (Shalby, 6/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: California Sees Spike In Number Of Cases — For Second Straight Day 
California on Tuesday saw some of its highest numbers of new coronavirus cases — surpassing 6,000 new cases in a 24-hour reporting period for the second day straight as the state barreled forward with reopening plans. Dramatic surges in new cases were seen in various parts of the state: Santa Clara County on Tuesday recorded its highest daily total in new coronavirus cases in more than two months, with 121 cases, a “worrisome” spike, health officials said. (Allday and Kawahara, 6/23)

Reuters: California Hospital Admitting Only COVID-19 Patients As Outbreak Ravages State's Breadbasket 
The COVID-19 spike in California’s agricultural breadbasket is so steep that a hospital in Lodi is not accepting some patients who have other illnesses, as infections mount at nearly four times the rate called for in state guidelines for reopening the economy. The rapid rise of hospitalizations in San Joaquin County comes as infections from the novel coronavirus continue to soar in California, which on Monday reported a record increase of over 6,000 new cases, according to a Reuters tally. (Berstein, 6/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Coronavirus Deaths At Nursing Homes Like San Miguel In Concord Driven By Poor Oversight 
The news out of the Concord nursing home came as California saw sudden surges in the number of new cases — surpassing 6,000 for a second straight day — even as the state reopened restaurants, bars, gyms and salons.Nursing home deaths account for more than 40% of all COVID-19 deaths in California, and are on the rise even though it’s clear that isolation, proper equipment and frequent testing slow the spread of the coronavirus. (Ravani, 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Leaders OK $100-Million Coronavirus Rent Relief Program
Nearly 50,000 Los Angeles families hurt by the economic and health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic could get help from a $100-million rent relief program passed by the City Council on Tuesday. The money would provide up to $2,000 in rental assistance for low-income households who have lost work, fallen ill or had to assist sick family members during the crisis. “I am reminded every day during this ongoing pandemic that people, especially those in disenfranchised communities, are struggling,” City Council President Nury Martinez, who authored the measure, said in a statement. “This program will help tens of thousands of Angelenos, and that’s wonderful news.” (Dillon, 6/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: State Lawmakers Expedite Hearing On California Prisons Amid Coronavirus Outbreaks 
State lawmakers have expedited an oversight hearing on California’s prison system to find out why the coronavirus has surged at various lockups across the state. More than 3,800 inmates have been infected, including more than 400 at San Quentin, where an outbreak has grown after officials transferred sick inmates into the prison from the virus-plagued California Institution for Men in Chino. (Cassidy and Fagone, 6/23)

NBC News: Woman Who Intentionally Coughed In Baby's Face Wanted For Assault, California Police Say
Police are searching for a San Jose woman who appeared to cough on a 1-year-old child at a store after she accused the child's mother of standing too close to her. The incident happened on June 12 just before 5:30 p.m. at a Yogurtland while the unidentified woman, believed to be in her 60s, was standing in line in front of the mother and child, who was in a stroller. (Burke, 6/23)

The Washington Post: Vallejo, California Defunded Its Police Force. Fatal Police Shootings Soared.
Twelve years ago, officials in Vallejo, Calif., reluctantly took a step that activists are now urging in cities across the country: They defunded their police department. Unable to pay its bills after the 2008 financial crisis, Vallejo filed for bankruptcy and cut its police force nearly in half — to fewer than 80 officers, from a pre-recession high of more than 150. At the time, the working-class city of 122,000 north of San Francisco struggled with high rates of violent crime and simmering mistrust of its police department. It didn’t seem like things could get much worse. (Jamison, 6/23)

San Francisco Chronicle: Climate Activism, Racial Justice Intersect In Bay Area Protests
People of color often live closer to factories and other major sources of pollution and experience the negative health consequences that proximity entails, Butler said. And communities of color have been at the forefront of the national cries for change following Floyd’s death, too. So Butler has taken an active role in recent demonstrations, marching and rallying in Oakland and speaking out against the presence of police officers in local schools. (Morris, 6/24)

ABC News: Texas Children's Hospital Now Taking Adult Patients As Coronavirus Cases Rise 
The rise in new COVID-19 cases in Texas has gotten so taxing that a children's hospital in Houston is now admitting adult patients. The Texas Children's Hospital said it opened up its intensive care unit and acute care-beds to adults who are suffering from the virus. Houston has 14,322 confirmed cases to date and over the last two weeks has seen a record number of new daily cases that average over 200 a day, according to the Houston Health Department. (Pereira, 6/23)

NPR: 5,489 New COVID-19 Cases: Texas Reports All-Time Daily High
"Today, Texas will report an all-time high in the number of cases of people testing positive" for the coronavirus, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday, adding that for the first time, his state would surpass 5,000 new cases in a single day. Hours later, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported 5,489 new cases. Abbott initially revealed the daunting new record during an interview with TV station KBTX in which he urged people to take the deadly disease seriously, telling them to wear a mask in public, stay home when possible and take other precautions. (Chappell, 6/23)

