KHN Morning Briefing: March 25, 2020

A roundup of the top health care news stories from across the country.

View on our site, with interactive table of contents. Not a subscriber? Sign up Morning Briefing: Summaries Of The News Wednesday, March 25, 2020                       Visit Kaiser Health News for the latest headlines In This Edition: Kaiser Health News Original Stories 1. Some States Are Reporting Incomplete COVID-19 Results, Blurring The Full Picture 2. Are Vital Home Health Workers Now A Safety Threat? 3. Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop 4. Photo Essay: LA Under Lockdown 5. Political Cartoon: 'The Grand Metaphor' Capitol Watch 6. Senate, White House Reach Agreement On $2T Stimulus Bill With Oversight Requirements Democrats Demanded Federal Response 7. Trump Wants To 'Open Up' The Country By Easter Despite Public Health Experts' Warnings 8. State Officials Plead With Federal Government To Use War Powers To Address Chaotic Medical Device Market 9. 'Be On Lookout For Schemes': DOJ Launches Task Force On Hoarding, Price Gouging 10. Trying To Slow Spread In Crowded Prisons: Federal Bureau Imposes 14-Day Quarantine On New Inmates 11. Purposefully Exposing Someone To Coronavirus Could Bring Criminal Charges, Justice Department Warns From The States 12. New York Cases Climb By 'Astronomical' Amount, Accounting For About 60% Of U.S. Infections 13. 'The Peak Will Be Bad': State Response Efforts Range From Mandatory Quarantines To Paid Sick Leave To Banning Large Gatherings Pharmaceuticals 14. Gilead's Promising Coronavirus Treatment Granted Orphan Drug Status That Provides Lucrative Incentives For Company 15. Health Officials Try To Tamp Down Excitement Over Potential Treatments As Both Doctors And Public Hoard Malaria Drugs 16. FDA Approves Treatment That Would Let Doctors Inject Patients With Plasma From Those Recovered From Virus Preparedness 17. Some Health Care Providers Wonder If It Would Be Better To Get Virus, Develop Immunity And Then Get Back To Work 18. Hospitals Prepare For Reality Of Rationing Care: 'Priority Is Assigned To Those Most Likely To Be Saved' 19. Ongoing Shortages Drive Local Officials To Hunt For Tests, Make Own Deals With Labs Economic Toll 20. Federal Reserve Pulls Out All The Stops To Try To Bolster Economy Science And Innovations 21. 17-Year-Old's Death Linked To Coronavirus, Emphasizing That The Young Aren't Immune To The Outbreak 22. A Human Snapshot: Outbreak Adds Stress To Vulnerable Populations; Preppers Have Their Day; Selfless Acts Abound Health IT 23. White House Outreach To Big Tech Companies During Pandemic Puts Antitrust Probes On Hold, But For How Long? Medicare 24. A Look At What Medicare Covers In Terms Of Coronavirus Treatment Global Watch 25. Global Responses: China Eases Lockdown; Russia Braces For Outbreak; India Locks Down 1.3 Billion People Prescription Drug Watch 26. Drug Pricing Legislation Fades Into Background As Coronavirus Dominates Lawmakers' Attention 27. Perspectives: Will Americans Actually Be Able To Afford A Vaccine If One Is Available? Editorials And Opinions 28. Different Takes: Shortage Of Hydroxychloroquine Would Harm Many Patients Who Actually Need It; Older Health Care Workers Deserve To Be Protected 29. Viewpoints: Pros, Cons Of Reopening The Economy Instead Of Keeping People Safe; Closing Parks When People Need To Be Outdoors Is A Foolish Mistake From Kaiser Health News: Kaiser Health News Original Stories 1. Some States Are Reporting Incomplete COVID-19 Results, Blurring The Full Picture Maryland, Ohio and others are reporting only positive tests, which skews tracking and an understanding of how the virus spreads. (Fred Schulte, 3/25) 2. Are Vital Home Health Workers Now A Safety Threat? Hundreds of thousands of health care workers go into homes to provide important services for seniors and disabled people. But with the rising concerns about the danger of the coronavirus pandemic, especially for older people, these health workers could be endangering their patients and themselves. (Phil Galewitz, 3/25) 3. Why Hoarding Of Hydroxychloroquine Needs To Stop Six states — Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas — have taken steps to limit inappropriate prescriptions for the medicine and preserve supplies for patients who take it for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. (Martha Bebinger, WBUR, 3/25) 4. Photo Essay: LA Under Lockdown Californians are under orders to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus — and the result is that some of Southern California's best-known spots are shuttered or deserted, from Santa Monica Pier to Olvera Street. (Heidi de Marco, 3/24) 5. Political Cartoon: 'The Grand Metaphor' Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'The Grand Metaphor'" by Matt Wuerker. Here's today's health policy haiku: A SNAPSHOT OF L.A. Iconic haunts are Becoming ghost towns amid Strict lockdown order. - Anonymous If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if you want us to include your name. Keep in mind that we give extra points if you link back to a KHN original story. Summaries Of The News: Capitol Watch 6. Senate, White House Reach Agreement On $2T Stimulus Bill With Oversight Requirements Democrats Demanded The measure is the largest economic rescue package in U.S. history and would give direct payments to most Americans, expand unemployment benefits and provide a $367 billion program for small businesses to keep making payroll while workers are forced to stay home. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to pass the legislation on unanimous consent so that she doesn't have to call lawmakers back to the Capitol, but Republicans signal at least one member is protesting that move. The New York Times: Congress And White House Strike Deal For $2 Trillion Stimulus Package Senators and Trump administration officials reached an agreement early Wednesday on a sweeping, roughly $2 trillion stimulus measure to send direct payments and jobless benefits to individuals as well as money to states and businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation, which is expected to be enacted within days, is the biggest fiscal stimulus package in modern American history, aimed at delivering critical financial support to businesses forced to shut their doors and relief to American families and hospitals. (Cochrane and Fandos, 3/25) The Associated Press: Trump, Congress Agree On $2 Trillion Virus Rescue Bill The unprecedented economic rescue package would give direct payments to most Americans, expand unemployment benefits and provide a $367 billion program for small businesses to keep making payroll while workers are forced to stay home. One of the last issues to close concerned $500 billion for guaranteed, subsidized loans to larger industries, including a fight over how generous to be with the airlines. Hospitals would get significant help as well. (Taylor, Mascaro and Lemire, 3/24) Reuters: U.S. Congress, Negotiators Reach Deal On $2-Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package The Senate will vote on the $2-trillion package later in the day and the House of Representatives is expected to follow suit soon after. "This is a wartime level of investment into our nation," Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech announcing the pact after days of negotiations between Republican and Democratic lawmakers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other top aides to President Donald Trump. (Cowan and Morgan, 3/24) The Washington Post: Senate, White House Reach $2 Trillion Stimulus Deal To Blunt Coronavirus Fallout As lawmakers neared a deal, the White House made a significant concession to Democrats' demands, agreeing to allow enhanced scrutiny over the massive loan program that is a centerpiece of the Senate's $2 trillion coronavirus economic package. This pertains to the $500 billion loan and loan guarantee program that the Treasury Department would be tasked with administering for companies, states and cities. Of that amount, $425 billion is supposed to go to businesses, cities and states. An additional $50 billion would go to passenger airlines, as well as $8 billion for cargo airlines, and $17 billion for firms that are deemed important to national security. (Werner, DeBonis, Kane and Stein, 3/25) Los Angeles Times: Deal Reached On $2-Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Bill — Largest By Far In U.S. History House members have not returned from their scheduled recess, and remote voting is not allowed under House rules. Pelosi indicated Tuesday that the fastest way for the House to approve the Senate bill would be by unanimous consent, a tactic generally reserved for small, noncontroversial legislation. It requires the consent of all current 430 House members, meaning a single representative could object, as long as he or she is on the floor to do so. If that happens, Pelosi said she would probably need to call back the entire chamber for an in-person vote, a more time-consuming process that would also raise health risks and logistical challenges for members. It could also lead to potential changes to the legislation that would have to be reconciled with the Senate. (Wire, 3/24) Politico: Negotiators Strike Deal On Massive Coronavirus Rescue Package But Democratic and Republican leaders in the House don't yet know whether it would be possible to muscle through a sweeping $2 trillion bill without a single objection from any of the chamber's 435 lawmakers. In fact, the House GOP's whip team held a conference call Tuesday evening where they acknowledged that there's a strong possibility that a member will object to a unanimous consent agreement, according to a whip team source. But passing the rescue package by voice vote is another viable option and being discussed with the GOP conference, the source added. (Desiderio, Zanona and Ferris, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: White House Reaches Deal With Lawmakers On $2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that he had spoken to President Trump about the agreement and that Mr. Trump would "absolutely" sign it as it is written today. "He's very pleased with this legislation, and the impact that this is going to have," Mr. Mnuchin said. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said the bill had been "improved substantially" since Democrats joined the negotiations. "To all Americans I say: Help is on the way, big help and quick help," Mr. Schumer said. (Jamerson and Duehren, 3/25) The Hill: White House Pushing To Include Health Price Transparency In Coronavirus Package The White House is pushing to include regulations requiring hospitals and insurers to disclose health care prices in a massive coronavirus stimulus package. The Trump administration is trying to codify regulations it issued in November that would require hospitals to post their prices online, while mandating insurers allow patients to compare costs and different providers. The administration views those regulations as key steps to increase health care price transparency and help consumers shop and drive prices down. (Sullivan, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Global Stocks Surge As U.S. Clinches Stimulus Deal U.S. futures rose, stock markets in Asia-Pacific and Europe gained and the dollar weakened as lawmakers in Washington and the Trump administration reached an agreement on an estimated $2 trillion stimulus package to limit the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Futures for the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose, suggesting U.S. shares are likely to gain when the market opens in New York. The WSJ Dollar Index declined about 0.5%, with currencies including the Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and British pound strengthening against the greenback. (Yoon, 3/25) The Hill: Democratic Leaders Forecast At Least Two More Coronavirus Relief Bills Even as lawmakers in both chambers are racing this week to enact a massive coronavirus relief package — the third in as many weeks — House Democratic leaders are telling members to expect at least two more stimulus measures in the weeks and months ahead. On a marathon conference call with the House Democratic Caucus Tuesday afternoon, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told lawmakers there will likely be a fourth and fifth phase of pandemic relief, according to a source on the call. (Lillis and Wong, 3/24) The Hill: Senate Eyes Quick Exit After Vote On Coronavirus Stimulus Package Senators are floating a quick exit from Washington, D.C., after they pass a massive coronavirus stimulus bill that is being finalized Tuesday. The expectation among senators is that once the chamber passes the legislation, likely on Wednesday, they will not be in session for at least three weeks. (Carney, 3/24) The Hill: Trump Triggers Congressional Debate With Comments On Reopening Economy President Trump's push to relax social-distancing restrictions and reopen businesses by Easter has ignited a fierce debate on Capitol Hill — and among people around the country — over whether aggressive efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic have been too draconian or not severe enough. The fight is mostly playing out along party lines, with pro-business Republicans desperate for American life to get back to normal. They argue the economic toll from the "Great Shutdown of 2020" will be far worse than the lives lost from the deadly virus. (Wong, 3/24) Politico: The House Works From Home As the outbreak threatens to overwhelm the nation, more than 400 House members are working to combat a mammoth crisis almost entirely from their living rooms — sometimes enduring the same daily indignities, like botched conference calls, that millions of other Americans are experiencing while working from home. "A lot of us are doing very different jobs than we did two weeks ago," Slotkin added in an interview. (Ferris, 3/24) Federal Response 7. Trump Wants To 'Open Up' The Country By Easter Despite Public Health Experts' Warnings Public health experts caution that lifting social distancing recommendations would overwhelm the country's health system and have fatal consequences. But President Donald Trump, who has tied his presidency to the success of the economy, seems to be getting restless. The suggestion that the country restart in two weeks kicked off a debate about the value of human life between the political parties. The New York Times: Trump Wants U.S. 'Opened Up' By Easter, Despite Health Officials' Warnings President Trump said on Tuesday that he wanted to reopen the country for business by Easter, on April 12, despite widespread warnings from public health experts that the worst effects of the coronavirus were still weeks away and that lifting the restrictions now in place would result in unnecessary deaths. The president said he believed a crippled economy and forced social isolation would inflict more harm than the spread of the virus. But experts have warned that spread could be slowed if businesses remain shuttered and people remain in their homes as much as possible. (Karni and McNeil, 3/24) The Associated Press: Trump Hoping To See US Economy Reopened By Easter Amid Virus Trump's optimism contradicted the warnings of some public health officials who called for stricter — not looser — restrictions on public interactions. But federal officials suggested that advisories could be loosened in areas not experiencing widespread infection. With lives and the economy hanging in the balance, Trump said Tuesday he was already looking toward easing the advisories that have sidelined workers, shuttered schools and led to a widespread economic slowdown. "I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," he said during a Fox News virtual town hall. Easter is just over two weeks away — Apr. 12. (Miller and Superville, 3/25) The Washington Post: Easing Coronavirus Restrictions For The Economy Would Be Disastrous, Experts Say The greatest alarm has come from scientists, epidemiologists and health experts who have spent the past three months studying the new coronavirus and have witnessed the destructive, contagious swath it has cut through other countries. "To be a week into these restrictions and already be talking about abandoning them is irresponsible and dangerous," said Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Removing restrictions now would allow the virus, he said, to "spread widely, rapidly, terribly, and could kill potentially millions in the year ahead with huge social and economic impact." (Wan, Albergotti and Achenbach, 3/24) The Hill: Fauci Says Trump's Easter Goal For Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions Should Be 'Flexible' Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said President Trump's stated timeline for the lifting of restrictions on parts of the country by Easter Sunday should be "flexible." Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a prominent member of the White House's coronavirus task force, added it is important for public health officials to gauge how widespread coronavirus is in parts of the country that haven't reported significant numbers of cases. (Samuels and Chalfant, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Trump Hopes To Have U.S. Reopened By Easter, Despite Health Experts' Warnings For days, Mr. Trump and his aides have been discussing easing social-distancing guidelines as early as next week. The president has been pushed by advisers and business leaders to boost an economy beset by deepening job losses nationwide as state and local governments have directed people to stay home, people familiar with the discussions said. Financial markets have taken a steep dive in recent weeks and volatility in American stocks has reached historically high levels. Unemployment claims, which are reported this week, are expected to have soared. (Ballhaus, Armour and Leary, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: Trump And Governors In Heated Debate Over Saving Lives Versus The Economy His remarks drew sharp rejoinders and resistance from governors in both parties — the officials who have the final say over limitations on daily life. "If you ask the American people to choose between public health and the economy, then it's no contest," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference on Tuesday. "No American is going to say 'accelerate the economy at the cost of human life.'" "My mother is not expendable. And your mother is not expendable," he said. "We're not going to accept a premise that human life is disposable." (Megerian, 3/24) Reuters: Explainer: Trump Has Little Power To Restart U.S. Economy The United States is a federalist system, meaning power is shared between a national and state governments. Under the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, state governments have power to police citizens and regulate public welfare. In the country's early years, it was up to state and local authorities to lead the response to the yellow