The New York Times: After Months Of Coronavirus Isolation, George Floyd Protests Draw Shoulder-To-Shoulder Crowds
For days, Kate Dixon, has been watching the videos of demonstrations from her home in a Denver suburb: the images of young people packed shoulder to shoulder, the crowds shouting in unison on downtown streets, the occasional détente between protester and police officer that ends in a hug. “You want that to be a wonderful moment,” said Ms. Dixon, a stay-at-home mother who has been sewing face masks in her spare time. “But your heart just hurts at all the illness this could be causing.” In the last week, the United States has abruptly shifted from one crippling crisis to the next. (Bosman and Harmon, 6/2)

The Associated Press: Protests In Top 25 Virus Hot Spots Ignite Fears Of Contagion
As demonstrators flooded streets across America to decry the killing of George Floyd, public health experts watched in alarm — the close proximity of protesters and their failures in many cases to wear masks, along with the police using tear gas, could fuel new transmissions of the coronavirus. Many of the protests broke out in places where the virus is still circulating widely in the population. In fact, an Associated Press review found that demonstrations have taken place in every one of the 25 U.S. communities with the highest concentrations of new cases. Some have seen major protests over multiple days, including Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. (Smith and forster, 6/2)

ABC News: Mass Protests Could Lead To A Another Wave Of Coronavirus Infections 
As thousands of demonstrators continue to protest the killing of George Floyd, health experts are worried that a second wave of COVID-19 infections could be sparked by the mass gatherings. "What we have here is a very unfortunate experiment going on with COVID virus transmission," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. (Schumaker, 6/2)

The Associated Press: The American Story, Splintered, And Those Vying To Tell It
The hard times that have befallen this nation in 2020 — a deadly pandemic, millions unemployed, political warfare, the upheaval after George Floyd’s death — have revealed an increasingly evident truth: The storylines that have long held the nation together are coming apart. “The United States is essentially a collage culture. And if you were a certain group, you had the comfort of the solidity of the great American story. It had a coherence,” says Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “And it’s now been broken apart into a million little pieces.” (Anthony, 6/3)

CNN: Surgeon General Warns Of Coronavirus Outbreaks From Floyd Protests 
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said to expect new outbreaks of the coronavirus resulting from the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd that have seen thousands of people gather in close proximity. While a majority of protesters nationwide have worn masks and face coverings as they demand justice for Floyd, an African-American man who died last week while in police custody, the large crowds have made it difficult to social distance. The coronavirus pandemic has also disproportionately affected communities of color, an issue Adams has highlighted. (Stracqualursi, 6/2)

NBC News: Protesting In A Pandemic: COVID-19 Testing Sites Shut Down Amid National Unrest
Just as access to COVID-19 tests was ramping up in many areas across the country, some testing sites have been forced to suspend operations because of violence and protests in recent days. The temporary closures — from California to Florida — are sure to hamper efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, particularly as social distancing has given way to mass gatherings of potentially contagious people who don't know they're infected. (Edwards, 6/2)

Bangor Daily News: Bangor’s Anti-Racism Rally Was One Of The City’s Biggest In Years 
It’s not every day that hundreds of people take to the streets of Bangor, as they did Monday night to protest racial inequality and police brutality following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. It was an unusual, but not unprecedented, moment for the Queen City, which does not generally see as many large political demonstrations as two of its counterparts to the south, Augusta and Portland. (Eichacker, 6/2)

The Associated Press: 'Dangerous': Around World, Police Chokeholds Scrutinized
Three days after George Floyd died with a Minneapolis police officer choking off his air, another black man writhed on the tarmac of a street in Paris as a police officer pressed a knee to his neck during an arrest. Immobilization techniques where officers apply pressure with their knees on prone suspects are used in policing around the world and have long drawn criticism. One reason why Floyd’s death is sparking anger and touching nerves globally is that such techniques have been blamed for asphyxiations and other deaths in police custody beyond American shores, often involving non-white suspects. (Leicester, 6/3)

Kaiser Health News: Police Using Rubber Bullets On Protesters That Can Kill, Blind Or Maim For Life
In cities across the country, police departments have attempted to quell unrest spurred by the death of George Floyd by firing rubber bullets into crowds, even though five decades of evidence shows such weapons can disable, disfigure and even kill. In addition to rubber bullets — which often have a metal core — police have used tear gas, flash-bang grenades, pepper spray gas and projectiles to control crowds of demonstrators demanding justice for 46-year-old George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, while other officers restrained his body. (Szabo, 6/3)

Los Angeles Times: LAPD Will Limit Use Of Rubber Bullets On Protesters, Garcetti Says
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said he has directed the LAPD to “minimize” its use of rubber bullets when dealing with peaceful protesters. “I think that we’ve seen less of any of those tactics and I hope that we can see the most minimal if not zero of those tactics,” he said.He mentioned that an officer suffered a fractured skull and that officers needed to make peaceful protesting possible. (Oreskes, 6/2)

KQED: Four Bay Area Cities Have Used Tear Gas. Here's How It Makes COVID-19 Worse
As demonstrations against police brutality roil the country for a second week, protesters across the Bay Area continue to put their bodies on the line, weighing the risk of injury or exposure to the coronavirus against continuing to tolerate the status quo. The risk of personal harm now extends to inhaling tear gas, which four Bay Area cities have deployed multiple times since Friday — in Oakland, Walnut Creek, San Jose and Santa Rosa. (Scott, 6/2)

The Hill: Nurses, Still Fighting Coronavirus, Serve As Medics At George Floyd Protests 
Nurses treating coronavirus patients have attended multiple protests over the killing of George Floyd to act as medics to protesters hit with tear gas and pepper spray. Clips have circulated on Twitter of nurses in numerous cities providing medical assistance to Black Lives Matter protesters, including in Minneapolis, where the demonstrations began after Floyd died in police custody last week. (Budryk, 6/2)

The New York Times: Was That A Firecracker Or A Gunshot? Unpredictability On America’s Streets
If one element binds the demonstrations that have roiled the cities and towns of America for the last week — beyond the full-throated cry for an end to racial and social injustice — it is the nerve-jangling unpredictability: the uneasy sense that everything could change in an instant. All that has been required is the firing of one rubber bullet. The spraying of one can of mace. The tossing of one lighted firecracker. One precipitating action. (Barry, 6/2)

NPR: Democrats Consider Police Reforms After George Floyd's Death
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has asked the Congressional Black Caucus to lead the process of drafting a legislative response to the protests that have swept the country following the death of George Floyd. House Democrats are sorting through dozens of proposals to address policing issues, including excessive use of force and racial profiling. "It is time, it is time for us to address the concerns that were being expressed by the protesters," Pelosi said at a press event at the Capitol Tuesday. "This is not a single incident. We know this is a pattern of behavior. and we also know the history that brings us to this sad place." (Snell and Grisales, 6/2)

Boston Globe: Minority Leaders Put Legislative Agenda Behind Thoughts And Prayers 
One proposal would require police officers across the state to wear body cameras. Another would create independent boards to review police conduct in each community. And another would revoke certifications for police officers who are removed from their positions for wrongdoing, to prevent them from joining a department somewhere else. They are not necessarily new ideas — in some cases they have been languishing in the legislative process for years — but the state’s top minority elected officials united Tuesday in a call for action at a State House march and news conference, saying it’s time to enact laws that can prevent police brutality and empower those who have been disenfranchised and abused by systemic and institutional racism. (Valencia, 6/2)

Boston Globe: AG Healey Urges Business Leaders To Seize ‘Once In A Lifetime Opportunity’ To Address Racial Inequity 
Attorney General Maura Healey gave a rousing call to action on Tuesday, urging Boston business leaders to do their part in curbing the systemic racism and inequities that have prompted protest marches across the country in the past week. (Chesto, 6/2)

WBUR: Pressley, Rollins And Other Elected Officials Call For Racial Justice, Police Reforms 
Several prominent Massachusetts elected officials of color, including Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins, on Tuesday called for change at every level of government in the wake of protests against police violence and racism in the state and across the U.S. (Ruckstuhl, 6/2)

Los Angeles Times: Cause Of Death: COVID-19, Police Violence Or Racism?
Doctors and public health experts will tell you that, compared to white Americans, African American people die prematurely and disproportionately of many ills: heart disease, stroke, COVID-19, police violence. The proximate causes of these early deaths vary. But there is a sameness to the pattern, experts say, and a common source of the skewed statistics. Racism — not in its overt, name-calling form, but the kind woven deeply into the nation’s institutions — harms the 44 million Americans who identify as black and potentially shortens their lives, according to those who study racial inequities in health. (Healy, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: For African-Americans, A Painful Economic Reversal Of Fortune
In the decade before Covid-19, African-Americans’ economic circumstances, crushed during the 2007-09 recession, had slowly but steadily improved. Then lockdowns crashed the economy, and last week the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands of police touched off a wave of angry and at times violent protests. The events have highlighted painful inequities that continue to weigh on African-Americans, in their health, their incomes and their treatment by the justice system. (Ip, 6/3)

Bangor Daily News: George Floyd Unrest And COVID-19 Reveal Racial And Economic Inequality 
George Floyd died after a police officer pressed his knee on his neck until he stopped breathing, and riots have now erupted in cities across our nation. We can blame those police officers who participated in Floyd’s murder, and we can blame those looters who have moved well beyond peaceful demonstrations. But real solutions to these problems require that we probe deeper as we try to understand why our fragile sense of community has been shattered. (Jason and Hucke, 6/2)

WBUR: 'We Continue To Have A Racism Crisis': Advocates Say Clashes Shouldn't Overshadow Focus Of Protest 
That’s why tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Boston over the weekend. The protests were peaceful, but after they ended, some people clashed with police. Sullivan said the actions of a few people shouldn’t overshadow the focus of the demonstrations. She and other advocates say it's critical to address the larger issues of systemic racism and inequality that sparked the demonstrations. (Enwemeka, 6/2)

Meanwhile —

Stat: Many Black Men Fear Wearing A Mask More Than The Coronavirus 
When the CDC issued guidelines in early March asking people to wear masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the question for many Black men was not where to get a mask or which kind. It was: How do I cover my face and not get shot? (McFarling, 6/3)