WBUR: 5,489 New COVID-19 Cases: Texas Reports All-Time Daily High
Texas is seeing a sharp rise in cases; it was just days ago that the state crossed the 4,000-case mark for the first time in its daily tally. New cases have hit the Houston area so hard that the Texas Children's Hospital is now admitting adult patients. The move comes despite the fact that Houston is home to the massive Texas Medical Center — deemed the largest medical center in the world. (Chappell, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: Spike In Houston COVID-19 Cases ‘Damn Scary,’ Rep. Pete Olson Tells Anthony Fauci At Hearing 
The rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Houston has U.S. Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, ringing an alarm with the nation’s top infectious disease experts in Washington who last month were praising the city’s efforts to contain the virus. During a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee meeting Tuesday, Olson warned that the current trajectory of cases in Houston has the city on pace to be one of the worst affected cities in the nation if something doesn’t change. Olson said there are experts comparing Houston’s situation to Brazil’s. (Wallace, 6/23)

Dallas Morning News: Coronavirus Hospitalizations Continue To Rise In Dallas County, Including A Swell In ICU Patients
The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Dallas County was at a record high once again Tuesday, with a spike in the number of people being treated in intensive care units. The county reported 445 new cases of COVID-19, as well as seven deaths from the virus. (Jones and Steele, 6/23)

Dallas Morning News: A Plan For COVID-19 And Beyond: Keep Employees Working At Home
As COVID-19 continues to surge here, UT Southwestern Medical Center is warning about “alarming” trends and urging residents to stay vigilant, especially around the July Fourth holiday. Its doctors also had a message for business: Keep employees working at home if you can. While that approach won’t fly in some industries, many others have embraced remote work. It’s helping them get through the pandemic and slowing the potential spread of the disease. (Schnurman, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: Lawmakers Protest As Feds Pull Support From 4 Harris County COVID Testing Sites 
The Trump administration is planning to end federal support for local coronavirus testing sites across the nation at the end of the month — including seven in Texas, where confirmed cases of COVID are spiking. Texas officials are urging the White House to rethink the move, warning of “catastrophic cascading consequences” of pulling federal support for testing sites, four of which are in Houston and Harris County and administer thousands of tests per day. City officials consider two of those sites — the largest in the city, administering up to 500 tests each per day — the backbone of Houston’s testing efforts. (Wermund, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: TEA Draft Leaves Most Rules For Fighting Coronavirus In Schools To Local Leaders 
Texas leaders expect public schools to re-open for in-person classes in August, but appear willing to leave many of the health and safety decisions for combating the ongoing coronavirus outbreak to local education officials, including whether to require students and faculty to wear face masks. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath was expected to release formal safety guidelines Tuesday regarding the opening of public schools in the upcoming 2020-21 academic year, but backed off in the face of rising COVID-19 cases across the state. (Webb, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: Commissioner Cagle Implores Harris County Residents To Use ‘Common Sense’ To Fight Coronavirus 
Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle updated Harris County’s efforts to corral the novel coronavirus and flood mitigation efforts at the virtual State of the County Lunch-In held by the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. Cagle shared that he has personally seen the impact of the coronavirus. (Mehrtens , 6/23)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Officials Propose $800-Million Plan For Homeless
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic is slashing tax revenue across the board, officials Tuesday unveiled an $800-million plan to house Los Angeles County’s homeless people who are most vulnerable to the disease. The three-year program proposed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority would employ a combination of bridge housing, rental subsidies and rehousing services, all leading to permanent placements for 15,000 people who are considered most vulnerable to COVID-19 because of their age or health conditions. (Smith and Oreskes, 6/23)

KQED: California Found Hotels For 10,000 Homeless Residents. What Next? 
Now, Newsom says he wants to turn that temporary solution into a permanent one by helping counties buy hotels and motels across the state. Advocates for people experiencing homelessness say it’s a rare opportunity to put a meaningful dent in the state’s housing shortage by providing housing for around 10% of the state’s more than 150,000 homeless residents. (Baldassari and Solomon, 6/23)

Houston Chronicle: Houston’s Homeless Numbers Stayed Level From 2019. But That Was Before Coronavirus. 
Before the novel coronavirus hit, the number of people experiencing homelessness in the Houston region remained stable from 2019 to 2020, according to data released Monday by the Coalition for the Homeless. Harris County’s count last year found 1,515 people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in a single night and 2,052 staying in shelters — a 54 percent decrease since 2011. The Houston area’s homeless numbers spiked in the 2018 count, likely due to Hurricane Harvey. The 2020 count, which took place in January, found 1,551 living unsheltered and 2,202 sheltered. (Smith, 6/23)

NPR: D.C. Will Stop Housing Families Experiencing Homelessness At Quality Inn Next Month
The city is terminating its relationship with a Northeast motel that it has used as overflow housing for families experiencing homelessness for the last five years. The District is planning to move all remaining families out of the Quality Inn motel on New York Ave by mid-July, according to the D.C. Department of Human Services. (Delgadillo, 6/23)

WBUR: We Still Don't Fully Understand The Label 'Asymptomatic' 
Even if someone is infected by the novel coronavirus and remains asymptomatic — free of coughing, fever, fatigue and other common signs of infection, that doesn't mean the coronavirus isn't taking a toll. The virus can still be causing mild — although likely reversible — harm to their lungs. (Huang, 6/23)