fever epidemic, not the federal government. Reflecting these principles, "disaster response and aid is typically state-led and federally supported," said Steve Bunnell, the former top lawyer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a partner at O'Melveny & Myers. (Wolfe, 3/24) The Washington Post: Trump Is In A Tug-Of-War With Scientists Over Coronavirus Policy On Monday, during the daily coronavirus news conference, President Trump tried to drag White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx into bashing the media with him — an entreaty she deftly sidestepped with a smile and talk of how much she had recently learned about "social distancing and respiratory diseases." Then on Tuesday, during a Fox News virtual town hall with virus task force members, Trump tried to prod Birx into criticizing New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) for the rapidly growing outbreak of coronavirus cases in his state. (Parker, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 3/24) Stat: Social Distancing, Politicized: Trump Allies Are Urging An End To Isolation, Worrying Public Health Experts How and whether to prevent disease is suddenly a political question. And in the face of the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus, a small but growing number of conservatives has come down forcefully on the side of "don't." (Facher, 3/24) The Washington Post: Liberty University Students Return Despite Coronavirus Students returned to Liberty University after spring break this week, even as colleges and universities across the country have sent students home to try to slow the spread of covid-19. Earlier this month, Jerry Falwell Jr., the school's president, said on Fox News that people were overreacting to the coronavirus pandemic and that the campus would open as usual this week. A few days later, after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) banned gatherings of 100 people or more, Falwell reversed course and said most classes would be conducted online. (Svrluga and Vozzella, 3/24) The New York Times: Can We Put A Price Tag On A Life? The Shutdown Forces A New Look Can we measure the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead? President Trump and leading business figures are increasingly questioning the wisdom of a prolonged shutdown of the American economy — already putting millions out of work — to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. "Our people want to return to work," Mr. Trump declared Tuesday on Twitter, adding, "THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM!" (Porter and Tankersley, 3/24) Politico: Trump Bets That Voters Are As Impatient As He Is President Donald Trump's vow Tuesday that he would "love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter," less than three weeks from now, was the clearest signal yet of the political logic he hopes to follow in a presidential campaign shadowed by global pandemic. He is eager to own the only good thing about a crisis that has paralyzed the country and left millions of people in housebound despair: The reality that life will at some point slowly lurch back to normal. (Harris, 3/24) Politico: 'He Should Stop Talking': Biden Implores Trump To Listen To His Scientists Former Vice President Joe Biden slammed Donald Trump over the president's declaration he wants to restart the economy in a matter of weeks — over objections from health experts — advising Trump to "just stop talking." In a series of cable news hits Tuesday afternoon from a makeshift studio in his Delaware home's basement, Biden, who appears likely to become the Democratic nominee for president, repeatedly implored his would-be rival to heed the advice of his coronavirus task force and keep social distancing efforts in place to "flatten the curve" of individuals infected by the virus. (Oprysko, 3/24) The Associated Press: Of America And Sacrifice: Is The Country Ready To Step Up? For most Americans alive today, the idea of shared national sacrifice is a collective abstraction, a memory handed down from a grandparent or passed on through a book or movie. Not since World War II, when people carried ration books with stamps that allowed them to purchase meat, sugar, butter, cooking oil and gasoline, when buying cars, firewood and nylon was restricted, when factories converted from making automobiles to making tanks, Jeeps and torpedos, when men were drafted and women volunteered in the war effort, has the entire nation been asked to sacrifice for a greater good. (Tackett, 3/25) The Associated Press: Virus Causes Surge In WW II References, But Is It Merited? In the first week of June 2019, World War II was on many people's minds.It was the 75th anniversary of D-Day, a week filled with events honoring the sacrifice and blood of tens of thousands of Allied soldiers that was spilled on the French beaches. Leaders from the United States, Britain, Canada, France — and then-foe and now ally Germany — gathered in a rare show of unity in Normandy, where the tide of the war was so decisively turned. Now, nine months later, World War II references are once again being heard daily — because of the coronavirus. (Fakahany, 3/25) In other news — CNN: Blame Game Escalates Between US And China Over Coronavirus Disinformation President Donald Trump says he has declared war on the coronavirus in an effort to contain the outbreak and its economic impact here at home, but on the world stage, his administration is engaged in another battle as the US and China fight to shape the narrative about the pandemic's origins. Trump and senior members of the administration have attempted to brand the outbreak as the result of a "Chinese virus" as they ramp up accusations that Beijing failed to identify, stop or warn about the virus early on. (Cohen, Marquardt and Atwood, 3/25) The Associated Press: Too Big To Infect? Some US Leaders Defy Virus Guidelines The State Department has advised against all international travel because of the coronavirus, but that didn't stop Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from flying to Afghanistan this week. Gyms across the nation's capital are shuttered, but Sen. Rand Paul, an eye doctor, still managed a workout at the Senate on Sunday morning as he awaited the results of a coronavirus test. It came back positive. (Tucker, 3/25) 8. State Officials Plead With Federal Government To Use War Powers To Address Chaotic Medical Device Market Governors and hospital leaders fear the voluntary efforts from private companies will be too scattershot without federal coordination. But President Donald Trump has been hesitant to actually use the Defense Production Act, which could compel companies to manufacture medical equipment and protective gear. A FEMA official caused confusion on Tuesday when he mentioned the act, but the agency later walked back statements that it had been invoked. The Washington Post: With Masks, Ventilators In Short Supply, Governors And Hospitals Call For Federal Intervention A mad scramble for masks, gowns and ventilators is pitting states against each other and driving up prices. Some hard-hit parts of the country are receiving fresh supplies of N95 masks, but others are still out of stock. Hospitals are requesting donations of masks and gloves from construction companies, nail salons and tattoo parlors, and considering using ventilators designed for large animals because they cannot find the kind made for people. The market for medical supplies has descended into chaos, according to state officials and health-care leaders. They are begging the federal government to use a wartime law to bring order and ensure the United States has the gear it needs to battle the coronavirus. So far, the Trump administration has declined. (Whalen, Romm, Gregg and Hamburger, 3/24) Reuters: Trump Administration Unclear Over Emergency Production Measure To Combat Coronavirus The Trump administration sowed confusion on Tuesday over use of a 1950s-era emergency act to procure coronavirus test kits amid severe shortages of tests, masks, ventilators and other equipment for medical workers fighting the highly contagious disease. Peter Gaynor, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told CNN the administration had decided to use the Defense Production Act to procure 60,000 coronavirus test kits, in what would mark the first use of the act to confront the coronavirus crisis. (Chiacu, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: FEMA Pulls Back From Defense Production Act Amid Mixed Signals For much of the day, the administration sent conflicting signals on whether it was using the Defense Production Act. On CNN Tuesday morning, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Peter Gaynor said the law would be used for the production of certain test kits. Mr. Gaynor said the federal government was also inserting "DPA language" into its mass contract for 500 million masks. But Mr. Trump, speaking Tuesday evening at a White House news conference, said the Defense Production Act hadn't been used, saying the government hadn't "found it to be the case" that the law was needed. Mr. Gaynor's comments surprised some in the White House, according to an administration official. (Ballhaus and Restuccia, 3/24) Politico: FEMA: Defense Production Act No Longer Needed To Secure Thousands Of Test Kits Late Tuesday night, FEMA press secretary Lizzie Litzow changed coursed, writing: "At the last minute we were able to procure the test kits from the private market without evoking the DPA. "Federal