The New York Times: Who’s Wearing A Face Mask? Women, Democrats And City Dwellers
As states continue to lift restrictions that were put in place to curb the coronavirus outbreak and as Americans start going out in public again, recent surveys suggest that gender, political affiliation and education level are factors that have a bearing on who is wearing a mask, and who isn’t. Public health officials have recommended wearing masks in public when social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as in grocery stores and pharmacies, and at least a dozen states have required them in those circumstances. And most businesses that are reopening are doing so with restrictions: fewer customers, social distancing and face masks. (Padilla, 6/2)

The New York Times: The C.D.C. Waited ‘Its Entire Existence For This Moment.’ What Went Wrong?
Americans returning from China landed at U.S. airports by the thousands in early February, potential carriers of a deadly virus who had been diverted to a handful of cities for screening by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their arrival prompted a frantic scramble by local and state officials to press the travelers to self-quarantine, and to monitor whether anyone fell ill. It was one of the earliest tests of whether the public health system in the United States could contain the contagion. But the effort was frustrated as the C.D.C.’s decades-old notification system delivered information collected at the airports that was riddled with duplicative records, bad phone numbers and incomplete addresses. (Lipton, Goodnough, Shear, Twohey, Mandavilli, Fink and Walker, 6/3)

The New York Times: ‘They Let Us Down’: 5 Takeaways On The C.D.C.’s Coronavirus Response
Long considered the world’s premier public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fallen short in its response to the most urgent public health emergency in its 74-year history — a pathogen that has penetrated much of the nation, killing more than 100,000 people. The agency made early missteps in testing and failed to provide timely counts of infections and deaths, hindered by aging technology across the U.S. health system. It hesitated in absorbing the lessons of other countries, and struggled to calibrate the need to move fast and its own imperative to be cautious. Its communications were sometimes confusing, sowing mistrust, even as it clashed with the White House and President Trump. (Shear, 6/3)

NBC News: White House Coronavirus Task Force Fades Further As Fear Of Second Wave Emerges
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the White House task force that President Donald Trump assembled to manage the health crisis met every day. But in recent weeks, as the virus continues to spread and health experts warn of a potential surge in cases across the country this summer, the group has met formally just three times. And in a new sign that the task force's work may be nearing an end, its members have begun drafting a final after-action report highlighting the president's response that’s expected to be completed in the coming weeks, according to two senior administration officials. (Alba, Lee and Welker, 6/2)

The Hill: White House Shifts Focus From Coronavirus 
The White House's focus on the coronavirus has faded from public view in recent days as national unrest dominates headlines. The administration's task force has scaled back its meetings, and its top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said he hasn't met with President Trump in weeks. The White House's designated testing czar, Brett Giroir, likewise said Monday he is set to return to his regular duties this month, and the president has shifted his focus to quashing protests nationwide in response to the death of George Floyd. (Samuels and Sullivan, 6/2)

Reuters: U.S. CDC Reports Total Of 1.8 Million Coronavirus Cases 
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday reported a total of 1,802,470 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 14,790 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 761 to 105,157. The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4 p.m. ET on June 1, versus its previous report released on Monday. (6/2)

NBC News: Seeing The Scale: Visualizing The 100,000 American Coronavirus Deaths
It’s nearly a World War I-sized death toll. The more than 116,000 U.S. soldiers who died more than a century ago is close to how many Americans have been killed so far by COVID-19 since the disease and the coronavirus that causes it arrived in the United States. The death toll, 104,869 as of 10:30 a.m. June 1, is greater than the populations of more than 2,500 counties across the country and stands as sobering evidence of the  deadly nature of the novel coronavirus. (Wu, Chiwaya and Muccari, 6/2)

Politico: Most ‘Emergency’ Health Aid Remains Unspent While Providers Struggle
Months after Congress approved $175 billion in emergency aid to health providers, the Trump administration has yet to pay out the majority of the funds — nearly $100 billion — amid a series of setbacks and internal uncertainty over how best to distribute the money. The delay has prompted complaints by both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and left the nation’s safety net hospitals and clinics with relatively little federal support during a pandemic that’s simultaneously thrust them onto the front lines and decimated their finances. (Cancryn, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: HHS Changes Rules For $50 Billion Provider Grants Before Key Deadline
HHS changed the rules for $50 billion in provider COVID-19 relief grants the day before providers are required to submit financial information to receive their full share of payments, according to the department's website. HHS is requiring providers to send their money back Wednesday if they still want to be eligible for their full grant allocation but aren't ready to accept the grant terms and conditions. Providers could re-apply for funds, and would then have 90 days to agree to the terms and conditions of the funds. (Cohrs, 6/2)

ProPublica: Contractors For Trump’s Controversial $3 Billion Food Aid Program Have Hired A Longtime Lobbyist To Tout Their Work
Companies receiving taxpayer dollars as part of President Donald Trump’s signature food aid program hired a longtime lobbyist to push back on criticism that the government is relying on unqualified contractors, such as an event planner. “We’re working to take the stories of the impact this is having on farmers, processors, distributors and end users and making sure some positive aspects of the program, from both the economic and social standpoints, are out there too,” said the lobbyist and industry consultant, Dale Apley, who reached out to ProPublica on behalf of the contractors. “It’s not all just certain stories about certain companies that maybe shouldn’t have been awarded contracts.” (Arnsdorf, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Serves Up Food To Fill In The Gaps Amid The Pandemic
In response to the pandemic, New York City has served more than 40 million free meals since mid-March. And the volume is increasing. Last week, nearly 1.5 million free meals were dished out every day. That’s a lot of food! And no one seems to be properly marveling at these crazy numbers. How did the city, not generally known for a nimble response, manage to launch its gargantuan free-food programs in a matter of days? (Kadet, 6/2)

The Washington Post: A Minneapolis School Asked People To Donate Food For Students After Looting Closed Stores. ‘Miles Of Cars’ Lined Up.
A nearby middle school found many of its students and their families who live blocks from the police station were stuck without access to food. “The area has become a food desert for these families, many of whom don’t own a vehicle to drive elsewhere,” said Amy Nelson, the principal of Sanford Middle School. School food services and public transportation were suspended across the city, affecting the school’s 970 students, about 60 percent of whom are eligible for free or reduced lunch. Nelson decided to step in. (Page, 6/2)

Newsday: As Food Prices Rise, Even Couponing Experts Are Finding Deals Scarce
Supermarket prices are surging, and even the most sales-conscious Long Islanders say they cannot avoid bigger bills. Despite the inflation rate falling 0.5% in the metro area, food prices grew 2.6% from March to April, which marked the largest jump in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' food index in more than 30 years. Prices rose more dramatically — by 3.6% — when excluding restaurants and examining supermarkets alone.  (Trangle, 6/3)

Politico: Vague Testing Guidance Hinders Business Reopenings
Gaps in federal guidelines and ongoing fears about contaminated workplaces are keeping businesses from reopening the way the White House envisioned a month ago, when it shifted its pandemic message to an economic revival. The Trump administration has said businesses can make diagnostic coronavirus tests and temperature checks a condition for returning to work. But it hasn't answered key questions like when or how often to test workers or whether there should be a blanket testing policy for job seekers. (Rainey and Lim, 6/2)

Roll Call: Democratic Govenors Seek Federal COVID-19 Testing Coordination 
Governors told a House subcommittee Tuesday they need more predictability about how the federal government plans to help provide testing supplies as they reopen their states while trying to minimize another spike of COVID-19 infections. The testimony of a Republican and two Democratic governors came as the nation’s attention shifted this week from the pandemic, which has killed more than 100,000 Americans, to protests that broke out in cities nationwide following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in Minnesota. (McIntire, 6/2)

Kaiser Health News: Hype Collides With Science As FDA Tries To Rein In ‘Wild West’ Of COVID Blood Tests
“Save your business while saving lives,” reads the website of Because Health, a Seattle tech startup selling two types of tests to employers willing to pay $350 a pop to learn whether their workers have been infected with COVID-19. The “Workplace Health” plan includes not only nasal swab tests to detect infection, but also blood tests aimed at indicating whether workers have developed antibodies to the virus — and, possibly, future protection. (Aleccia and Barry-Jester, 6/3)

The New York Times: 15 West Point Cadets Test Positive For Coronavirus
At least 15 of the graduating cadets who returned to West Point ahead of President Trump’s commencement speech in June tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a U.S. Army spokeswoman. None of those cadets had coronavirus symptoms, and the virus had not spread from them to any other cadets among the class of 1,106 since they returned to the U.S. Military Academy last week, the spokeswoman, Col. Sunset Belinsky, said on Tuesday. She said that the academy learned that the 15 had the coronavirus after all cadets were tested immediately upon arriving on campus. The cadets who tested positive were immediately isolated. (Gross, 6/2)

USA Today: West Point Grads Test COVID-19 Positive Before Trump's Speech
The COVID-19 pandemic has scrambled graduation plans for the nation's elite military schools. The Naval Academy held a virtual ceremony, and the Air Force Academy sequestered its senior class on campus, holding graduation with cadets spaced at safe distance from one another. Critics have called Trump's decision to attend West Point graduation a political stunt that endangers the health of cadets and those with whom they have had contact on their return to campus. (Brook, 5/31)

CNN: Several Cadets Brought Back For Graduation At West Point Test Positive For Covid-19
"The Army and West Point have done meticulous planning to ensure the health and safety of the returning cadets of the U.S. Military Academy's Class of 2020. There is mandatory screening for all and we've had a small number -- about 1 ½ percent -- test positive," the spokesperson said. "This was anticipated. None were symptomatic, and no cadet has contracted through person-to-person contact while under the Army's care. Those who test positive are isolated, and receive appropriate care and attention, while we continue an orderly reintegration of our cadets." (Starr and Duster, 6/1)

The Hill: 'Small Number' Of West Point Cadets Test Positive For Coronavirus Ahead Of Trump Commencement Address
“This was anticipated,” the official added. “None were symptomatic, and no cadet has contracted through person-to-person contact while under the Army’s care. Those who test positive are isolated, and receive appropriate care and attention, while we continue an orderly reintegration of our cadets.” (Kheel, 6/1)