CIDRAP: Study: Heart Problems In COVID-19 ICU Patients Likely Not Due To Virus
Critically ill COVID-19 patients were 10 times more likely than hospitalized patients with less severe coronavirus infections to have cardiac arrest or heart rhythm disorders and die, but these conditions are likely not due to infection with the novel coronavirus, according to a study published yesterday in Heart Rhythm. Using clinical records, researchers reviewed the characteristics of all 700 COVID-19 patients admitted to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from Mar 6 to May 19. (Van Beusekom, 6/23)

CIDRAP: Airborne SARS-CoV-2 More Efficient Than SARS, MERs Viruses, Study Shows
Aerosolized SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, remained infectious for as long as 16 hours, according to a study published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Using nebulizers and a custom-built rotating drum, US researchers aerosolized the viruses once each in primate head-only exposure chambers or 30-liter rodent chambers in four aerobiology laboratories. They measured the short-term aerosol efficiencies of SARS-CoV-2 and compared them with those of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, the related coronaviruses that cause SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome, and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome), respectively. (6/23)

AP: Scarce Medical Oxygen Worldwide Leaves Many Gasping For Life
Guinea’s best hope for coronavirus patients lies inside a neglected yellow shed on the grounds of its main hospital: an oxygen plant that has never been turned on. The plant was part of a hospital renovation funded by international donors responding to the Ebola crisis in West Africa a few years ago. But the foreign technicians and supplies needed to complete the job can’t get in under Guinea’s coronavirus lockdowns — even though dozens of Chinese technicians came in on a charter flight last month to work at the country’s lucrative mines. Unlike many of Guinea’s public hospitals, the mines have a steady supply of oxygen. (Hinnant, Petesch and Diallo, 6/24)

NPR: UNICEF: Pandemic Raises Concern About Youth Suicide In South Asia
A pandemic is hard on everyone. And even though older people face greater risks from the novel coronavirus, a UNICEF report released on Tuesday points to another particularly vulnerable population: youth. The report is titled Lives Upended: How COVID-19 threatens the futures of 600 million South Asian children. According to the report, the pandemic is "unraveling decades of health, education and other advances for children across South Asia." (Kritz, 6/23)

Kaiser Health News: Drinking Surged During The Pandemic. Do You Know The Signs Of Addiction?
Despite the lack of dine-in customers for nearly 2½ long months during the coronavirus shutdown, Darrell Loo of Waldo Thai stayed busy.Loo is the bar manager for the popular restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri, and he credits increased drinking and looser liquor laws during the pandemic for his brisk business. Alcohol also seemed to help his customers deal with all the uncertainty and fear. (Smith, 6/24)

KQED: Dining Out During COVID-19? What You Should Know First 
As Bay Area restaurants reopen, there is still a lot of uncertainty about how to keep patrons and workers safe. And although the CDC recommends takeout, delivery, curbside pick-up and drive-through services to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many Bay Area residents are eager to dine out at their favorite eateries again. There’s a new, pandemic-era social contract, the first rules of which are maintaining social distancing and wearing a mask. (Ramakrishnan, 6/23)

Kaiser Health News: Sex In The Time Of COVID: Gay Men Begin To Embrace A ‘New Normal’
Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a primary care physician in Los Angeles, has treated gay men for decades. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, he said, many patients have so dramatically changed their sexual behavior that they shrug off the need for routine screenings for sexually transmitted diseases. “They say, ‘I haven’t had any contact since I saw you last, so there’s no need to do any STD tests,’” said Klausner, an adjunct professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at UCLA. (Tuller, 6/24)

Los Angeles Times: To Encourage Coronavirus Masks, A Family Draws Chalk Murals
During the first week of the shutdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Neal Brandenburg’s daughters were bouncing off the walls. The stay-at-home dad usually has the house to himself while his wife is at work and daughters Noa, 6, and Ruby, 11, attend Culver City schools. “The ‘staycation’ with children was not going smoothly,” he said. “I just desperately needed something to do that could entertain them.” (Sturgill, 6/21)

Stat: North Dakota's Contact Tracing Apps May Be A Litmus Test For Covid-19 Tech
Software engineer Tim Brookins didn’t build his Bison Tracker app with the coronavirus pandemic in mind. He was just looking for a fun way to chart the annual migration of fans from his home state of North Dakota to Texas for the national championship football game. But in a surprising turn of events, the backbone of the Bison Tracker app has become one of the first digital contact tracing tools to be deployed on the state level — and Brookins is one of the lead engineers shepherding the effort. (Brodwin, 6/24)

NPR: Meatpacking Workers Are Getting Tested — But Some Say Not Often Enough 
Back in April, the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, was a poster child for corporate failure to protect workers from the coronavirus. Dozens of plant employees every day were showing up in clinics with symptoms of COVID-19. Nafissa Cisse Egbuonye, the public health director for Black Hawk County, Iowa, where the plant is located, recalls telling plant managers: "There is a huge volume [of cases]. There is an outbreak!" (Charles, 6/22)

The Hill: Mental Health, Addiction Services Clamoring For Coronavirus Funds 
Some mental health and addiction services providers say they are missing out on federal coronavirus aid due to confusing requirements and miscommunication from the Trump administration. Congress appropriated $175 billion three months ago to help health providers weather the COVID-19 crisis, but little of that funding has made its way to addiction and mental health clinics that primarily treat low-income Medicaid patients. Providers are now struggling to keep their doors open. (Hellmann, 6/23)

