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President Donald Trump's delayed action after weeks of reported shortages drew questions about why he didn't act sooner. But Trump defended the decision, saying states have enough resources already. Meanwhile, state and lab officials say testing disarray and shortages are prolonging the national crisis.
Governors across the country pushed back against President Donald Trump's claims that the country had the capacity to complete more testing but that the states weren't utilizing their resources properly. “We are fighting a biological war,” Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said. “We have been asked as governors to fight that war without the supplies we need.”
Democrats and Republicans have been at an impasse at how to supplement the fund to help small businesses, which was depleted last week. The new bill proposes an additional $300 billion for that fund.
Delays in guidance from the Trump administration about how to pay for COVID-19 care have patients and hospitals worried about being on the hook for potentially massive costs. Meanwhile, workers who lost jobs because of the pandemic struggle to find affordable coverage.
In the United States, the COVID-19 fatality rate has steadily ticked upward, from about 1.35 percent in late March to nearly 5 percent after New York City added in "probable" deaths. However, those rates aren't necessarily representative of reality as testing failures undermine efforts to count mild and asymptomatic cases.
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these pandemic topics and others.
Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Although Congress has focused much attention on air ambulance bills, the cost of normal ground emergency transportation is a more wide-spread issue. In other health industry news: ambulatory surgery centers, Medicare payments for inpatient rehab, and fees for a cancer center.
State-run television announced that the Chinese government revised the Wuhan death toll to 3,869. The number of confirmed cases was also increased by 325, bringing the total for the city to 50,333 -- approximately 60% of mainland China's reported infections. The report said that several medical institutions failed to report their numbers in a timely matter.
Research has found that black Americans have a disproportionately higher risk of contracting and dying of COVID-19, which is a reflection of broader disparities in the health system that have just been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Opinion writers weigh in on these pandemic issues and others.
ProPublica reports on thousands of complaints filed by workers to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration at a time when the agency has issued a series of guidelines that roll back safety standards and eliminate most non-health care workers from government protection. News on workers is on the call for hazard pay, sick leave and unclear directives for Indiana businesses, as well.
Media outlets report on news from California, Texas, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era regulation that required U.S. coal plants to cut back emissions of mercury and other air pollutants by revising the math the government uses to value human health. “We have put in place an honest accounting method that balances," said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist.
The FDA started banning donations from gay men in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. While the agency recently shortened the wait period when blood donations dropped during the pandemic, doctors say science-based evidence shows that ruling doesn't go far enough. Other public health news reports on domestic violence rising in New York City, Facebook misinformation, divorce attorneys awaiting business, extremists' perfect storm, and tech efforts to track data, as well.
Scientists around the globe race to unlock the mysteries of the novel coronavirus. Sometimes it gives up its secrets and sometimes the answers just lead to more questions.
In four weeks, the country has plunged into Great Depression-levels of unemployment, and the swift economic devastation shows just how vulnerable the system was at a time that appeared like great growth and prosperity. “We built an economy with no shock absorbers,” said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel-winning economist. “We made a system that looked like it was maximizing profits but had higher risks and lower resiliency.”
Only about $30 billion has been distributed thus far from a pot of $100 billion earmarked for hospitals and health-care providers. In addition to that, the distribution of the relief money didn't take hot spots into account, so the places that in most need say they are getting shortchanged.
The emergency fund for small businesses ran out this week, but lawmakers haven't been able to reach an agreement on supplementing the relief money. The swift, bipartisan action seen on the $2.2 trillion stimulus package has become the exception instead of the rule even in the midst of staggering economic devastation. Meanwhile, as that cash is being dispersed, there's still little oversight on the spending, even though Democrats pushed hard for that concession.
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