The New York Times: Republican Convention Feud Escalates As Officials Weigh New Site
Republicans said Tuesday night that they were moving President Trump’s convention speech out of Charlotte, N.C., and to another city, after coming to a stalemate with Democratic officials in the state about safety and crowd size restrictions because of the coronavirus. Michael Ahrens, communications director of the Republican National Committee, said that “the celebration of the president’s acceptance of the Republican nomination will be held in another city.” But Republican officials also said they could still hold other convention business in Charlotte, so as not to break a formal contract they signed with the city more than two years ago. (Karni, 6/2)

The Associated Press: Trump Says GOP Is Pulling Convention From North Carolina
Trump announced the news via tweet, complaining the state’s governor, Democrat Roy Cooper, and other officials “refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena” and were not “allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised.” “Because of @NC_Governor, we are now forced to seek another State to host the 2020 Republican National Convention,” he wrote. Trump and the Republican National Committee had been demanding that the convention be allowed to move forward with a full crowd and no face coverings — raising alarms in a state that is facing an upward trend in its virus cases, with about 29,900 cumulative cases and 900 deaths as of Tuesday. (Anderson, Robertson and Colvin, 6/3)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Again Threatens To Move Republican Convention
The Democratic governor said in a letter to the RNC that uncertainty around the pandemic made it impossible to promise that a large convention could be held. “Planning for a scaled-down convention with fewer people, social distancing and face coverings is a necessity,” he wrote. Mr. Cooper cited May 30 correspondence from the RNC that he said demanded a “full convention,” including 19,000 delegates, alternative delegates, staff, volunteers, elected officials and guests. He also listed the party’s expectation of “full hotels and restaurants and bars at capacity” in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (McCormick, 6/2)

Politico: Trump Slams North Carolina And Says He's Moving GOP Convention Elsewhere
Republicans had already begun weighing other locations. Party officials are planning a visit to Nashville later this week. Other possibilities include Las Vegas; Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida; and Georgia. All of the prospective sites have directly expressed interest in hosting the convention, and party officials say it’s likely they will visit several of them in the coming days. Other states also are likely to make a play. Arizona, which has a Republican governor, is among the states voicing interest in recent days, according to two people briefed on the process. (King and Isenstadt, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Trump Says GOP Will Look To Move Convention Out Of North Carolina
The announcement, nearly two years after Republicans began planning the event in Charlotte, marks the latest political confrontation over how to handle the coronavirus pandemic. North Carolina Democrats say the scale of any convention has to depend on health conditions in the state, where coronavirus-related hospitalizations peaked in late May. “As much as we want the conditions surrounding COVID-19 to be favorable enough for you to hold the Convention you describe in late August, it is very unlikely,” Cooper wrote Tuesday in a letter to Republican leaders. “Neither public health officials nor I will risk the health and safety of North Carolinians by providing the guarantee you seek.” (Scherer and Dawsey, 6/2)

NBC News: Trump Says He's Yanking RNC From North Carolina Over Potential Coronavirus Restrictions
Last week, Trump threatened to move the event from Charlotte if there was a chance that the venue could not be filled because of virus-related restrictions, tweeting that Cooper must "guarantee that by August we will be allowed full attendance" in the arena. The Republican National Committee said in a letter that it wanted a 19,000-person convention in August, even though public health officials have said large gatherings can be dangerous. (Timm and Alba, 6/2)

CNN: Trump Says GOP Forced To Find New State To Host Convention As North Carolina Stands By Coronavirus Measures 
Two sources with knowledge cautioned that it appears the decision isn't final. But the sources say there have been tense conversations in the last 48 hours between the RNC and the governor's office ahead of Trump's self-imposed deadline, which is Wednesday. (Merica, Nobles and Diamond, 6/2)

The New York Times: Pandemic, Protests And Police: An Election Like No Other
On the biggest day of voting since the coronavirus disrupted public life, Americans cast ballots in extraordinary circumstances on Tuesday, heading to the polls during a national health and economic crisis and amid the widespread protests and police deployments that have disrupted communities across the nation. The most high-profile race of the day produced a surprising result when Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican who was ostracized by his party after questioning why white nationalism was offensive, lost his primary to Randy Feenstra, a state senator who had the tacit support of much of the state’s G.O.P. establishment. (Epstein and Corasaniti, 6/2)

The Washington Post: Primary Election Day In 8 State And D.C. Marked By Confusion
Voters in primaries around the country reported problems with mail-in ballots and confusion about where to turn out in person, as protests over the killing of George Floyd threatened to combine with the coronavirus pandemic to disrupt elections. Primaries were held Tuesday in eight states and the District of Columbia, with nearly every jurisdiction facing a surge of interest in voting by mail and accompanying logistical problems. In several places, the number of in-person voting places was significantly reduced, and cities including the District experienced long lines that grew into the early evening. (Gardner, Viebeck and Pompilio, 6/2)

Politico: Mass Upheaval And Pandemic Spell Trouble For A Megaday Of Primaries
"We are particularly concerned about how the protests, and particularly the response to the protests, are going to affect voting," said Suzanne Almeida, the interim executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania. She cited two particular stress points: curfews and an increased police presence. "If you look at the genesis of the protest that we saw over the weekend, it is police violence toward people of color," Almeida said. "Then asking people to walk through, or near, or around police or National Guard who are armed can feel dangerous. Particularly voters of color, but other voters as well." (Montellaro, 6/2)

Stateline: Trump's Attacks On Vote-By-Mail Worry Some Election Officials
There is growing concern among election officials and experts that the increasingly partisan debate around voting by mail could sow doubt in the results of the presidential election. For months, President Donald Trump has been one of the loudest opponents to vote by mail, which experts agree is a safe alternative to in-person voting during the novel coronavirus outbreak. There is little evidence it leads to voter fraud or benefits one party over another. (Vasilogambros, 6/3)

The New York Times: Scientists Question Medical Data Used In Second Coronavirus Study
Since the outbreak began, researchers have rushed to publish research about the new coronavirus spreading swiftly through the world. On Tuesday, for the second time in recent days, a group of scientists has questioned the data used in studies in two prominent medical journals. A group of scientists who raised questions last week about a study in The Lancet about the use of antimalarial drugs in coronavirus patients have now objected to another paper about blood pressure medicines in the New England Journal of Medicine, which was published by some of the same authors and relied on the same data registry. (Rabin, 6/2)

The Associated Press: Concerns Mount About Two Studies On Drugs For Coronavirus
The New England Journal of Medicine issued an “ expression of concern ” Tuesday on a study it published May 1 that suggested widely used blood pressure medicines were not raising the risk of death for people with COVID-19. The study relied on a database with health records from hundreds of hospitals around the world. “Substantive concerns” have been raised about the quality of the information, and the journal has asked the authors to provide evidence it’s reliable, the editors wrote. (Marchione, 6/2)

Reuters: Study Panning Anti-Malaria Drug Trump Took Against COVID Faces New Questions
Nearly 150 doctors signed an open letter to the Lancet last week calling the article’s conclusions into question and asking to make public the peer review comments that preceded publication. “This is not some sideshow or minor issue,” said Dr. Walid Gellad, a professor at University of Pittsburgh’s medical school, who was not a signatory of the letter but has been critical of the study. (Erman, 6/2)

The Hill: Medical Journal Says Concerns Raised Over Massive Hydroxychloroquine Study 
The study found that the drugs were not only largely ineffective at treating or preventing the virus but also linked to a higher risk of death. The study relied on an analysis of a database with medical records from patients across 671 hospitals rather than a comprehensive randomized trial. (Weixel, 6/2)

Stat: Top Journals Raise Concerns About Data In Two Studies Related To Covid-19
The concerns, which have built over the past several days on social media, highlight larger issues with using big databases to draw conclusions about medicines, an approach that has been gaining rigor in the era of big data. Experts warn that conducting such studies properly is far more difficult than it appears. “This is not for the faint of heart,” said Harlan Krumholz, director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Yale New Haven Hospital. “This is not just a matter of dial-a-study when you get access to data. Well-done studies are based on understanding the provenance of the data and making sure what you are doing is reasonable. There is good science to be done with big databases, but there are also major mistakes to be made. The question is: What happened here?” (Herper and Joseph, 6/2)

Reuters: Trump And Bolsonaro Discussed Research Effort On Using Hydroxychloroquine To Fight Coronavirus, White House Says
U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro discussed a joint research effort on using the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as both a prophylaxis and treatment for the coronavirus, the White House said on Tuesday. Trump and Bolsonaro “expressed their mutual appreciation for the longstanding collaboration on health issues between the two countries,” the White House said, discussing the U.S. delivery of 2 million doses of the controversial drug to Brazil and “a joint research effort to help further evaluate the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine for both prophylaxis and the early treatment of the coronavirus.” (6/2)

In other pharmaceutical news —

The Wall Street Journal: Heart Drugs Show Promise With Covid-19 Complications
Spurred by promising early findings, researchers are investigating whether drugs currently approved to treat heart disease can also prevent or reduce complications from Covid-19 and help hospitalized patients recover sooner. Treatments being evaluated include blood-pressure drugs, blood thinners, statins, antiplatelets and a drug to lower triglycerides. Results from the studies, some of which could come as early as this summer, could offer doctors a new array of drugs to treat patients infected with the coronavirus. (Hopkins and McKay, 6/2)

Reuters: Gilead's Next Step On Coronavirus: Inhaled Remdesivir, Other Easier-To-Use Versions
Gilead Sciences Inc is developing easier-to-administer versions of its antiviral treatment remdesivir for COVID-19 that could be used outside of hospitals, including ones that can be inhaled, after trials showed moderate effectiveness for the drug given by infusion. (Beasley, 6/2)

Reuters: Reasonable To Expect Some Coronavirus Vaccine By Year-End, Pentagon Researcher Says
A senior U.S. Army vaccine researcher said on Tuesday it was reasonable to expect that some sort of coronavirus vaccine could be available to part of the U.S. population by the end of the year. Defense Secretary Mark Esper vowed on May 15 that the U.S. military and other parts of the government would, in collaboration with the private sector, produce a vaccine at scale to treat the American people and partners abroad by year-end. (Brunnstrom, O'Donnell and Steenhuysen, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Fauci ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ About Coronavirus Vaccine
Anthony Fauci, a leading expert in the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, expressed cautious optimism on Tuesday that several successful vaccine candidates would prove effective “within a reasonable period of time” to fight the novel pathogen. But how long the protection from an eventual vaccine might last is “a big unknown,” he said via remote video during The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Health Conference. A short duration of protection could create additional challenges, he said. (Abbott and Loftus, 6/2)