The Washington Post: MLB Set To Return In July, Ending Months-Long Coronavirus Shutdown
It felt exceedingly treacherous and painstaking getting Major League Baseball back on the field, some 3½ months after it was effectively shuttered by a global pandemic, through a bitter and halting economic negotiation that still failed to deliver an agreement, and with seemingly each day bringing another body blow to the sport — in the form of a nasty letter from MLB to its players’ union or vice versa, or a fresh leak designed to embarrass the other side. And then it was finally over Tuesday night, and the sport had a date for the reopening of “spring” training camps (July 1) and a new Opening Day of July 23 or 24, nearly four months behind schedule. The season will be 60 games, by far the shortest in the sport’s modern history, followed by a postseason. (Sheinin, 6/23)

Reuters: MLB: League, Players Agree To 60-Game Season, Starts In July 
Major League Baseball (MLB) and its players’ association agreed to a shortened 60-game 2020 season on Tuesday, ending weeks of heated talks between team owners and their players. Players will report for spring training by July 1 with the season set to begin on July 23 or July 24, MLB said. MLB postponed its 162-game regular season in March due to the coronavirus pandemic and had struggled to broker an accord between the two sides. (Tennery, 6/23)

Reuters: Explainer: What Is A Second Wave Of A Pandemic, And Has It Arrived In The U.S.? 
Infectious disease experts, economists and politicians have raised concerns about a second wave of coronavirus infections in the United States that could worsen in the coming months. But some, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert, said it is too soon to discuss a second wave when the United States has never emerged from a first wave in which more than 120,000 people have died and more than 2.3 million Americans have had confirmed infections with the novel coronavirus. (Steenhuysen, 6/23)

The New York Times: The Tiny Bank That Got Pandemic Aid To 100,000 Small Businesses 
From its address on the west side of the Hudson River to its tiny balance sheet, Cross River Bank is nothing like Manhattan’s Wall Street behemoths. But as part of the government’s efforts to stave off an economic catastrophe, it stands among giants. Cross River has churned out loans to more than 106,000 businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, a centerpiece of the government’s $2 trillion CARES Act. That puts it just behind three of the country’s most prolific lenders: Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. (Cowley, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Colleges Spend Millions To Prepare To Reopen Amid Coronavirus 
As colleges around the country map out plans to reopen their campuses in the fall, they have embarked on some unique and pricey shopping expeditions: sourcing miles of plexiglass, hundreds of thousands of face masks and, in the case of the University of Central Florida, trying to get in an order for 1,200 hand-sanitizer stations before neighboring theme parks could buy them all up. Costs for protective gear, cleaning supplies and labor for employees to take students’ temperatures and conduct hourly wipe-downs of doorknobs are already running into the millions of dollars. (Korn, 6/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Back To School With Covid-19 Rules: Temperature Checks, Few Sports And Lots Of Distance 
As American parents and students begin to consider what school will look like in the fall, children across much of the world have returned to schools already, finding them barely recognizable, with new layouts and routines adapted for the coronavirus pandemic. Cafeterias look like exam halls with desks spaced out, temperatures are checked, shared computers are unplugged, and there are no sports. For some, yellow signs on the ground dictate which directions they should walk, with paths divided by ages. For others, school has been reduced to a few hours a day or takes place only on alternating days. (Craymer and Jeong, 6/23)

In other public health news —

Detroit Free Press: Bagged Salads Linked To Intestinal Infection Outbreak
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and public health officials has identified an outbreak of Cyclospora infections in several states linked to bagged salad mixes. Cylcospora, according to the CDC, is an intestinal illness caused by the Cyclospora cayetanensis. While no illnesses have been reported in Michigan, the ALDI Little Salad Bar brand Garden Salad sold at Michigan ALDI stores and in other nine other states is being recalled. (Selasky, 6/23)

ABC News: Pause In Cancer Treatments During COVID May Cause Other Public Health Crisis 
Yet another unfortunate outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic: More people with cancer are going undiagnosed and untreated. With health and government officials focused on COVID-19, and people afraid to go to doctor's offices and hospitals for fear of catching the disease, cancer experts see a new emerging public health crisis going unnoticed which may lead to more cancer deaths. (David and Carrington, 6/24)

CNN: Irritable Bowel Disease Might Mean Greater Dementia Risk 
If you have inflammatory bowel disease, you may be at greater risk for developing dementia, a new study suggests. Inflammatory bowel disease, which includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is a chronic inflammatory condition that affects more than 3 million US adults and millions more around the world. It intermittently triggers stomach pain, diarrhea and bloody stools. (Rogers, 6/23)

The Hill: The Opioid Crisis Continues — Here's What We Need To Do
Big problems are rarely solved with simple solutions. The opioid crisis is an example. This is an important opportunity to make changes that can save and change tens of thousands of lives — and we already know what needs to be done and how to do it. In today’s society, where we see problems fixed by the end of a 30-minute sitcom, we are sometimes lulled into believing that issues in our own lives similarly can be fixed by a quick pill or the stroke of a pen. However, as we all know too well, health care issues tend to be complicated and involve many stakeholders. The opioid epidemic is no exception, juggling the interests of insurance companies, governments, medical providers, social workers, therapists, pharmacies, facilities and the patients themselves. All of this is done in the backdrop of other limitations, including geography, time, economics and societal stigmas. (Adam Bruggeman, 6/23)