delays in rolling out widespread testing have sparked criticism from state officials, who have said they are woefully underprepared to handle the unfurling outbreak. One testing kit serves roughly 300 to 400 patients. President Donald Trump last week invoked the DPA as the administration broadened its response to the public health crisis, but he has resisted actually activating the statute — insisting that governors bear more responsibility for obtaining potentially life-saving supplies and arguing that the private sector would pitch in to supply needed equipment voluntarily. (Forgey, Owermohle and Cassella, 3/24) Politico: Andrew Cuomo To Trump Administration: 'You Pick The 26K People Who Are Going To Die' "The president said it's a war ... then act like it," Cuomo said, raising his voice during a morning news conference at the Javits Center in Manhattan. "They're doing the supplies? Here's my question: Where are they?" If more ventilators aren't sent within weeks, Cuomo told the feds, "You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die." New York has procured just 7,000 of the 30,000 ventilators required to treat the expected surge in hospitalized Covid-19 patients. (Young and French, 3/24) The New York Times: Slow Response To The Coronavirus Measured In Lost Opportunity When Ford's chief executive, Jim Hackett, announced on Tuesday that the carmaker would team up with General Electric to build ventilators, he tempered the good news with a note of caution: "We're talking about early June." That was just one of several examples that underscored the price of the Trump administration's slow response to evidence as early as January that the coronavirus was headed to the United States. (Sanger, Kanno-Youngs and Swanson, 3/24) WBUR: Automaker Retools With Health Supply Companies To Make Masks, Ventilators Ford has teamed up with 3M and GE Healthcare to speed up the production of personal protective gear for health care workers and of ventilators for people in acute respiratory distress amid the coronavirus epidemic. (Aubrey, 3/24) Detroit Free Press: Ford Will Be Making Respirators With 3M To Fight Coronavirus Ford Motor Co. announced Tuesday that it will join the effort to "speed production" of respirators in an effort to assist with the effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic.The Dearborn-based automaker said in a news release that the company is collaborating with 3M to manufacture "Powered Air-Purifying Respirators." The two are working on a "new design leveraging parts from both companies," the release said. (Wall Howard, 3/24) ABC News: Feds Send Supplies From Stockpiles But Some Items Are Old Or Expired, Officials Say While federal officials have touted the promise of tapping the national stockpile for providing desperately needed medical equipment, some states say the items they've received have surpassed their expiration dates. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has started shipping much-needed respirators from the federal government's emergency supply. New York City, for example, had requested 2.2 million of the specialized masks, known as N-95 respirators, from national stockpiles but has so far received 78,000. And many of the supplies have also expired, a New York City Health Department spokesperson said. (Rubin, 3/24) Reuters: Trump Seeks South Korea's Help For Medical Equipment To Tackle Coronavirus South Korea said it will send medical equipment to the United States to fight the coronavirus if it has any spare after an urgent request from U.S. President Donald Trump in which he promised to help Korean firms gain U.S. government approval. The news, which sent shares in South Korean manufacturers of test kits for the virus rocketing higher, highlights the diverging paths the two countries have taken since both discovered their first coronavirus cases on the same day. (Roh, 3/24) 9. 'Be On Lookout For Schemes': DOJ Launches Task Force On Hoarding, Price Gouging Among profiteering crimes being reported are hoarding of masks at a time when health care professionals need them, targeting of Medicare patients for fake COVID-19 tests and physicians prescribing anti-viral drugs promoted by President Trump to healthy patients. Reuters: U.S. Task Force To Tackle Coronavirus Market Manipulation, Hoarding The United States is launching a task force to address market manipulation, hoarding and price gouging related to the coronavirus pandemic, following an order by President Donald Trump to crack down on such crimes. At the same time, federal law enforcement agencies across the country are prioritizing investigations into an array of coronavirus-related crimes following reports they have surged. (Lynch, 3/25) The Washington Post: Justice Dept. Warns Hoarders Of Masks And Drugs That Trump Has Touted As Coronavirus Treatment Federal prosecutors have not charged anyone with crimes stemming from coronavirus-related hoarding, though they have brought a civil case against a website claiming to distribute vaccines, which do not exist. Officials said the scope of the problem is still largely unknown. But Barr said at the White House that officials had "already initiated investigations of activities that are disrupting the supply chain and suggestive of hoarding," as well as directing each of the U.S. attorney's offices to designate a lead prosecutor in their offices to handle any cases that might be brought. (Zapotosky, 3/25) 10. Trying To Slow Spread In Crowded Prisons: Federal Bureau Imposes 14-Day Quarantine On New Inmates Social distancing is difficult for the federal system's 175,000 inmates who share tight quarters, spend much of their time together and often lack access to good health care. Also, advocates in New York, California and several other states push for the release of older and at-risk inmates from state prisons, which they describe as breeding grounds for the virus. The Wall Street Journal: Bureau Of Prisons Imposes 14-Day Quarantine To Contain Coronavirus The federal Bureau of Prisons on Tuesday said it has imposed a 14-day mandatory quarantine for all new inmates entering any of its facilities, a challenging directive for the nation's crowded prisons as they try to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The effort came as bipartisan pressure mounted for the Trump administration to transfer at-risk inmates to home detention and as civil-rights groups urged President Trump to commute the sentences of sick and elderly prisoners who could benefit from compassionate release. (Gurman, 3/24) Stateline: 'Prisons Are Bacteria Factories'; Elderly Most At Risk As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, prisoner advocates are warning of the potential for a disastrous outbreak among inmates. The elderly are most vulnerable, and the U.S. inmate population is aging. Jails and prisons, crowded places where social distancing is nearly impossible, are breeding grounds for contagious disease. (Montgomery, 3/25) The Hill: New York To Release 300 Nonviolent Rikers Inmates Amid Pandemic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Tuesday that 300 nonviolent, elderly inmates would be released from Rikers Island in an effort to stem the coronavirus pandemic. The prison has seen an outbreak in recent weeks, including a New York City Department of Corrections officer who died of the virus last week, one of 13 coronavirus-related deaths in the city. (Budryk, 3/24) WBUR: Pain And Profits: Sheriffs Hand Off Inmate Care To Private Health Companies A WBUR investigation found inmates in county jails suffering, and sometimes dying, under the care of companies with contracts that provide incentives to curb costs and hospital trips. These for-profit firms are increasingly taking over health care in jails here and across the country — part of a multi-billion-dollar industry with little public scrutiny.Now more than ever, sheriffs' medical providers will come under staffing and financial strain amid this looming coronavirus crisis. Visits have been curtailed at jails across the state, and officials are debating whether to release some inmates from their cramped facilities. Sheriffs, meanwhile, are under pressure to show they can keep people safe. (Willmsen and Healy, 3/24) 11. Purposefully Exposing Someone To Coronavirus Could Bring Criminal Charges, Justice Department Warns "Because Coronavirus appears to meet the statutory definition of a 'biological agent'… such acts potentially could implicate the Nation's terrorism-related statutes," said Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. Politico: Those Who Intentionally Spread Coronavirus Could Be Charged As Terrorists People who intentionally spread the coronavirus could face criminal charges under federal terrorism laws, the Justice Department's No. 2 official said Tuesday. In a memo to top Justice Department leaders, law enforcement agency chiefs and U.S. Attorneys across the country, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said prosecutors and investigators could come across cases of "purposeful exposure and infection of others with COVID-19." (Gerstein, 3/24) ABC News: Homeland Security Warns Terrorists May Exploit COVID-19 Pandemic A Department of Homeland Security memo sent to law enforcement officials around the country warns that violent extremists could seek to take advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by carrying out attacks against the U.S. "Violent extremists probably are seeking to exploit public fears associated with the spread of COVID-19 to incite