CNBC: Dr. Anthony Fauci Says There's A Chance Coronavirus Vaccine May Not Provide Immunity For Very Long
White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he worries about the “durability” of a potential coronavirus vaccine, saying there’s a chance it may not provide long-term immunity. If Covid-19 acts like other coronaviruses, “it likely isn’t going to be a long duration of immunity,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview Tuesday evening with JAMA Editor Howard Bauchner. (Lovelace Jr., 6/2)

Los Angeles Times: Can Operation Warp Speed Have A COVID-19 Vaccine This Year?
To capture the speed and audacity of its plan to field a coronavirus vaccine, the Trump administration reached into science fiction’s vault for an inspiring moniker: Operation Warp Speed. The vaccine initiative’s name challenges a mantra penned by an actual science fiction writer, Arthur C. Clarke: “Science demands patience.” Patience is essential for those who ply the science of vaccines. (Healy, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Video: The Promise And Peril Of Fast-Tracking Coronavirus Vaccine Development
As the coronavirus continues to spread around the globe, companies and academic labs are racing to develop a vaccine that would help society get back to normal. But there could also be costs to moving too quickly. (Kammermann, 6/3)

The Washington Post: 7 In 10 Americans Would Be Likely To Get A Coronavirus Vaccine, Post-ABC Poll Finds
About 7 in 10 Americans say they would get a vaccine to protect against the novel coronavirus if immunizations were free and available to everyone, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. The nationwide survey finds that a majority of people of all political affiliations are interested in receiving such a vaccine. But the extent of that interest varies along partisan lines, with slightly more than 8 in 10 Democrats saying they would definitely or probably get vaccinated, compared with slightly fewer than 6 in 10 Republicans. Independents fall in between. (Goldstein and Clement, 6/2)

ABC News: 27% Unlikely To Be Vaccinated Against The Coronavirus; Republicans, Conservatives Especially: POLL 
A plurality definitely would get vaccinated (43%) and 28% say they probably would. The net, 71%, is much higher than the adult vaccination rate for the standard seasonal flu – 45% in the 2018-19 flu season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (with a wide range by state, from 34 to 56%.) It’s much lower than the 2017 child vaccination rates for polio and measles/mumps/rubella, 93 and 92%, respectively. (Sparks and Langer, 6/2)

In other vaccination news —

The Associated Press: Monkeys, Ferrets Offer Needed Clues In COVID-19 Vaccine Race
The global race for a COVID-19 vaccine boils down to some critical questions: How much must the shots rev up someone’s immune system to really work? And could revving it the wrong way cause harm? Even as companies recruit tens of thousands of people for larger vaccine studies this summer, behind the scenes scientists still are testing ferrets, monkeys and other animals in hopes of clues to those basic questions — steps that in a pre-pandemic era would have been finished first. (Neergaard, 6/3)

Reuters: Exclusive: Lonza Sets New Goal To Make Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Ingredients
Lonza aims to speed completion of two commercial production lines for Moderna Inc’s trial COVID-19 vaccine so manufacturing could start four to six weeks earlier than planned if the project is successful, the Swiss drugmaker’s chairman said on Tuesday. (Miller, 6/2)

ABC News: Vaccine Paradox: Will 'Flattening The Curve' Stymie The Chances Of Developing A Coronavirus Vaccine Quickly? 
In recent weeks, cities and states across the country have seen a steady decline of COVID-19 cases. But even as many doctors breathe a quiet sigh of relief, those racing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine are growing increasingly worried this good news will stymie efforts to find a vaccine quickly. Vaccines can only be studied in places where outbreaks are ongoing. That's because the studies themselves rely on volunteers getting exposed to the virus to prove the vaccine actually works. (Salzman, 6/2)

ABC News: In The Race For A Vaccine, Children May Be Last To Be Vaccinated 
Even as scientists race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, experts acknowledge that children could be among the last members of society to be vaccinated. At least 10 vaccines are being tested in people across the globe, with the United States' top infectious disease doctor, Anthony Fauci, optimistically estimating we could have a viable vaccine by early 2021. While preliminary data on these vaccines has been encouraging, children have been excluded from early studies. (Abdelmalek and Salzman, 6/2)

The New York Times: Senate Confirms Inspector General To Oversee Virus Bailout Funds
A divided Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Brian D. Miller, a White House lawyer, to be the inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department’s $500 billion pandemic recovery fund. The confirmation, approved 51 to 40, almost entirely along party lines, puts Mr. Miller at the center of the politically charged effort to distribute government money to businesses that have been crippled by the coronavirus pandemic and comes at a time when President Trump’s management of the bailout is under intense scrutiny. (Rappeport, 6/2)

Politico: Divided Senate Confirms Former Trump Counsel As Relief Watchdog
Miller worked for nearly a decade as the inspector general of the General Services Administration, overseeing major waste, fraud and abuse cases. But he more recently served in Trump's White House counsel office. Democrats were skeptical of whether he would act independently of Trump and his administration, after the president had removed other inspectors general and indicated he could limit information that federal watchdogs share with Congress. In his confirmation hearing last month, Miller pledged that he would not seek Trump's approval before reporting to lawmakers. (Warmbrodt, 6/2)

CBS News: Brian Miller Confirmed As Pandemic Special Inspector General In Partisan Vote
Miller's independence has been questioned by Democrats, given his most recent job in the White House counsel's office. "As an IG nominee with personal ties to the White House Counsel's Office and an administration outwardly hostile to anyone who tries to hold the president accountable, Mr. Miller failed in committee to explain, or in the letters afterwards, how he will establish his independence from his current boss," Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said of Miller during his confirmation consideration. (Watson, 6/2)

Roll Call: Senate Confirms Miller To Be Pandemic Inspector General
During the hearing, Miller pledged to report any political pressure to drop audits or investigations to Congress. When Trump signed a March relief package into law, he issued a signing statement calling a provision requiring the special inspector general to inform Congress if the administration withheld any information unconstitutional. The special inspector general for pandemic recovery is just one of a handful of new accountability bodies established by Congress to oversee the roughly $3.5 trillion in money it has thrown at stopping COVID-19 and the economic carnage it is inflicting. (Saksa, 6/2)

Meanwhile —

ProPublica: This Treasury Official Is Running The Bailout. It’s Been Great For His Family. 
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have become the public faces of the $3 trillion federal coronavirus bailout. Behind the scenes, however, the Treasury’s responsibilities have fallen largely to the 42-year-old deputy secretary, Justin Muzinich. A major beneficiary of that bailout so far: Muzinich & Co., the asset manager founded by his father where Justin served as president before joining the administration. He reported owning a stake worth at least $60 million when he entered government in 2017. (Elliott, DePillis and Faturechi, 6/2)

Los Angeles Times: Governors Warn Congressional Leaders Of Billion-Dollar Shortfalls Due To Coronavirus
Three governors testified to Congress in a virtual hearing Tuesday, giving updates on the tolls of coronavirus, plans for reopening and the projected billion-dollar impact of the pandemic on state finances. “COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on our budget,” Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told the House Committee on Commerce and Energy. The state faces a projected $6.2-billion drop in revenue in the next two years, and by some projections, over the next three years state budget shortfalls across the country are estimated to reach $765 billion. (Wailoo, 6/2)

The Hill: Governors Detail Frustrations With Trump Over COVID-19 Supplies
Two governors told lawmakers on Tuesday that their states are still struggling to obtain COVID-19 supplies from the federal government, almost three months into the pandemic. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) said they’re facing challenges procuring tests and masks, adding to concerns as they prepare for a potential second wave of the pandemic in the fall.States get inaccurate answers from the federal government about when supplies will be coming, and deliveries are often late, if they come at all, the two governors told members of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. (Hellmann, 6/2)

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill —

Roll Call: Sens. Lee, Johnson Slow Bill Tweaking SBA COVID-19 Loan Program
Two Republican holdouts are threatening to prevent speedy passage of a bill that would modify a popular coronavirus loan program for small businesses over the temporary initiative’s end date. Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin are holding up the bill because they want the Paycheck Protection Program to expire in August rather than December. (Saksa, 6/2)

The Oklahoman: Horn Wants National Debt Addressed In Next Coronavirus Relief Bill
Oklahoma Congresswoman Kendra Horn is part of a bipartisan group of 60 U.S. Representatives who have sent a letter to House leadership urging that a strategy for coping with the growing national debt be included in the next coronavirus relief bill. (Ellis, 6/3)

The New York Times: Government's Coronavirus Relief Plan Leaves Out Major Employers
One of the biggest questions surrounding the government’s efforts to help businesses struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic is whether the programs are constructed in a way that will prevent a wave of bankruptcies, keeping a short-term shock from turning into drawn-out economic pain. A new analysis from a group of Harvard University researchers suggests that the answer, should markets turn ugly again, might be no. (Smialek, 6/2)

ABC News: Doctor Who Advised Homeland Security Testifies Against COVID-19 Protocols In Immigration Detention 
A doctor contracted by the Department of Homeland Security to advise on detention health conditions appeared before Congress on Tuesday to personally criticize the Trump administration as COVID-19 continues to spread through civil immigration detention centers. Dr. Scott Allen, an independent health expert and medical school professor, told lawmakers that the novel coronavirus' persistence in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities was in part due to "some gaping holes" in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. (Owen, 6/2)

And in more news about the economic toll of the virus —

The Wall Street Journal: How Many U.S. Workers Have Lost Jobs During Coronavirus Pandemic? There Are Several Ways To Count
Friday’s U.S. jobs report from the Labor Department is expected to show U.S. employers shed nearly 30 million positions from payrolls this spring as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and related shutdowns—but that is just one of several varying estimates of job destruction. Other data suggest layoffs might have topped 40 million, while another count shows only about 20 million are tapping unemployment benefits. No matter the measure, job loss triggered by the pandemic is historically high and likely to leave a lasting mark on the U.S. economy. (Morath, 6/3)