CNN: Some Cyberbullies Show Signs Of PTSD, According To A UK Study
Cyberbullying is linked to a variety of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, not only in victims but cyberbullies as well, according to a new study of over 2,000 UK teens. Over a quarter of cyberbullies suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, the study, published Tuesday in the Archives of Disease in Childhood Journal, found. (Marples, 6/24)

NBC News: Meet Travis Flores, A Survivor Of A Rare Third Lung Transplant
When Travis Flores, 29, received his third double-lung transplant in May, his partner, Clément, was only allowed to visit once, and they were separated by a glass barrier. “I tried my hardest to build my strength up as quickly as I could to get out of there, so that I could be with him again and be with my family again,” Flores, who spent three weeks at the UCLA Medical Center following his operation, told NBC News. “There were moments where I was so tired that I didn't think I was going to be able to keep going, but there's so many reasons to keep fighting.” (Lang, 6/23)

The New York Times: EU May Ban Travel From US As It Reopens Borders, Citing Coronavirus Failures 
European Union countries rushing to revive their economies and reopen their borders after months of coronavirus restrictions are prepared to block Americans from entering because the United States has failed to control the scourge, according to draft lists of acceptable travelers reviewed by The New York Times. That prospect, which would lump American visitors in with Russians and Brazilians as unwelcome, is a stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States, which has more than 2.3 million cases and upward of 120,000 deaths, more than any other country. (Stevis-Gridneff, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Brazilian Court Rules President Bolsonaro Must Wear Mask In Public 
A federal court has ordered Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is among a handful of prominent world leaders who sometimes refuse to wear a mask, to put one on when he’s out in public in the country’s capital. Mr. Bolsonaro’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, he has expressed support for the use of masks but he has been erratic about using them. And he is not the only one. (Lewis and Magalhaes, 6/23)

The New York Times: The Hajj Pilgrimage Is Canceled, And Grief Rocks The Muslim World 
For much of his life, Abdul-Halim al-Akoum stashed away cash in hopes of one day traveling from his Lebanese mountain village to perform the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims who can are obliged to make once in their lives. He was all set to go this year until the coronavirus pandemic forced Saudi Arabia to effectively cancel the hajj for what some scholars say may be the first time in history. (Hubbard and Walsh, 6/23)

Politico: Germany Reckons With Second Wave Risk
Is Gütersloh where Europe’s battle to prevent a second coronavirus wave starts? A regional lockdown announced Tuesday affecting more than 500,000 locals near Germany’s industrial heartland offers a laboratory for how Europe can manage new outbreaks of COVID-19. (Posaner, Furlong and Martuscelli, 6/23)

AP: UN Chief Criticizes Lack Of Global Cooperation On COVID-19
The United Nations chief criticized the total lack of international coordination in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday and warned that the go-it-alone policy of many countries will not defeat the coronavirus. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that what needs to be done is to make countries understand that by acting in isolation “they are creating the situation that is getting out of control” — and that global coordination is key. (Lederer, 6/23)

Politico: WHO Sets Out Vaccines Allocation Plan
The World Health Organization has set out its proposal for the distribution of future coronavirus treatments and vaccines, with over four billion doses needed to vaccinate the world's priority populations. In a document presented to its member countries on June 18, the WHO writes that the goal of its Global Allocation Framework should be to reduce Covid-19 mortality and protect health systems. Accordingly, three groups should receive priority vaccinations: Health care workers; adults older than 65; and adults with comorbidities such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and obesity. (Furlong, 6/23)

Reuters: Thailand Plans To Allow Some Foreign Travellers In Next Week 
Thailand plans to allow some foreign travellers into the country starting next week, as it eases restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, a senior official said on Wednesday. The first group of foreigners that have registered for 14-day state quarantine include those with work permits, investors and business executives, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, spokesman for the government’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration. (6/24)

AP: Plastic Keeps Virus, Not Love Away From Spain Nursing Home
Even when it comes wrapped in plastic, a hug can convey tenderness, relief, love and devotion.The fear that gripped Agustina Cañamero during the 102 days she and her 84-year-old husband spent physically separated during Spain’s coronavirus outbreak dissolved the moment the couple embraced through a screen of plastic film. (Morenatti, 6/24)

The Washington Post: Chile Coronavirus: Pinera's Early Success Led To Reopening; Cases Soared 
It wasn't that long ago that Chilean President Sebastián Piñera boasted that the country was ready for the coronavirus. "Far better prepared than Italy," is how he put it in March.And after locking down the population, bolstering hospitals and testing aggressively, the country did appear to be faring well against the pandemic. With a comparatively advanced health-care system, it kept numbers of cases and deaths lower than in neighboring Brazil, Ecuador and Peru. By April, officials were touting plans to distribute a first-in-the-world “immunity passport,” enabling Chileans who had recovered from covid-19 to get back to work. (Bartlett, 6/23)

Financial Times: Sweden Debates Its Coronavirus Public Health Experiment
The two sides of Sweden’s against-the-grain coronavirus strategy are visible from a small square in northeastern Gothenburg. On one side lies the Gerashus care home, where more than a quarter of residents have died in the last three months, most of them from COVID-19. At the peak of the outbreak, two-thirds of its staff were absent. On the other side of the square is a bustling tram stop where dozens of people wait to head into the center of Sweden’s second city and children come from a primary school. A steady stream of customers head into a convenience store to collect online shopping parcels or buy lottery tickets. Nobody wears a mask, but most keep a meter’s distance from each other. (Milne, 6/23)