violence, intimidate targets and promote their ideologies, and we assess these efforts will intensify in the coming months," according to the intelligence bulletin, compiled by the agency's Counterterrorism Mission Center and Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office. (Mallin and Margolin, 3/24) In news from other agencies — Politico: DHS Wound Down Pandemic Models Before Coronavirus Struck The Department of Homeland Security stopped updating its annual models of the havoc that pandemics would wreak on America's critical infrastructure in 2017, according to current and former DHS officials with direct knowledge of the matter. From at least 2005 to 2017, an office inside DHS, in tandem with analysts and supercomputers at several national laboratories, produced detailed analyses of what would happen to everything from transportation systems to hospitals if a pandemic hit the United States. (Lippman, 3/24) Politico: Coronavirus Among Air Traffic Control Workers Could Threaten U.S. Aviation System A major outbreak of the coronavirus among air traffic controllers could threaten much of the U.S. aviation system's efficiency, revealing weaknesses in the Federal Aviation Administration's contingency plans. FAA personnel at air traffic control facilities from Las Vegas to New York have tested positive in the last week, prompting closures while the buildings were cleaned. The majority of the almost one dozen facilities affected so far have been towers at airports, but two of the incidents have been at centers responsible for controlling airspace over multiple states. (Gurciullo, 3/25) From The States 12. New York Cases Climb By 'Astronomical' Amount, Accounting For About 60% Of U.S. Infections Vice President Mike Pence warns that anyone who had been to New York and had since left should self-isolate for two weeks. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is working to get enough hospital beds and medical equipment to deal with the surge, but he struck an urgent tone Tuesday as cases continue to spike. He also forecasts that New York City is what the rest of America will be dealing with soon, though public health experts say that may not be the case because the city's unique circumstances--like high density--exacerbate the outbreak. The New York Times: Coronavirus In N.Y.: 'Astronomical' Surge Leads To Quarantine Warning White House officials expressed growing alarm on Tuesday about the coronavirus outbreak in New York City, advising people who have passed through or left the city to place themselves in a 14-day quarantine. Officials warned that the outbreak could reach its peak in New York City much sooner than expected and said they had begun treating the region as a coronavirus hot zone, akin to areas of China and Europe overwhelmed by the virus. About 60 percent of the new cases in the country were in the New York City metropolitan area, and the infection rate was eight to 10 times greater than other parts of the country, officials said at a briefing with the White House Coronavirus Task Force. (Feuer and Rosenthal, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Officials Say Anyone Leaving New York Area Should Self-Isolate For 14 Days With more than 25,000 cases, New York has emerged as the epicenter of the crisis nationwide with the highest and fastest rate of infection, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday. Infections are doubling every three days, the governor said, and the state expects its peak in these cases in two weeks, earlier than officials had anticipated. New York City hospitals are already straining to keep up with a surge of patients. Officials have sought to increase hospital capacity, including turning Manhattan's Javits Center into a makeshift hospital, and find additional staff, like retired doctors. "I will turn this state upside down to get this number of beds that we need," he said, adding that the state's 53,000 beds fell drastically short of the estimated 140,000 beds needed. (Calfas, Fan and Ballhaus, 3/25) NBC News: As New York Faces Coronavirus 'Bullet Train,' Experts Warn Of Challenges Ahead With New York in a race against the "bullet train" of the coronavirus sweeping across it, public health experts warned of the challenges ahead to prevent the state from becoming the next Italy. Gov. Andrew Cuomo painted a dire forecast for the outbreak Tuesday morning, saying that the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, was accelerating and that the state was in "desperate" need of ventilators and more hospital beds with the projected apex just 14 to 21 days away. (Silva, 3/24) The Hill: Cuomo Says NY Needs 30,000 Ventilators, Pleads With Feds For Help New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) begged the Trump administration on Tuesday for more ventilators, warning that the peak of the coronavirus could hit the state in 14 days. Cuomo said the state needs at least 30,000 of the breathing machines to care for the influx of coronavirus patients that is expected to hit New York in two weeks. So far, the state has procured 7,000, but has only received 400 from the federal government. "There is no other way for us to get these ventilators," Cuomo said at a press conference Tuesday. (Hellmann, 3/24) Politico: 'We Are Your Future': Will All Of America Become Like New York? Not all public health experts share Cuomo's certitude on the point of whether other parts of the country will soon experience outbreaks comparable to New York City's. "Nobody knows the specific answer to that," said Joseph Vinetz, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Medicine. Indeed, POLITICO interviews with five leading public-health specialists indicated that while Cuomo's point is well taken – there likely will be other places where the level of contagion will equal New York's – there are also reasons to be hopeful that the transmission of the virus will be slower, and less widespread, in many parts of the country. Among the factors that make New York more vulnerable are its extensive public transportation system and its sheer size. (Schreckinger and Eisenberg, 3/25) The Associated Press: 'Cacophony Of Coughing': Inside NYC's Virus-Besieged ERs A "cacophony of coughing" in packed emergency rooms. Beds squeezed in wherever there is space. Overworked, sleep-deprived doctors and nurses rationed to one face mask a day and wracked by worry about a dwindling number of available ventilators. Such is the reality inside New York City's hospitals, which have become the war-zone-like epicenter of the nation's coronavirus crisis. (Sisak, Mustian and Peltz, 3/25) The New York Times: How Andrew Cuomo, New York Governor, Became The Politician Of The Moment Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo awoke before dawn on Tuesday, emerging after a few hours' sleep to board a helicopter to New York City for the coronavirus briefing that has become a daily ritual for him and for the millions of people now watching. But this event would be different. The outbreak was moving faster than he had expected, with the number of confirmed cases doubling every three days, and he decided he needed to show people — including the White House — how desperate the situation had become. (McKinley and Goldmacher, 3/24) The Hill: NYPD Says Over 200 Members Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus New York's coronavirus outbreak has also impacted the city's police force, with more than 200 NYPD employees testing positive for the virus, the police commissioner said Tuesday. Commissioner Dermot Shea said that 211 NYPD members have tested positive for the virus, including 177 uniformed officers and 34 civilian employees, local station WCBS reported. Shea said that another 2,700 to 2,800 are out sick. (Budryk, 3/24) CNN: New Rochelle Coronavirus: Here's Where It Stands Now When New Rochelle, New York, found it had a cluster of people with coronavirus, the state took several drastic measures to stem its spread. Officials set up a one-mile "containment zone" inside of which schools, religious events and large gatherings were closed. The National Guard was called in to help coordinate delivering meals to those in quarantine. A drive-thru coronavirus testing site was opened. Those moves hardly seem drastic now. For New Rochelle, a suburb of New York City, the measures have been effective. (Levenson, 3/24) 13. 