ProPublica: How Germany Saved Its Workforce From Unemployment While Spending Less Per Person Than The U.S.
The global coronavirus pandemic threw Petra Hamann’s job into peril faster than just about any other. She is a physical therapist, a profession that is all about close proximity to others, with a clientele that leans toward older people, exactly the population most vulnerable to the virus. In March, she and the rest of the 10-person therapy group that employed her lost virtually all of their clients, first as a result of clients’ fears about coming in for appointments, then as a result of government stay-at-home orders. But neither Hamann nor anyone else in her group lost their job. Instead, they were kept on and, even while having zero clients, received 60% of their normal pay. (MacGillis, 6/3)

NPR: Millions Of Americans Skipping Payments As Wave Of Defaults And Evictions Looms
Americans are skipping payments on mortgages, auto loans and other bills. Normally, that could mean massive foreclosures, evictions, cars repossessions and people's credit getting destroyed. But much of that's been put on pause. Help from Congress and leniency from lenders have kept impending financial disaster at bay for millions of people. But that may not last for long. The problem is, these efforts aim to create a financial bridge to the future for people who've lost their income in the pandemic — but the bridge is only half built. (Arnold, 6/3)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Gig Workers Trouble With PUA System, Lack Of Communication 
Many of Nevada’s gig workers, independent contractors and self-employed workers trying to receive unemployment benefits say they are frustrated by the information — or lack thereof — coming from the agency and feel like they can’t catch a break. Some claimants have become so frustrated they’ve organized a protest. (Hudson, 6/2)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer Questioned About Nursing Home Deaths At Federal Hearing
Republican lawmakers pushed back against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's criticism of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic when she testified Tuesday to a U.S. House subcommittee about Michigan's response. And they challenged Whitmer about her own response to COVID-19 in Michigan nursing homes, where federal data released Monday shows that, as of May 24, Michigan had 1,654 nursing home deaths — the fifth-highest per capita in the nation and more than 200 higher than the number reported by state officials. (Egan, 6/2)

Boston Globe: Raimondo Defends Rhode Island’s Response To Coronavirus In Nursing Homes 
Governor Gina M. Raimondo on Tuesday defended the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in nursing homes. She acknowledged that the state has a higher proportion of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes than its neighboring states: 76 percent in Rhode Island, compared to 62 percent in Massachusetts and 57 percent in Connecticut, she said. (Fitzpatrick, 6/2)

Boston Globe: State Issues New Guidelines For Visits To Nursing Homes 
State officials Tuesday issued new guidelines that allow nursing home residents to have visitors for the first time in nearly three months, as long as they meet outdoors and follow procedures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus. The guidelines, which become effective Wednesday, say long-term care facilities “may allow in-person visitation in a designated outdoor visitation space,” if they implement specific safety, care, and infection-control measures. (Murphy, 6/2)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coronavirus Claims 1,001 Georgia Long-Term Care Residents
Coronavirus deaths among Georgia’s long-term care residents topped 1,000 on Monday in the state’s official tally, a brutal milestone demonstrating the pandemic’s unforgiving attack on vulnerable seniors. Across Georgia, 5,850 residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities and large personal care homes have tested positive for coronavirus at some point during the pandemic, and 1,001 have died, according to the Georgia Department of Community Health. (Teegardin, 6/2)

NPR: Gov. Cuomo Says New York Coronavirus Hospitalizations At An All-Time Low
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that the "number of new [coronavirus] cases walking in the door is at an all-time low." Cuomo said that the number of new coronavirus hospitalizations reported on June 1 was 154, which is the lowest number since the state started counting in mid-March. New York has been the state hit hardest in the U.S. by the coronavirus. (Horn, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: China’s BYD Gets Extension On $1 Billion California Mask Deal
BYD Co., a Chinese electric-car maker turned mask producer, said it had secured a second reprieve on a troubled $1 billion deal to sell N95 masks to the state of California after missing a Sunday deadline to win a required federal certification. The Shenzhen, China-based company—which earlier in the coronavirus pandemic signed contracts to sell medical goods to high-profile customers, including multiple U.S. states and the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. —has faced delays in delivering hundreds of millions of masks. (Lin and Xiao, 6/2)

The Baltimore Sun: A Former Nurse Is Helping Maryland’s Front Line Health Care Workers Cope With The Coronavirus Pandemic 
One day in late March, Tara Ryan, a clinical assistant professor at Towson University and former registered nurse, was conducting online courses from home with concerning interruptions. Via texts, phone calls and e-mails, the 36-year-old Towson resident was hearing from past colleagues and former nursing students seeking her out for support. She counted 15 interactions that day alone and that’s when the reality of COVID-19 completely set in. (Graham, 6/3)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Of Voters Say Churches Should Not Be Treated Like Essential Businesses 
A majority of voters say churches should not be treated like essential businesses, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll. Fifty-seven percent of registered voters in the May 27-28 survey said churches should not be treated like essential businesses and should be required to stay closed until the restrictions have been lifted. By contrast, 43 percent said churches should be treated as essential and allowed to remain open. (6/2)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Las Vegas Courthouse Activity Increasing  
As Gov. Steve Sisolak lightened coronavirus pandemic restrictions across the state, officials at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas moved toward allowing more people inside the once bustling courthouse. Clark County’s first jury trial since March could still be more than a month away, as the court system works to summon potential jurors and adhere to social distancing requirements, Chief Judge Linda Bell said. (Ferrara, 6/2)

WBUR: Child Care Providers Worry New Safety Requirements Are Too Restrictive 
State education leaders openly acknowledge that following the new health requirements will not be easy for childcare providers. "This is not childcare as we knew it," said Samantha Aigner-Treworgy, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care during a board meeting Tuesday afternoon. "This is a very different kind of operation." (Jung, 6/3)

WBUR: 'Barely Holding It Together': Stresses Of An Early Child Care Center That Stayed Open 
When Luc Jasmin III took over Parkview Early Learning Center six years ago, he wanted to create a safe space where young children could not only be cared for but also get an educational foundation to prepare them for a lifetime of learning. During normal times, the center in Spokane, Wash., serves about 100 children who range in age from 4 weeks old to 13 years. The center didn't close down during the coronavirus pandemic, except for a couple of days to retrain staff on social distancing and cleaning guidelines. (Mehta, 6/2)

Roll Call: Colleges Weigh How To Confront COVID-19 As They Plan To Reopen
Across the country, colleges and universities are determining how to safely reopen their campuses for in-person classes and determining how campus life will need to change to protect people from the virus that causes COVID-19. The issue is one of numerous societal challenges that a wide range of officials have to confront in individual decisions that could each impact public health while the world waits for vaccines or treatments. (McIntire, 6/3)

Los Angeles Times: USC To Reopens This Fall With Online And In-Person Classes
USC will bring students back to campus for the fall semester amid the coronavirus crisis with several safety measures that include both online and in-person classes, more spacing in dorms and testing for COVID-19, President Carol L. Folt announced Tuesday night. The highly anticipated decision was certain to hearten many students, many of whom found online learning alienating, and their families who balked at paying USC’s $58,000 annual tuition and fees for classes on computers. (Watanabe, 6/2)

CIDRAP: How To Reopen Schools In Fall? Experts Weigh In
To reopen schools in the fall as safely as possible, communities need to suppress the spread of COVID-19 this summer while preparing a rigorous public health response to outbreak flares, public health and education experts said in a commentary published yesterday in JAMA. Joshua Sharfstein, MD, and Christopher Morphew, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said that while it's unclear whether school closures this spring tamped demand for hospital beds, it is clear that they harmed many of the 55 million kids missing months of in-person education and the other benefits it entails. (Van Beusekom, 6/2)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Gov. Mike DeWine Intends To Reopen Ohio Schools This Fall
Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday that he intends to open schools in the fall to students across the state. “The goal is to have kids back in the classroom,” DeWine said, barring some unforeseen escalation of the coronavirus. (Kilpatrick, 6/2)

Bangor Daily News: There’s No Plan Yet For Maine Schools To Reopen, But They Won’t Go Back To Normal This Fall
As Maine schools wait for some direction from the state to finalize their plans for reopening in the fall, at least one thing is clear: Schools will not be the same places they were before COVID-19. How different K-12 education will look come September is still unknown due to the lack of detailed state and local plans and a virus situation that could rapidly change. But Maine schools, like all others nationwide, will have to implement robust safety precautions to ensure a safe return to in-person learning after their buildings shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Pendharkar, 6/3)

Stateline: College Students Want Their Money Back. It'll Be Tough To Get It.
In total, more than 2,000 pandemic-related lawsuits against a variety of businesses, groups and officials had been filed by the end of May, according to the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth, which has been tracking the cases. Many involve plaintiffs seeking compensation for what the pandemic has taken, as well as taking aim at governments and politicians for their restrictive orders. (Povich, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Is It Safe To Reopen Schools? These Countries Say Yes
A number of countries that have reopened schools in the past two months have reported no resulting increase in coronavirus infection rates, an encouraging sign for authorities around the world that are contemplating how and when to safely bring children back to the classroom. Authorities in many hard-hit countries such as Italy and the U.S. have so far resisted reopening schools for fear of triggering an increase in infections. In the U.S., schools have been drawing up plans to reopen in September, partly based on the experience of other countries. (Pancevski and Dandanell, 5/31)

The Marshall Project: Sentenced To Life As Teens, They Fear Getting Coronavirus Before Getting A Second Chance
Darnell Johnson long believed that he would die alone in a prison cell. In 1998, a Michigan court sentenced him to life behind bars without the possibility of parole for killing a woman and shooting two others during a botched armed robbery when he was 17, court records show. Johnson had been in prison for more than a decade when the U.S. Supreme Court issued two rulings, one in 2012 and another in 2016, that said “juvenile lifers” like him must have their sentences reviewed, taking into account that they were not yet adults when they committed their crimes. In many states, hundreds saw their prison terms shortened or were released. (Hager, 6/3)

The Marshall Project: What COVID-19 Prison Outbreaks Could Teach Us About Herd Immunity
As states unevenly begin to reopen, researchers are scrambling to learn more about the coronavirus and “herd immunity.” That is when a large enough portion of the public has contracted the disease and developed antibodies so that it restrains the spread of the virus. Prisons, it turns out, may be a key place to study the nature of this virus—including how it transmits and how immunity to it works. Because while antibody rates for the general public, estimated between 1 and 20 percent in most places, remain far too low for herd immunity to kick in, it’s an entirely different story in a number of prisons. (Lartey, 6/1)