The New York Times: Virus Gains Steam Across Latin America 
By late March, the Mexican government calmly predicted that its coronavirus outbreak would peak in April. A few weeks later, it changed its prediction to mid-May.And then to late May. And then to June. Now, with new infections surging and the government facing growing anger, even ridicule, over its constant guesswork, many Mexicans have drawn their own conclusion: No one really knows. (Ahmed, Kurmanaev, Politi and Londono, 6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Races Across Brazil And Latin America, A Warning To Poor Nations
In early May, the new coronavirus swept through the crowded homes in Alley 24 of Rocinha, one of the largest of Brazil’s favelas, or slum communities. Twenty of the 35 members of Ivanete Dias de Carvalho’s extended family who live crammed together here came down with symptoms of Covid-19, from high fevers to fluid-filled lungs. Few were able to get a test. Her 65-year-old aunt died. (Magalhaes and Forero, 6/23)

Reuters: Exclusive: Women, Babies At Risk As COVID-19 Disrupts Health Services, World Bank Warns 
Millions of women and children in poor countries are at risk because the COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting health services they rely on, from neonatal and maternity care to immunisations and contraception, a World Bank global health expert has warned. Monique Vledder, head of secretariat at the bank’s Global Financing Facility (GFF), told Reuters in an interview the agency was gravely worried about the numbers of children missing vaccinations, women giving birth without medical help and interrupted supplies of life-saving medicines like antibiotics. (Kelland, 6/24)

Reuters: Back Home: The Premature Baby Born During UK's COVID Crisis 
At the peak of Britain’s coronavirus outbreak in April when hundreds were dying each day from COVID-19, Kirsty Anderson was rushed to hospital to give birth to her baby son who had not been due to arrive for another three months. Just two hours after she went into labour, baby Theo was born weighing just 2lb 4oz (1 kg) at the intensive care unit at Burnley General Hospital’s maternity wing in northern England. Father Leon Stubbs, 35, was only allowed to see Kirsty 20 minutes beforehand and after Theo’s birth, they had just an hour together before he had to go home. (McKay, 6/24)

Reuters: China Loses Appetite For Salmon, Seafood On Virus Contamination Worries 
China’s appetite for salmon and other seafood has crashed this month, after a resurgence in coronavirus infections in Beijing was traced to chopping boards for imported salmon in a wholesale food market in the capital. Exporters all the way to Europe are feeling the pinch as the virus scare prompts supermarkets and e-commerce players such as Taobao, JD.com and Meituan in China, the world’s top consumer of frozen and fresh seafood, to slash salmon sales. (Yu and Chow, 6/24)

Stat: Myovant Says Endometriosis Drug Meets Its Goal In A Second Late-Stage Trial
A combination pill from Myovant Sciences met its primary goal of reducing pain from endometriosis, the biotech company said Tuesday, the second late-stage trial to show the drug’s effectiveness in women with the condition. Myovant (MYOV), a biotech based in Switzerland with U.S. operations in Brisbane, Calif., has also been testing the hormone blocker, called relugolix, as a treatment for uterine fibroids and advanced prostate cancer. On Monday, the company received a priority review of relugolix for advanced prostate cancer from the Food and Drug Administration, meaning the agency will expedite its decision on whether to approve the drug for these patients. A study comparing standard injected therapy to the oral relugolix, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on June 4, showed better outcomes for men who took relugolix. (Cooney, 6/23)

Bloomberg: Pfizer (PFE) Heart Drug Tafamidis High Price Barrier For Elderly
Pfizer Inc.’s new $225,000-a-year heart drug is being labeled by researchers critical of the cost as “the most expensive cardiac medication in history. ”When the company initially priced the drug, called tafamidis, critics warned the high cost would present a prohibitive financial barrier to some patients. A new analysis that hones in on 50 people prescribed the medication offers data suggesting that may be true for many patients. (Court, 6/18)

The Motley Fool: Meet The Pharma Company That Just Had A Bigger IPO Than Moderna's
Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) set the record for the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in biotech history on Dec. 6, 2018. The biotech raised over $600 million. But while Moderna's IPO was the biggest ever for a biotech, it wasn't the biggest one in the biopharmaceutical industry. That honor belongs to animal health company Zoetis, which conducted an IPO raising $2.2 billion on Jan. 31, 2013 after being spun off from Pfizer. And now there's another biopharmaceutical IPO that's even bigger than Moderna's. Royalty Pharma (NASDAQ: RPRX) went public on June 16, 2020. The $2.18 billion IPO became the second-largest biopharmaceutical IPO ever and the biggest IPO of 2020 so far. Here's why investors flocked to the drugmaker that made an even bigger initial splash than widely followed Moderna. (Speights, 6/23)

Stat: As Quality Concerns Rise, FDA Report Shows Indian Plants Had More Issues
As concerns mount over the quality of the pharmaceutical supply chain, the Food and Drug Administration has released new data showing the agency inspected more manufacturing plants located in India during the past two fiscal years and found these facilities generally had more quality problems than sites located in the U.S. or the European Union. Specifically, the FDA inspected 6% more plants in India while examining 4% fewer sites in the U.S. and 6% fewer in the European Union from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2019. Meanwhile, using a simple scale of 1 to 10 to assess compliance with good manufacturing regulations, the average score for all sites globally in fiscal year 2019 was 7.4, which was not significantly different than the 7.5 seen in fiscal year 2018. (Silverman, 6/16)