'The Peak Will Be Bad': State Response Efforts Range From Mandatory Quarantines To Paid Sick Leave To Banning Large Gatherings A Politico map shows wide-ranging efforts being taken in dozens of states to ''flatten the curve.'' Mississippi and Oklahoma have only closed schools. New outlets also report on GOP strongholds in Florida and Texas where there's pushback against damaging the economy; in Montana, Wyoming, North Carolina and Tennessee where National Parks have been closed; in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, which ordered closure of non-essential businesses; in Massachusetts and New Jersey, where governors have asked people with vacation homes to stay away; and more. Politico: How States Are Responding To Coronavirus, In 7 Maps States have enacted a wide range of policies in an effort to "flatten the curve" and address the economic effects of the novel coronavirus. While all 50 states have declared states of emergency, giving governors emergency powers, the policy response from states has been wide-ranging. We tracked seven metrics using data from the Kaiser Family Foundation to pull apart the differences in how states are responding to the outbreak. Five of the statewide metrics are aimed at mitigating the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, such as closing all nonessential business. Two metrics track health policy enacted by the states, including paid sick leave for affected workers. (Rahman and Ollstein, 3/24) Reuters: Coronavirus Sweeps Across New York, California Fears It Could Be Next The White House advised anyone who has visited or left New York to isolate themselves. "Everybody who was in New York should be self-quarantining for the next 14 days to ensure that the virus doesn't spread to others, no matter where they have gone, whether it's Florida, North Carolina or out to far reaches of Long Island," Deborah Birx, who is helping lead the White House coronavirus tax force, said at a late-afternoon press conference. (Caspania dn Whitcomb, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: Garcetti Warns L.A. Coronavirus Crisis Will Get Much Worse Mayor Eric Garcetti warned Los Angeles on Tuesday that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is still to come and that residents should be prepared for more loss of life. Garcetti said L.A. could be six to 12 days from seeing similar numbers to the outbreak in New York City, where the death toll has dramatically increased in recent days. "It's coming," Garcetti said. "The peak is not here yet. The peak will be bad. People will lose their lives." (Parvini, Cosgrove and Winton, 3/24) Kaiser Health News: Photo Essay: LA Under Lockdown Some of Southern California's most iconic destinations were deserted Monday. There were no tourists trying to fit their palms into Marilyn Monroe's handprints at the TCL Chinese Theatre, no shoppers on Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive and shockingly few cars on LA's famously gridlocked freeways. Gavin Newsom on Thursday became the first governor in the nation to order nearly all state residents to stay at home and most retail businesses to close their doors to stem the spread of COVID-19. (de Marco, 3/24) Politico: 'Dumbest S---': DeSantis Takes Heat As He Goes His Own Way On Coronavirus While New York, California and other states shutter their economies to keep the coronavirus at bay, Gov. Ron DeSantis is refusing to follow the herd. His cure-can't-be-worse-than-the-disease approach has put the Republican governor under a glaring spotlight locally and nationally as cases of the virus in Florida surge past 1,400. It's a philosophy that aligns DeSantis with other conservatives, including President Donald Trump and Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva, a Republican with a strong libertarian bent. (Dixon, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: Sacrifice The Old To Help The Economy? Texas Official's Remark Prompts Backlash Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick faced a backlash Tuesday for suggesting that fellow seniors should risk their health for the sake of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic. "Let's get back to living," Patrick, a tea party Republican stalwart and longtime ally of President Trump, told Fox's Tucker Carlson late Monday, defending the president's push to reopen businesses in a matter of weeks despite dire warnings from public health officials. "Those of us who are 70-plus, we'll take care of ourselves, but don't sacrifice the country," said Patrick, who turns 70 next week. (Hennessy-Fiske, 3/24) Texas Tribune: Rural Texas Hospitals Should Be Staffing Up To Face Coronavirus. Many Can't Afford To. At a time when most hospitals are ramping up capacity to treat a massive number of patients who may become infected with COVID-19, rural hospital administrators say financial hardships could force them to do the opposite.Before the contagious new coronavirus arrived in Texas, rural hospitals already faced a bleak financial forecast. Demographic shifts, high shares of uninsured patients and cuts to the facilities' Medicare payments have for years led hospital administrators to abandon small-town markets where they could not turn a profit. (Walters, 3/24) Houston Chronicle: Cigna And Memorial Hermann Extend Contract Again Memorial Hermann and Cigna are extending their contract again, this time to June 30, in light of the public health crisis growing around COVID-19. The hospital system said Tuesday it had extended the contract an additional 60 days for 178,000 Cigna members on employer-sponsored plans and 1,460 affiliated doctors. (Wu, 3/24) Houston Chronicle: Here Are All The Businesses Exempted From Harris County's Stay-At-Home Order Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo issued a stay-at-home order Tuesday closing most businesses and directing residents to stay home unless they are going to grocery stores, running errands or exercising outside.The order requires that businesses in Harris County cease all activities — except those defined as "essential" within the order. Here is a complete list of the businesses that may remain open under Hidalgo's order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. Tuesday and goes through April 3. (Scherer, 3/24) The New York Times: 3 Of The Busiest National Parks Close Amid Coronavirus Outbreak With tens of millions of Americans under orders to stay at home or practice social distancing, scores have been converging on places like Yellowstone, Grand Teton and the Great Smoky Mountains to escape the specter of the coronavirus — until now. On Tuesday, the National Park Service announced that all three national parks would be closed immediately to prevent the spread of the virus, citing concerns about crowding and requests from local public health authorities. Even the governor of Montana had pressed for the closing of Yellowstone. (Vigdo, 3/24) The Washington Post: Local Leaders Blast Trump As Deaths Rise, Metro Closes Stations Washington-area leaders slammed President Trump on Tuesday for defying health experts by calling for the United States to return to normal by Easter, and announced plans to further restrict business and improvise solutions for medical equipment and bed space as the coronavirus outbreak claimed more lives. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who has largely refrained from criticizing Trump, said the city is fighting coronavirus "absent any national direction" and condemned the president's about-face. (Schneider, Nirappil, Wiggins and Chason, 3/24) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Communities Wrestle With What's An 'Essential Business' Even in a crisis, virtually every part of American commerce is apparently essential. That much is clear even as local government leaders throughout Georgia struggle over which business operations should close down and remain open. The debates are playing out while the federal government and Gov. Brian Kemp cede much of the decision making — and public health officials urge people to stay home to combat the coronavirus pandemic. (Kempner, 3/24) Stateline: Coronavirus And The States: Governors Keep Away Vacationers; Some States Bar Abortions As 'Nonessential' Governors trying to reassure their state residents have words for second homeowners in resort towns and tourists: Stay home, lest you bring disease in and overwhelm our small, local health care systems. The governors of Massachusetts and New Jersey are calling on those with summer homes on the islands of Cape Cod and at the Jersey Shore to stay out. South Lake Tahoe's mayor says he knows his California town is beautiful and soothing, but he'd rather you not come right now, thanks. (Povich and Henderson, 3/24) WBUR: School Counselors Try To Keep Students Connected To Mental Health Services To help counselors like Briley navigate these new virtual settings, the Brookline Center for Community Mental Health, which created BRYT, is coordinating video conference meetings and training sessions. (Jung, 3/24) Philadelphia Inquirer: Quarantining Patients At Pa. Drug Treatment Centers Could Pose Risk, But Many Have Nowhere Else To Go As drug and alcohol treatment centers in Pennsylvania continue to operate and accept new clients, they're searching for the answer to a critical question: What happens when someone inside a facility needs to be quarantined because of the coronavirus?Treatment centers can house anywhere from a handful of patients to more than 100. If one person contracts COVID-19, it could spread quickly, which is particularly concerning since people with substance use disorder could be at greater risk for severe complications. (Pattani, 3/24) The Philadelphia Inquirer: Nursing Homes In Philadelphia And New Jersey Report 17 Cases Of The New Coronavirus. What Should Happen Now? A Philadelphia nursing home said Tuesday that 11 of its residents and a contract employee have tested positive for the new coronavirus since March 19. Three residents and two staff members of a nursing home in Mount Laurel have also tested positive for the new coronavirus over the last week, the facility's medical director said. (Burling, and Verma, 3/24) CNN: NBA Player Karl-Anthony Towns Says His Mother Is In A Coma And Urges People To Take Covid-19 Seriously Minnesota Timberwolves player Karl-Anthony Towns took to Instagram to share his mother's fight with Covid-19 in hopes it would encourage others to follow precautions to stop its spread. "This disease is real," he said. "This disease needs not to be taken lightly. Please protect your families, your loved ones, your friends, yourself." Holcombe, 3/25) Pharmaceuticals 14. Gilead's Promising Coronavirus