Boston Globe: State’s Highest Court Refuses To Release Prisoners Due To Coronavirus 
The state’s highest court on Tuesday denied a lawsuit seeking the quick release of convicted prisoners due to the ongoing pandemic.In its ruling, the court acknowledged that prisoners are at an increased risk for COVID-19, but found that incarceration during a pandemic does not necessarily amount to cruel and unusual punishment. The court noted that the state’s Department of Correction has followed federal health guidelines and is conducting extensive testing in its facilities. (Coleman, 6/2)

WBUR: Mass. High Court Refuses To Release Convicted Prisoners Because Of COVID-19 
The justices, however, did rule that those involuntarily committed to addiction treatment can seek immediate release. The SJC also asked a Superior Court judge to continue to review issues related to the case. (Becker, 6/2)

Boston.Com: What It's Like Inside A Mass. Prison During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Patricia Olsen said she doesn’t know which of her friends are dead or alive. It’s what’s unknown, she said, that’s the hardest. As an inmate at MCI-Framingham, Olsen said incarceration is all about structure and routine. Her days would normally start at 7:15 a.m. when she’d leave her cell to take a shower before heading to the chow hall. After breakfast, she’d go to work as a digitizer for Massachusetts Correctional Industries. On the weekends, she would go to church, spend time with her friends of almost 15 years, cook a good meal, and draw to relax. (Cromar, 6/2)

USA Today: Federal Prisons Under National Lockdown Amid George Floyd Protests, Most Severe Restrictions In 25 Years
The federal Bureau of Prisons has ordered a national lockdown amid civil unrest in cities across the country in a move that resembled the agency's most severe restrictions at its facilities in 25 years. Federal authorities, already struggling to contain deadly outbreaks of the coronavirus that has left 68 inmates dead, had imposed nationwide restrictions on inmate movements in March in an attempt to limit the virus' spread. But officials took the more restrictive action late Monday as a surge of violent clashes between protesters and police erupted after the death of George Floyd, whose neck was pinned under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. (Johnson, 6/2)

The Oklahoman: County Jail Unveils Pod Dedicated To Veterans
Oklahoma County Jail officials on Tuesday unveiled a newly-repainted room dedicated to those who have served in the United States armed forces as part of an effort to increase mental health treatment for inmates. Jail officials said they hope that the refurbished pod, a group of 50 cells with a maximum capacity of 98 inmates, will show inmates who have served in the military that law enforcement officials care about them even when they’re incarcerated. They also hope that the pod will boost the morale of jail employees. (Green, 6/3)

Reuters: Proteins In COVID-19 Patients' Blood Could Predict Severity Of Illness, Study Finds
Scientists have found 27 key proteins in the blood of people infected with COVID-19 which they say could act as predictive biomarkers for how ill a patient could become with the disease. In research published in the journal Cell Systems on Tuesday, scientists at Britain’s Francis Crick Institute and Germany’s Charite Universitaetsmedizin Berlin found the proteins are present in different levels in COVID-19 patients, depending on the severity of their symptoms. (Kelland, 6/2)

The New York Times: Monster Or Machine? A Profile Of The Coronavirus At 6 Months
A virus, at heart, is information, a packet of data that benefits from being shared. The information at stake is genetic: instructions to make more virus. Unlike a truly living organism, a virus cannot replicate on its own; it cannot move, grow, persist or perpetuate. It needs a host. The viral code breaks into a living cell, hijacks the genetic machinery and instructs it to produce new code — new virus. President Trump has characterized the response to the pandemic as a “medical war,” and described the virus behind it as, by turns, “genius,” a “hidden enemy” and “a monster.” (Burdick, 6/2)

The Washington Post: What Happens After You Recover From Covid-19
Francis Wilson survived a severe case of the coronavirus after 10 days on a ventilator, but the 29-year-old’s recovery has been slow. Doctors are still beginning to understand the long-term effects of the virus. (6/2)

Kaiser Health News: ICUs Become A ‘Delirium Factory’ For COVID Patients
Doctors are fighting not only to save lives from COVID-19, but also to protect patients’ brains. Although COVID-19 is best known for damaging the lungs, it also increases the risk of life-threatening brain injuries — from mental confusion to hallucinations, seizures, coma, stroke and paralysis. The virus may invade the brain, as well as starve the organ of oxygen by damaging the lungs. To fight the infection, the immune system sometimes overreacts, battering the brain and other organs it normally protects. (Szabo, 6/3)

San Francisco Chronicle: The Curious Case Of The SF Doctor Who’s Been Coronavirus-Positive Nearly 90 Days And Counting
Dr. Coleen Kivlahan knew what the result of her coronavirus test would be the moment she stepped outside her San Francisco home and sensed she was smelling a forest fire, a symptom that can accompany loss of smell. Then that persistent cough kicked in. Those are two of the lasting symptoms. So it was no surprise that she tested positive on Wednesday. The surprise was that it had been at least 85 days that she has been infected with the coronavirus and 62 days since she first tested positive. That she is both alive and still has symptoms may be some kind of record for longevity for suffering the disease without hospitalization. (Whiting, 5/30)

The New York Times: Red Cross Warns Of A ‘Staggering’ Drop In Blood Supplies
As protests and violence erupt in cities, the United States faces a new threat: The country is running out of blood. Several months of social distancing and stay-at-home orders have resulted in fewer people donating blood, according to health care workers, with collection drives at offices, schools and churches canceled en masse. For a while, the drop in donations was not critical because supply and demand fell in tandem as most surgeries were canceled and far fewer people were getting injured in car crashes and other accidents. (Flavelle, 6/2)

The New York Times: Lawmakers Say Puff Bar Used Pandemic To Market To Teens
House lawmakers asked the Food and Drug Administration this week to ban Puff Bar, the fast-growing e-cigarette that has quickly replaced Juul as the vape of choice among young people. The disposable devices come in more than 20 flavors, among them piña colada, pink lemonade, watermelon and a mysterious blend called O.M.G. Although the Trump administration banned fruit, mint and dessert flavors in refillable cartridge-based e-cigarettes like Juul earlier this year, it carved out an exemption for brands that are used once and thrown away. (Kaplan, 6/2)

Reuters: U.S. Temporarily To Allow Certain Impurities In Hand Sanitizer
The Trump administration said this week it will temporarily allow some impurities in alcohol-based hand sanitizer to ensure access to the product during the coronavirus pandemic, reversing course after having tightened restrictions in April. The move will provide clarity on impurity limits for a slew of fuel ethanol companies that had switched to producing hand sanitizer during the outbreak, after regulators discovered some of the impurities, including cancer-causing acetaldehyde, several weeks ago. (Kelly, 6/2)

The New York Times: The Most Important Word In The Hospitality Industry? ‘Clean’
In February, news from the Wynn Las Vegas included plans for Valentine’s Day (among the offerings: a “Lover’s Menu for Two”) and National Margarita Day (four new cocktails). What a difference a pandemic makes. Three months later, the casino resort announced a much more sober initiative, the “Wynn Las Vegas Health & Disinfection Program.” The 28-page memo lays out how the 2,700-room property will address health and hygiene when it reopens. Out with mezcal and barhopping; in with thermal cameras, elevator capacity limits and disinfection protocols for the Chipper Champ, a chip-sorting machine. (Firshein, 6/3)

The Wall Street Journal: From Disney To Michael Bay: Coronavirus TV And Movies Are Coming
Love, death and the coronavirus underpin “Songbird,” a thriller set in 2022 Los Angeles as a deadlier Covid-19 ravages the city. Action-movie veteran Michael Bay and former Paramount Pictures Film Group president Adam Goodman hope to sell world-wide rights to the forthcoming film at the virtual Cannes Film Festival later this month. They aim to release it later this year to an audience they believe will be ready for virus-themed entertainment. (Gamerman, 6/2)

Kaiser Health News: Open (Your Wallet) Wide: Dentists Charge Extra For Infection Control
After nearly two months at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Schoenradt was making plans in May to see her dentist for a checkup. Then she received a notice from Swish Dental that the cost of her next visit would include a new $20 “infection control fee” that would likely not be covered by her insurer. “I was surprised and then annoyed,” said Schoenradt, 28, of Austin, Texas. She thought it made no sense for her dentist to charge her for keeping the office clean since the practice should be doing that anyway. She canceled the appointment for now. (Galewitz, 6/3)

The Hill: USDA Announces First Case Of Dog Testing Positive For Coronavirus In US 
The Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Veterinary Services Laboratories announced Tuesday that it found the first confirmed case of a dog contracting the coronavirus in the U.S. The USDA said in a statement that it first took samples from the dog, a German shepherd in New York, after it showed “signs of respiratory illness” and that it is expected to make a full recovery. One of the dog’s owners tested positive for the coronavirus and another dog in the household tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, suggesting exposure, the agency said. (Axelrod, 6/2)

Stat: Mayo Clinic Patient Data Fuels AI Companies, And Consent Concerns
The patients of Mayo Clinic, whether they know it or not, have seeded a burgeoning digital health industry with their personal data. Details about their care, from disease diagnoses to digital tracings of their heartbeats, have been provided to companies for training artificial intelligence systems to detect dangerous arrhythmias, pregnancy complications, and deterioration in the hospital. (Ross, 6/3)

Modern Healthcare: Providers Want More Telehealth Flexibility And Higher CMS Payments
Rather than stopping telehealth's momentum when the COVID-19 pandemic ends, provider groups want CMS to press forward by allowing more providers to take part in virtual care and boosting reimbursements for telehealth services. In their comments on CMS' emergency changes to the Medicare program, provider groups praised the agency for its unprecedented extension of telehealth benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. But they argued that the federal government should make permanent changes following the tectonic shift in telehealth during the past few months. (Brady, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: Telehealth Spending To Reach $250 Billion In 2020
Telehealth spending could grow to $250 billion a year as COVID-19 paves the way for virtual and remote care, according to new research.Telehealth is primed to expand beyond the typical virtual urgent care visit as the pandemic has become an essential testing ground for extending care by video or phone while mitigating contamination concerns. About 20% of all office, outpatient and home health expenses across Medicare, Medicaid and commercially insured populations could be converted to virtual care, amounting to $250 billion in telehealth spending in 2020, researchers from McKinsey & Co. noted in a new report. (Kacik, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: ONC Weighs Pros And Cons Of National Patient Identifier
Experts convened by HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology clashed over the role a national patient identifier could play in improving patient-matching among healthcare organizations. A national patient identifier—which would give patients permanent, unique identification numbers—has been banned by Congress for decades on account of privacy and security concerns, but the discussion has been reopened in recent years, in part due to pressure from health IT groups. (Cohen, 6/1)