Stat: Fate Of Intercept's NASH Drug Clouded By Murky FDA Review Delays
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to announce its decision on whether or not to approve the first treatment for the fatty liver disease known as NASH. But that plan has apparently been postponed for reasons that are still not clear. The FDA hasn’t offered an explanation, nor has Intercept Pharmaceuticals, the maker of the NASH drug under review. Reached on Monday, an Intercept spokesperson said the company intends to provide an update on “any material developments with respect to its regulatory timeline,” but has nothing to disclose at this time.An estimated 6 million people in the U.S. have NASH, making the disease a multibillion-dollar commercial opportunity for any drug maker that secures an approval from the FDA. (Feuerstein, 6/23)

Stat: Vertex And Canada Hold Talks Over Cystic Fibrosis Drug
The icy relationship between Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) and the Canadian government is showing signs of thawing a wee bit as the pan-Canadian Pricing Alliance opened talks over one of the company’s cystic fibrosis drugs, a move that comes shortly after the agency reached an agreement on a different Vertex medicine for the illness. The Alliance, which conducts joint negotiations on behalf of the provincial, territorial, and federal governments in the country, decided to proceed with the talks for the drug Orkambi in hopes of breaking a long-standing logjam with Vertex over its cystic fibrosis medicines. The clash has been closely tracked by patients and their families, who say they are being treated as pawns. (Silverman, 6/18)

The Hill: The Opioid Crisis Continues — Here's What We Need To Do 
Big problems are rarely solved with simple solutions. The opioid crisis is an example. This is an important opportunity to make changes that can save and change tens of thousands of lives — and we already know what needs to be done and how to do it. In today’s society, where we see problems fixed by the end of a 30-minute sitcom, we are sometimes lulled into believing that issues in our own lives similarly can be fixed by a quick pill or the stroke of a pen. However, as we all know too well, health care issues tend to be complicated and involve many stakeholders. The opioid epidemic is no exception, juggling the interests of insurance companies, governments, medical providers, social workers, therapists, pharmacies, facilities and the patients themselves. All of this is done in the backdrop of other limitations, including geography, time, economics and societal stigmas. (Adam Bruggeman, 6/23) 

Stat: Challenge Trials Aren't The Answer To A Speedy Covid-19 Vaccine
More than 25,000 people have volunteered so far to be infected with the novel coronavirus through 1DaySooner, an online recruitment organization, as an aid in testing vaccine candidates to prevent Covid-19. These volunteers know that Covid-19 can cause suffering and even death yet they are stepping forward, willing to risk their lives, because some researchers and academics contend that such experiments in humans could accelerate vaccine development. As a physician and a scientist who has cared for patients and who has been involved in the development of vaccines, I feel the urgency to get a vaccine approved for global use. And I have deep admiration for the courageous volunteers who are willing to put themselves in danger. (Michael Rosenblatt, 6/23)

The Baltimore Sun: Taking An Untested Drug To Treat Coronavirus May Be Deadlier Than The Disease 
The World Health Organization recently paused — and then restarted — its COVID-19 hydroxychloroquine coronavirus clinical trial over safety concerns. The pause came in the wake of two large reviews of data from patients who received hydroxychloroquine that reported generally negative results. The Lancet, the journal that published one of these studies, recently retracted it due to concerns about its credibility. This came in the wake of two large reviews of data from patients who received hydroxychloroquine that reported generally negative results. (Andrew Stolbach and Jeremy Sugarman, 6/17)

Forbes: Why Leaders Need To Gain A Change Of Perspective
With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to rage, people all over the world are — perhaps like never before — paying rapt attention to the views of experts. Terms such as “R” and “superspreader” — previously confined to labs and conferences attended by the eminent — have become commonplace in conversation. In part, this is down to politicians insisting that in making their decisions on combating the virus they have been “led by the science." But it could also be because at a time of uncertainty, anxious people cling to the apparently clear messages offered by the scientists standing — at a social distance, of course — alongside their political masters. The problem with this is that there is no one science any more than there is any one economics or politics. (Roger Trapp, 6/22)

The Washington Post: Don’t Listen To Trump. Mask-Wearing Is Essential.
AMC Entertainment, the movie theater chain, flip-flopped on the pandemic last week, first saying its customers wouldn’t be required to wear masks, then saying they would. It’s hard to blame the company given the Trump administration’s, and the president’s own, scattered, inconsistent and flat-out wrong messaging. Still, if the United States is going to beat the coronavirus and revive its economy, the private sector — including airlines, restaurants, retail establishments and entertainment companies — needs to step up. AMC’s first move was to say it wouldn’t adopt any mask requirement at its cinemas — even though masks are proven to impede spread of the coronavirus — because it wanted to avoid being “drawn into a political controversy.” Facing a social media backlash, it reversed course the next day, saying it’s “crucial that we listen to our guests.” That was the right outcome, but both statements missed the point: Covid-19 is not a “political controversy,” and combating it is not a matter of customer relations. It’s a public health crisis, and defeating it requires heeding public health experts. That means wearing masks in public; increased testing and tracing; and isolating people who become infected. (6/23)