Reuters: Google Sees Resurgence In State-Backed Hacking, Phishing Related To COVID-19
Security experts at Alphabet Inc’s Google sent 1,755 warnings in April to users whose accounts were targets of government-backed attackers, following a resurgence in hacking and phishing attempts related to the coronavirus outbreak. Google said on Wednesday its Threat Analysis Group saw new activity from “hack-for-hire” firms, many based in India, that have been creating Gmail accounts spoofing the World Health Organization (WHO). (5/27)

Reuters: Sweden Should Have Done More To Combat Coronavirus, Health Chief Says
Sweden should have done more to combat the coronavirus, the epidemiologist behind a national strategy that avoided the strict lockdowns seen in many other countries said on Wednesday. Anders Tegnell’s comments followed mounting criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis and a policy that has relied largely on voluntary action, social distancing and common-sense hygiene advice but has failed to prevent the virus spreading. (Ahlander and Johnson, 6/3)

Reuters: China Rejects Report That It Delayed COVID-19 Information Sharing With WHO
China said on Wednesday a news report that said it delayed sharing COVID-19 information with the World Health Organization (WHO) is totally untrue. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks during a daily briefing in response to a question about the report by the Associated Press, which said the WHO was frustrated by significant delays in information sharing by Beijing as the coronavirus outbreak took hold in China in January. (6/3)

Reuters: WHO Director For Americas Urges U.S. Help As Coronavirus Surges In Region
The World Health Organization’s regional director for the Americas urged the United States on Tuesday to keep helping countries in the region to fight the novel coronavirus even as the Trump administration leaves the U.N. agency. Coronavirus has infected almost 3 million people in the region that has massive inequalities, vulnerable indigenous groups in the Amazon and megacities where people live in close quarters and share public transportation, said the director, Carissa Etienne. (6/2)

Reuters: Black And Asian People In England More Likely To Die From COVID-19, Says Report
Black and Asian people in England are up to 50% more likely to die after becoming infected with COVID-19, an official study said on Tuesday, putting pressure on the government to outline plans to protect the most at-risk communities. (Smout, 6/2)

Reuters: 'A Great Sadness': Bolivia Strains Under COVID-19 As Cases Top 10,000
Bolivian authorities are doing door-to-door checks in regions with severe coronavirus outbreaks as it looks to stem the spread of COVID-19 infections which have risen above 10,000, even as the country eases quarantine measures that have hammered growth. (Ramos, 6/2)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Infects Famed Research Lab Working On At-Home Test
For months, researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, a prestigious biomedical research center in Senegal, have been working to produce a low-cost, rapid, at-home test for the coronavirus — the kind that countries across Africa and elsewhere have been most eager to have. Now the coronavirus has infected a cluster of staff members at the institute, one of whom has died, according to its director, Dr. Amadou Sall. He did not say how many workers had tested positive, but local media reports said it was five. (Maclean, 6/2)

The New York Times: Amsterdam’s Red Light Zone Stays Shut As Rest Of City Edges Open
The red lights still shone above the windows in De Wallen, Amsterdam’s main red-light district, but the windows themselves were empty. The streets lining the canals, normally crammed with tourists, were deserted. The brothels were closed, the prostitution museum shut until further notice. “No photos of sex workers,” read the signs above the brothel windows. “Fine: 95 euros.” (Kingsley, 6/3)

The New York Times: What Will It Take To Reopen The World To Travel?
After months of locked-down borders, countries that have stifled the coronavirus are trying to choreograph a risky dance: how to bring back visitors without importing another burst of uncontrolled contagion. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania dropped restrictions for each other on May 15, while keeping out everyone else. Australia and New Zealand are planning to revive unrestricted flights within their own “travel bubble,” which Fiji, Israel and Costa Rica are clamoring to join. (Cave, 6/3)

The Washington Post: Mexico’s Hospitals Strain To Treat Coronavirus As Officials Say Cases Are Peaking
Every night at 7, Mexico tunes in to its coronavirus czar, a 51-year-old technocrat named Hugo López-Gatell. Confident and telegenic, he walks a fearful nation through the numbers: cases, deaths, hospital beds. In some ways, López-Gatell is Mexico’s Dr. Fauci. The Mexican epidemiologist has serious academic chops — a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins — and years of experience battling pandemics. But he has staked out a radically different path from many of his peers. Mexico hasn’t imposed a curfew or used police to keep people home. It’s not attempting mass testing for the novel coronavirus. (Sheridan, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: Low-Income Nations Likely To Remain Deeply Damaged Five Years After Pandemic, World Bank Says
The world’s low-income and emerging market economies will likely remain deeply damaged even five years after the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns began, according to a new study from the World Bank. The virus has already plunged the world into a severe recession, the World Bank said, and its research casts doubt on scenarios in which emerging markets bounce back quickly after the health crisis has eased. (Zumbrun, 6/2)

CIDRAP: Latin America Carries Rising Burden Of Global COVID-19 Cases
The head of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said that about 250,000 of the world's 732,000 COVID-19 cases reported last week were from Latin America, which is concerning and underscores a need to double down on efforts to battle the virus, including ramping up testing. The global total today rose to 6,333,760 cases, and 378,240 people have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 6/2)

The New York Times: Father Of School Shooting Victim Takes On Smith & Wesson 
The father of a mass shooting victim and two gun safety groups petitioned the federal government on Sunday to stop the firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson from using what they described as “deceptive and unfair” marketing to promote assault-style rifles. The father, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, died in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Fla., joined with the advocacy groups Brady and Everytown for Gun Safety to send a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. (Hsu, 5/21)

CNN: Healthy People Shouldn't Take Daily Aspirin To Prevent Heart Disease, Review Finds
Still taking a daily aspirin to ward off heart attacks? You might want to think again, according to a new review. Aspirin is still one of the most commonly used medications in the world, even though it's no longer recommended as a preventative by many health authorities. There is no evidence that low-dose aspirin — less than 325 milligrams a day — should be taken by most adults in good cardiovascular health, according to a new review of existing research that published Wednesday in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. (Hunt, 6/3)

Stat: New Research Offers Hope For A Way Through The Blood-Brain Barrier
We’ve evolved elegant protections for our brains. Gray matter deftly avoids contact with most interlopers, thanks to an intricate cellular shrink wrap called the blood-brain barrier. But this defense system creates its own challenges for us: It’s been extraordinarily difficult to design medicines that can target neurological illness. (Keshavan, 6/1)

Reuters: California Court Hears Appeal Of $289 Million Verdict Against Bayer In First Roundup Cancer Trial
A California appeals court on Tuesday heard arguments in the first case that went to trial over allegations that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup causes cancer, resulting in a $289 million judgment against the company. (Bellon, 6/2)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Tump Administration: Trans-Inclusive Sports Policies Violate Law
The U.S. Department of Education could withhold federal funding if Connecticut does not reverse a policy allowing transgender students to participate in sports based on the gender with which they identify. The federal rebuke came in response to a Title IX complaint filed by three female Connecticut runners, alleging they were at an unfair disadvantage competing against two transgender high school sprinters, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who, between them, have earned 15 girls state indoor or outdoor championship races. (Downey, 6/1)

Bloomberg Law: Long-Delayed Drug-Price Legislation Not Dead Yet, Grassley Says
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said that he intends to push for a vote this year on a bill that would limit drug-price increases, even as pharmaceutical companies race to find treatments and vaccines for Covid-19. The drug industry has been pouring resources into researching new therapies as the pandemic wreaks havoc on Americans’ health and the country’s economy. That has helped quiet a long-running debate over rising prescription costs, as policy makers prioritize finding treatments and helping businesses safely re-open. (Griffin and Court, 6/1)

Stat: Government Watchdog Blasts FDA For Poor Oversight Of Drug Supply Chain
A government watchdog blasted the Food and Drug Administration for fumbling its oversight of the safety of the U.S. drug supply chain, suggesting the agency is not adequately conducting drug safety inspections overseas. The criticisms came in a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, at which a top official for the Government Accountability Office outlined a number of surprising deficiencies in the FDA’s surveillance of foreign drug manufacturing. It highlighted, in particular, the agency’s longstanding practice of alerting drug makers in advance that it plans to conduct an inspection. U.S.-based drug makers do not get a similar heads-up. (Florko, 6/2)

Modern Healthcare: CVS Sued Over Alleged Generic-Drug Price Inflation
Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers accused CVS Health of inflating the price of generic drugs, allegedly bilking the health insurer of millions of dollars, according to a new lawsuit. CVS offers hundreds of generic drugs at low, discounted prices for individuals that don't use insurance and pay in cash. The goal, Blues health plans in six states alleged, was to remain competitive as well as obfuscate its true prices from third-party payers. (Kacik, 5/28)

Stat: Pfizer To Invest Up To $500M In Public Companies With Drugs In The Clinic
Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, is going to try its hand at picking biotech stocks. The New York pharma giant has set aside up to $500 million that it will invest in publicly traded companies with drugs in the clinic. Pfizer would take non-controlling stakes, with a focus on companies with small to medium market values. The program, called the Pfizer Breakthrough Growth Initiative, would give companies access to the company’s scientists, clinicians, and manufacturing experts, if they want it. (Garde, 6/2)

Kaiser Health News: A Senator From Arizona Emerges As A Pharma Favorite
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema formed a congressional caucus to raise “awareness of the benefits of personalized medicine” in February. Soon after that, employees of pharmaceutical companies donated $35,000 to her campaign committee. Amgen gave $5,000. So did Genentech and Merck. Sanofi, Pfizer and Eli Lilly all gave $2,500. Each of those companies has invested heavily in personalized medicine, which promises individually tailored drugs that can cost a patient hundreds of thousands of dollars. (Hancock and Lucas, 5/29)

Stat: The 20 Executives — And Companies — To Know In Chinese Biotech 
In China, biotechnology long lagged behind the industry in the West. Now, it’s advancing at supersonic speed. The nation, which only began recognizing intellectual property in the 1980s, rapidly transitioned from relying on traditional medicines to adopting generic versions of Western blockbusters. Now, thanks to hundreds of billions in state investment and some dramatic regulatory changes, the country is developing treatments that rival the best efforts of the drug industry’s incumbents. (6/1)

Stat: Pharma CEOs Push Back On WHO Patent Pool For Covid-19 Products
The heads of some of the world’s largest drug makers expressed a mix of confusion and resistance to a World Health Organization voluntary pool to collect patent rights, regulatory test data, and other information that could be shared for developing Covid-19 therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics. The WHO effort reflects mounting concern that some Covid-19 medical products may not be accessible for poorer populations. (Silverman, 5/28)

Stat: Medical Societies Have 'Extensive' Financial Ties With Drug, Device Makers
Many leaders of influential U.S. medical societies have extensive financial relationships with drug and device makers, raising concerns about the extent to which industry may influence research, physician education, and treatment guidelines, a new study finds. Specifically, 72% of 328 individuals who led 10 top professional societies had financial ties with industry. Over a recent five-year period, these individuals collectively received almost $130 million. (Silverman, 5/27)

Reuters: Canada's New Drug Price Rules Pushed To Next Year
Canada’s drug pricing agency said on Monday that new regulations aimed at lowering costs would come into force in January next year instead of next month after receiving extensive feedback on its proposed rules. Canada in August proposed the new regulations under patent protection despite heavy lobbying from drugmakers that stand to lose billions in revenue. (6/1)

Reuters: EU Eyes Overhaul Of Pharma Rules To Tackle Vaccine, Antibiotic Shortages
The European Commission on Tuesday started a process that could lead to reforms of drug manufacturing to limit shortages of vaccines and antibiotics and make medicines more easily available. The move comes as the European Union continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, an effort that has exposed some healthcare shortcomings and the bloc’s dependence on foreign supplies of essential drugs and chemicals, mostly from India and China. (6/2)

Stat: Experts Push For A 'Seal Of Approval' To Improve The Quality Of Medicines
Should there be a Good Housekeeping ‘seal of approval’ for prescription medicines?In a new paper, a group of academics and pharmacists argue that assigning scores based on a mix of regulatory actions and chemical analysis would motivate drug makers to produce more “quality” medicines and reduce shortages, while improving public health. (Silverman, 5/26)

Bloomberg: Covid-19 Treatments Shouldn’t Take Back Seat To Vaccines
As companies and countries pour money into the effort to develop Covid-19 vaccines, timelines keep getting more ambitious and dates for delivering a workable immunization against the virus keep moving up. Yet even with companies such as Moderna Therapeutics Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc signaling rapid progress and already enrolling patients in mid-stage trials, it would be quite a feat if we had a stockpile of proven doses by year's end. That’s a best-case scenario. A longer wait is more likely, and that may seem discouraging. The good news is, there is a batch of treatments in development with a chance of accelerated approval, and they can provide needed relief in the interim. Dozens of approaches could serve as a valuable bridge, from repurposed drugs to bespoke antibody cocktails. (Max Nisen, 6/2)

Newsweek: Coronavirus Treatments And Vaccines Will Only Work If They Are Affordable
Over the past decade, almost every new medication brought to market was paid for by a hefty investment from taxpayer dollars. Each of these drugs was developed in the interest of a greater public good: to alleviate pain, improve health and save lives. However, accountability for public funding has not prevented pharmaceutical corporations from hiking up prices on new and existing drugs for patients, increasing the cost of prescription drugs up to 10 percent every year. As the global search for a COVID-19 vaccine continues, the American public has good reason to be skeptical that pharmaceutical corporations will be our saviors. (Jan Schakowsky and Frances Rooney, 6/2)

Stat: It's Time To Bring Generic Drug Manufacturing Back To The U.S.
In a hearing Tuesday afternoon on Capitol Hill, policymakers will consider repatriating America’s drug supply chain to avoid future shortages like the ones caused by Covid-19. They should think bigger. Repatriating the American drug supply is key not just to averting shortages but to restoring and preserving the integrity of generic drugs in America. It will also create tens of thousands of high-quality jobs in part of the U.S. that have been hurt by globalization. (Peter Kolchinsky, 6/2)

Stat: Covid-19 Has Exposed Cracks In The Global Medicines Supply Chain
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the normal ways of doing everything from going to school to making sure countries have the medications their citizens need. It has also exposed vulnerabilities in the global medicine supply chain, leading to uncertainty, drug shortages, quality issues, and price volatility. Strengthening the supply chain to ensure an uninterrupted supply of essential medicines that are safe, meet standards for quality, and are beneficial to health — something the U.S. Senate’s Finance Committee will be discussing at a hearing Tuesday afternoon — should be seen as a public health priority. (Anthony Lakavage, 6/2)

The Hill: Many Patients, Little Drugs: Who Should Get Scarce COVID-19 Treatments?
How should we decide who gets promising drugs in short supply? In April, the National Institutes of Health announced that an experimental drug, remdesivir, accelerated recovery from COVID-19. Its manufacturer offered to donate 940,00 vials of the antiviral to the U.S. With no end of the epidemic in sight, this donation will likely be insufficient to treat all patients. But who should get the drug, if it cannot be made available to all patients? (Alison Bateman-House, 5/29)

The New York Times: The Coronavirus Is A Civil Rights Battle, Too
For a moment, the death of George Floyd has eclipsed the nation’s battle with a lethal virus. But the stories are not at odds. Both reveal an infection we have yet to overcome. Last Friday night would have been my daughter’s high school graduation ceremony. Because of orders I signed to protect Michiganders, my family and I were at home. No robes, no diplomas, no pomp and circumstance — like families across the country, just doing our best to make do and manage the disappointment. (Gretchen Whitmer, 6/2)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Police Brutality And The Coronavirus Are Killing Black People. But They Will Not Drown Us. 
A disease enters our country from another part of the world, and within weeks is ravaging the United States. By April, this novel coronavirus was killing more African Americans at a rate faster than any other racial group in the United States. For a blink of the eye, there seemed to be an uproar. Then before you could open your eyes, the conversation was over — a foregone conclusion. Where was the support? Where were the resources for hard-hit communities? Where was the initiative to decrease all of the black bodies being put in refrigerator trucks and being buried in unmarked graves? Where was the increased testing, where was the empathy, where was the help? It was nonexistent. (Ala Stanford, 6/1)

Bloomberg: Coronavirus, Protests, Trump: Americans Unified Only In Outrage
If I have learned one thing over the last few weeks, it is that the psychology of the American public is weirder — and perhaps more flexible — than I ever would have thought. Consider, as just one example among many, the issue of nursing homes. According to some estimates, about 40% of the deaths associated with Covid-19 have occurred in nursing homes, with more almost certain to come. (Tyler Cowen, 6/2)

The Washington Post: What We Saw In Baltimore After Freddie Gray’s Death Is Going To Be Seen All Around The U.S.
As protests rage in cities throughout the United States, the world sees our country’s pain and desire for justice. Like everyone else, I worry about whether there will be meaningful criminal-justice reform and what we will do to finally address institutional racism. But I also worry about something else: the direct health effects of the uprisings. My worry is greatly magnified by the ongoing crisis of covid-19 — a crisis with which the ongoing protests are deeply intertwined. (Leana S. Wen, 6/2)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: My Patient Survived COVID-19. Now She’s Afflicted By Stigma. 
My patient, a generally healthy woman in her mid-50s, recently overcame an agonizing case of COVID-19 that caused her nearly four weeks of physical misery and isolation. Thankfully, she avoided hospitalization, and is now back to normal. Last week, she went to have a knee X-ray for an unrelated condition. While she waited in the examination area, she overheard a technician scold a worker for not properly identifying her as a “COVID case.” The technician said little when she returned to the room, made no eye contact, and proceeded quickly through the examination. My patient felt like an outcast. (Jeffrey Millstein, 6/2)

Stat: Create A Health Impact Fund To Develop A Covid-19 Vaccine 
Calls for rethinking our pharmaceutical innovation system are swirling in the headwinds and tailwinds of Covid-19. How do we accelerate the arrival of treatments and vaccines in adequate quantities? And how do we ensure that everyone can access those treatments and vaccines? (Aidan Hollis, 6/3)

The Hill: We Need A New Framework To Solve Problems In The Wake Of COVID-19 
The coronavirus outbreak is shining a spotlight on a large and important trend that has largely been missing from public conversation. The issues that will shape the next millennia of human history are what political scientists call “wicked problems.” ... The rise of wicked problems means that the public issues we increasingly face are hard to even define. They are multifaceted and look different at the local, regional, national and global level. Wicked problems make it hard to even develop consensus on defining the problem, as is the case with COVID-19. (Adam Weinberg, 6/2)

CNN: The Fight Against Covid-19 Should Also Be The Fight Against Tobacco  
Protecting people from the dangers of tobacco products -- and holding tobacco companies accountable for their global actions -- is a critical component in the fight against Covid-19. Smokers are more likely than non-smokers to develop severe complications with Covid-19, according to a review of studies by public health experts convened by the World Health Organization. And, a new study of 169 hospitals in Asia, Europe and North America found that smokers have nearly double the likelihood of in-hospital death than non-smokers. (Kelly Henning, 6/2)

The Wall Street Journal: The Measure Of New York’s Coronavirus Devastation 
New York -- How deadly is Covid-19? It’s difficult to say with certainty, because there’s so much we don’t know. We don’t know how many people had the virus or have it now, how many people had mild symptoms or none at all, how many people got sick but didn’t show up at hospitals. Death certificates tell us with certainty that someone has died, but they often don’t provide certainty about the cause of death. It is extremely rare for people who are otherwise healthy to die of Covid-19. Most of the people who die with Covid-19—98% in one study—have at least two other major life-threatening conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. Surprisingly little data has been collected to sort out these multiple causes. (Robert Rosenkranz, 6/2)