The Wall Street Journal: News From The Non-Lockdown States
GOP governors have faced enormous media pressure to lock down their states in solidarity with Democrats, and some now are getting browbeaten to shut down again amid coronavirus flare-ups. So it’s worth pointing out that states that didn’t lock down this spring kept the virus under control and experienced fewer deaths than most that did. (6/23)

Arizona Republic: Trump Rally Endangers Arizona ... For An Ego Boost?
President Donald Trump swept into Arizona on Tuesday as the state broke yet another record for COVID-19. Nearly 3,600 new cases, 42 more deaths and 84% of the state’s ICU beds occupied as exhausted health-care workers struggle to keep up. Trump supporters began lining up early outside a Phoenix megachurch, with few masks in sight, and once inside they sat shoulder to shoulder, 3,000 strong. Meanwhile, outside, as Trump spoke, hundreds of protesters were driven back by Phoenix police dressed in riot gear. You knew Tuesday’s exercise in indulging a president was inevitable after the highly touted one million people were no-shows at Trump’s Saturday rally in Tulsa. (In fact, the Tulsa Fire Department estimated the crowd at under 6,200 in the 19,000-seat BOK arena.) (Laurie Roberts, 6/23)

Arizona Republic: Did Gov. Doug Ducey Just Blame Mexicans For Arizona's COVID-19 Surge?
President Trump and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey made Tuesday “Blame it on the Mexicans Day.”  Ducey set the stage for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border photo-op by blaming the recent COVID-19 uptick on Mexican residents who come to Arizona to get medical attention. Ducey dropped this bombshell during a conference call with Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of Trump’s coronavirus task force, according to Daily Beast’s exclusive reporting of the meeting. (Elvia Díaz, 6/23)

The Houston Chronicle: Abbott’s Foolish Denial About Coronavirus Spike Is Leading Texas Into A Disaster
The emperor has no mask. Gov. Greg Abbott may indeed have donned a patriotic-colored face covering at a coronavirus press conference on Monday, but his attempt to cloak Texas’ dangerous spike in cases with a fine drape of reassurances and wishful thinking revealed a simple truth in the governor’s pandemic leadership: there’s no there there. “Texans need to step up and work collaboratively,” the governor said, to “corral” the new coronavirus by following his plan to assure that the state “remains wide-open for business.” (6/23)

Dallas Morning News: Social Distancing Remains Vital To Our Battle Against COVID-19
There has been much uncertainty surrounding how the coronavirus spreads. Myriad questions have come and gone unanswered or with unclear answers: Can you get the virus from food? How about the mail? What about surfaces? If you are outdoors? If you are six feet apart? Experts are coming to a consensus that they are less concerned about COVID-19 being transmitted through food, surfaces and the outdoors and are more concerned about extended — as short as 15 minutes — and close interactions between people. (6/23)

Los Angeles Times: You May Be Ready For Bar-Hopping, But I'm Not 'Reopening' Yet 
The undergrad who lives in the back room keeps trying to get me to rejoin the world. “Let’s get coffee,” she suggests one day. “Let’s take a drive to Santa Monica,” she suggests the next. At 21, my daughter is long past ready to restart her life. She’s been living at home since March 13, when her mother and I picked her up at LAX. The three of us went into isolation that afternoon, and she has had enough. I have not. I am against reopening. I’m still hunkered down. Not forever, but for now. The pandemic isn’t over, and in fact, the numbers suggest it is getting worse — again. (David L. Ulin, 6/23)

CNN: As America Reopens, I Fear I'll Be Isolating For Years 
With New York, my home off and on for a half century, opening up on Monday, I've been reflecting on some hard, and very sad, facts of life for me and others in my position. For the past three months, since my return from France on March 13, I have remained carefully cloistered in our cabin in the woods in northeast Pennsylvania. In a long telehealth conversation with my pulmonologist of 30-plus years, I recently arrived at the disturbing conclusion that I may be unable to return to my New York City apartment, or visit my family in Paris, for years. (David A. Andelman, 6/23)

Boston Globe: The Paradoxes And Perils Of Reopening During The Coronavirus Pandemic 
The gym where I work out in Washington, D.C., is opening this week, but the synagogue where I pray is staying closed through at least September. I pay membership at both. Like most people in America, I am left to figure out the paradoxes and perils of reopening the economy during the coronavirus pandemic and make sense of the new rules or lack thereof for myself. (Tara D. Sonenshine, 6/22)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Is Making Exploitation Of NCAA Athletes Obvious
As college sports programs reopen, student-athletes around the country are weighing the risks of COVID-19 as their universities encourage them to return to the field.On Thursday, 30 UCLA football players issued a powerful letter condemning the university for failing to protect their health and safety. They demanded an independent health official to ensure that COVID-19 protocols are followed, whistle-blower protection to report violations, and the right for players to decide whether to attend sports events without fear of retaliation or loss of scholarships. (Azmatullah Hussaini and Jules Lipoff, 6/23)

Stat: Cancer Care Barriers Create Racial Disparities In Cancer Survival 
Every American is entitled to equitable access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Health care is an essential component of these aims. Cancer care, like other areas of medicine, thwarts a large proportion of Americans from achieving them. (Robert W. Carlson, 6/24)