Treatment Granted Orphan Drug Status That Provides Lucrative Incentives For Company Gilead could keep lower-priced generic versions of the medicine off the market for several years if remdesivir is approved for use. Gilead was able to secure the status because as of now there are fewer than 200,000 cases in the U.S. The Associated Press: Potential Coronavirus Treatment Granted Rare Disease Status The pharmaceutical giant that makes a promising coronavirus drug has registered it as a rare disease treatment with U.S. regulators, a status that can potentially be worth millions in tax breaks and competition-free sales. What that specialty status will actually mean for the marketing or profitability of Gilead Science's experimental drug remdesivir isn't clear. The drugmaker did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment. (Perrone and Lardner, 3/25) NPR: Remdesivir Gets Rare Disease Perks From FDA The agency's decision would provide lucrative incentives to the drug's maker, Gilead Sciences, and could keep lower-priced generic versions of the medicine off the market for several years if remdesivir is approved for use, public health advocates say. Remdesivir is an intravenous, antiviral medicine that is being studied in clinical trials around the world as a possible treatment for COVID-19. Clinical trials for remdesivir as a COVID-19 treatment got started in China in early February. Tests of the drug are now enrolling patients elsewhere, including the United States. (Lupkin, 3/24) Reuters: Gilead's Potential Coronavirus Treatment Gets FDA's Orphan Drug Label The orphan drug status provides a seven-year market exclusivity period, as well as tax and other incentives for drug companies developing treatments for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people. Gilead on Sunday said it was temporarily putting new emergency access to remdesivir on hold due to an exponential increase in so-called compassionate-use requests for the drug. There are currently no approved treatments or preventive vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Most patients currently receive only supportive care such as breathing assistance. (3/23) Bloomberg: Gilead Experimental Covid-19 Drug Scores Potential Tax Break The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen railed against the designation. "The FDA has handed Gilead, one of the most profitable pharmaceutical corporations on earth, a long and entirely undeserved seven-year monopoly and with it, the ability to charge outrageous prices to consumers," Peter Maybarduk, a director at the group said in a statement. While Covid-19 is still relatively rare, scientists have noted that the spread is expected to pick up exponentially. Orphan drug status is part of a host of programs the agency has added in recent years to speed along new medicines. The FDA didn't immediately respond to requests seeking comment. (Flanagan, 3/24) 15. Health Officials Try To Tamp Down Excitement Over Potential Treatments As Both Doctors And Public Hoard Malaria Drugs President Donald Trump sparked a surge of interest in an old malaria treatment that might be showing promising results in treating COVID-19, causing a rush on the drug. But scientists and experts warn that any drug needs to be tested to prove its safety, and that process could take months. Meanwhile, Roche hopes its arthritis medication will show results in patients with coronavirus. The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Drugs, Vaccine Are Many Months Away, Health Experts Say A federal health official on Tuesday sought to tamp down mounting excitement in some quarters over the potential for antimalarial drugs to treat the new coronavirus, though a Trump administration adviser voiced more optimism. Doctors, patients and researchers have been looking for treatments that can tackle the virus as it spreads across the world. World-wide cases of Covid-19, the pneumonialike disease caused by the virus, surpassed 400,000 on Tuesday and more than 18,500 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. (Rockoff and Abbott, 3/24) The New York Times: Some Doctors Stockpile Trial Coronavirus Drugs For Themselves, States Say Doctors are hoarding medications touted as possible coronavirus treatments by writing prescriptions for themselves and family members, according to pharmacy boards in states across the country. The stockpiling has become so worrisome in Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio, Nevada, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Texas that the boards in those states have issued emergency restrictions or guidelines on how the drugs can be dispensed at pharmacies. More states are expected to follow suit. "This is a real issue and it is not some product of a few isolated bad apples," said Jay Campbell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy. (Gabler, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Trials Needed To Assess Antimalarial Drugs For Treating Coronavirus, FDA Official Says A randomized controlled trial is the "most appropriate way" to determine whether antimalarial drugs fit within a potential treatment program for patients with Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, Amy Abernethy, principal deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday during The Wall Street Journal Health Forum. (Hopkins, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: White House Rural Health Official: Antimalarial Drug Could Help Treat Coronavirus A treatment for malaria might be effective in combating the coronavirus if used early on, Dr. Jeff Colyer, a surgeon and the former governor of Kansas, said at The Wall Street Journal's Health Forum, held remotely by videoconference on Tuesday. Dr. Colyer specifically mentioned using the treatment, known as hydroxychloroquine, along with Zithromax Z-Pak, Pfizer Inc.'s brand name drug for the antibiotic azithromycin. "We have to go to war with the weapons you have at the time," he said. "We don't have any other weapons except social distancing and great medical care, but we don't have a tool. We are not suggesting that this is a magic bullet, but the data that we have seen so far, it perhaps could be effective." (Prang, 3/24) ABC News: Clinical Trials For Coronavirus Treatments Begin In New York As New York State continues to see a rise in cases of the novel coronavirus and is the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States, clinical trials for drug treatments began on Tuesday in the state. The state acquired 70,000 doses of hydroxychloroquine, 10,000 doses of zithromax and 750,000 doses of chloroquine in the last few days, according to a news release by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office. (Lantry, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Roche Sending Arthritis Drug To Coronavirus Doctors Roche Holding AG is supplying its arthritis drug Actemra to doctors on the front lines fighting the new coronavirus, Alexander Hardy, chief executive of Roche's Genentech business, said during The Wall Street Journal Health Forum on Tuesday. Actemra isn't approved to treat the new coronavirus. Yet there are signs it might work, and Roche has said it would start testing the drug to see if it works against the virus. (Abbott, 3/24) The New York Times: Oracle Providing White House With Software To Study Unproven Coronavirus Drugs The White House is preparing to use software provided by the technology giant Oracle to promote unproven coronavirus treatments, including a pair of malaria drugs publicized by President Trump, potentially before the government approves their use for the outbreak, according to five senior administration officials and others familiar with the plans. (Weiland and Haberman, 3/24) The Hill: White House Preparing To Promote Malaria Drugs On Online Platform To Combat Coronavirus: Report Health and Human Services agencies such as the FDA and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are part of the Oracle efforts, as is the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the Times reported, citing two senior administration officials, who said the platform could be used to gather data from doctors who prescribe the drugs and track symptoms in patients. (Budryk, 3/24) 16. FDA Approves Treatment That Would Let Doctors Inject Patients With Plasma From Those Recovered From Virus FDA stressed that "convalescent plasma has not been shown to be effective in every disease studied." But it is a century-old treatment that has shown results against other diseases. "We won't know until we do it, but the historical evidence is encouraging," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall of Johns Hopkins University. In other news, the slow mutation rate of the SARS-CoV-2 virus prompts optimism for a future vaccine. The Associated Press: Can Blood From Coronavirus Survivors Treat The Newly Ill? Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebola, just might work for COVID-19, too: using blood donated from patients who've recovered. Doctors in China attempted the first COVID-19 treatments using what the history books call "convalescent serum" -- today, known as donated plasma -- from survivors of the new virus. (Neergaard, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: FDA Approves Plasma Treatment For Coronavirus On Conditional Basis The treatment is considered investigational, and based on the possibility that the so-called convalescent plasma—a portion of whole blood from recovered victims—contains antibodies to the virus that may be effective against the infection. The agency stressed that "convalescent plasma has not been shown to be effective in every disease studied." So the plan is for clinical studies of the procedure to begin, probably in about two weeks, FDA officials said. The agency said such research is necessary before routinely using such an approach to treat patients with Covid-19. (Burton, 3/24) CNN: FDA Expediting Use Of A Blood Plasma Coronavirus Treatment As New York Rolls Out New Clinical Trials The move is a "big step" forward, said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chief of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who has advocated for the plasma treatment. "It has a high likelihood of working but we won't know whether it works until its done" and enough patients have been treated, he said. "We do know based on history it has a good chance."(Holcombe, Scannell and Gingras, 3/25) The Washington Post: Coronavirus Mutation Rate Is Good For Vaccine Development The coronavirus is not mutating significantly as it circulates through the human population, according to scientists who are closely studying the novel pathogen's genetic code. That relative stability suggests the virus is less likely to become more or less dangerous as it spreads, and represents encouraging news for researchers hoping to create a long-lasting vaccine. All viruses evolve over time, accumulating mutations as they replicate imperfectly inside a host's cells in tremendous numbers and then spread through a population, with some of those mutations persisting through natural selection. (Achenbach, 3/24) Preparedness 17. Some Health Care Providers Wonder If It Would Be Better To Get Virus, Develop Immunity And Then Get Back To Work Health care workers on the front lines have been hit hard by the outbreak in other countries. As providers in the United States face shortages of protective gear, medical equipment and nurses, some consider desperate options like deliberate infection. Meanwhile, volunteers rush to sew masks in an attempt to stave off the shortages for local hospitals. ABC News: Immunity To COVID-19: Front Line Health Workers Consider Deliberate Infection As COVID-19 numbers climb precipitously, health care workers, first responders and the countless individuals working in "essential services" make a heroic decision: Do I come to work and put myself and my family at greater risk, or do I #StayAtHome? This decision is made harder by ongoing shortages of necessary personal protective equipment. As cases grow, the likelihood of each one of us contracting COVID-19 grows with it. Some front line workers have started to question if getting COVID-19 now would help them become immune, so that they can better cope with PPE shortages and higher threats of exposure. (Taghipour, 3/24) NBC News: U.S. Hospitals Brace For Another Challenge — An Unprecedented Shortage Of Nurses As hospitals around the country prepare for a surge of tens of thousands of coronavirus patients expected in the coming weeks, they are trying to fill thousands of "crisis" nursing jobs nationwide, particularly intensive care unit and emergency room positions. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, several states were experiencing nursing shortages, and without a dramatic increase in staffing, hospital administrators and advocates fear the health care system will not be able to handle the demand. (Fitzpatrick, McFadden, Whitman and Monahan, 3/24) San Francisco Chronicle: 'Exposure Is Inevitable': Three Staff Members Test Positive For Coronavirus At Laguna Honda Hospital Three employees at Laguna Honda, San Francisco's huge city-run nursing home, have tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising the frightening possibility of a wider outbreak in the 750-person facility. But a medical professional who spoke to The Chronicle was told that even if people had direct contact with one of the infected health care workers, they might be tested for the coronavirus only if they show symptoms. (Fagone and Thadani, 3/24) Politico: Health Workers Fear U.S. Hospitals Will Become Coronavirus Hot Spots Doctors and nurses are increasingly worried they will become the spreaders of the coronavirus rather than the healers, as hospitals themselves become a hot spot for the pandemic. That fear is already a reality in Italy, the global epicenter of the pandemic, where researchers have found hospitals overloaded by coronavirus patients have become transmission points. Public health officials, like those at the World Health Organization, have increasingly warned that health care workers themselves could be vectors for the disease — accelerating its spread and undermining the ability of countries' health systems to combat it. (Roubein and Luthi, 3/25) ABC News: On The Front Lines Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Medical Workers Fear Rationing Of Masks Will Heighten Risks Doctors and nurses on the front lines of the battle against coronavirus are increasingly anguished over the hospital-imposed rationing of masks, gowns and other protective gear, restrictions they say are exposing them to unnecessary risks at the worst possible time. At Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, nurses said they were being handed a single mask in a brown paper bag at the start of each shift and told to make it last. At Medstar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., the more protective masks, known as N95s, are being kept in a locked room, according to one neurologist who agreed to speak anonymously about his growing unease. (Mosk, Meek and Abdelmalek, 3/24) NPR: Retired Doctors And Medical Students Step Up To Fight COVID-19 When Dr. Judy Salerno, who is in her 60s, got word that the New York State health department was looking for retired physicians to volunteer in the coronavirus crisis, she didn't hesitate. "As I look to what's ahead for New York City, where I live, I'm thinking that if I can use my skills in some way that I will be helpful, I will step up," she says. (Simmons-Duffin, 3/25) The New York Times: Coronavirus In Europe: Thousands Of Health Workers Out Of Action Across Western Europe, health care professionals have used the language of war to describe the struggle against the coronavirus, which has left some hospitals on the brink of collapse.And health care workers are the soldiers on the front lines. Out of Spain's 40,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, 5,400 — nearly 14 percent — are medical professionals, the health ministry said on Tuesday. No other country has reported health care staff accounting for a double-digit percentage of total infections. (Minder and Peltier, 3/24) Kaiser Health News: Are Vital Home Health Workers Now A Safety Threat? As a hospice nurse in Seattle, Diane Speer said giving out hugs to patients and family members was a routine part of home visits. But in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, she now tells family members to keep their distance. "There's no touching hands or handshakes," said Speer, who works for Renton, Washington-based Providence St. Joseph Health. It's "time for a virtual hug." (Galewitz, 3/25) The New York Times: A Medical Class 'Minted By The Pandemic' Preparations for the Cadaver Ball, at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, begin in the fall. Radial Grooves, an a cappella group, selects two songs to perform; the campus hip-hop and bhangra groups choreograph routines. This year's theme was the "Roaring 2020s," which was a relief to the class president, Varun Menon, because it meant that the only costume he needed was a tuxedo. (Last year's class president had the unfortunate task of tracking down a full P.T. Barnum get-up, when the theme was "The Greatest Show.") But plans for the event, which celebrates the "matching" of fourth-year medical students to their residencies, were cut short this year. On March 10, students were notified by email that their match day ceremony would be virtual. The Cadaver Ball was canceled. (Goldberg, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Crisis Threatens To Shutter Doctors' Offices As hospitals in California and across the country struggle with a surge of coronavirus infection patients, a second crisis is brewing in physicians' offices, threatening to push the nation's healthcare system further to the brink. Primary care physicians are being leaned on to keep patients out of hospitals, and to make do with limited protective equipment and other supplies. Yet they are seeing steep drop-offs in visits as patients stay away, fearful of getting ill. (Levey, 3/24) NPR: As Coronavirus Spreads, Community Health Clinics Pivot To Help With Response On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced $100 million in supplemental funding for community health centers to support the response to the coronavirus pandemic. "Health centers are playing a critical role," says James Macrae, associate administrator at the federal Bureau for Primary Health Care. About 29 million people in the U.S rely on community health centers, which provide care to low-income and uninsured patients. And they are under pressure to rapidly pivot to respond to the pandemic. (Stone, 3/24) Reuters: Sewing Machines Become Latest Weapon Against Coronavirus As California Volunteers Swing Into Action Smita Paul has been sewing scarves and clothing for her small fashion business since 2003 but ever since the coronavirus struck the Bay Area and created a shortage in personal protective equipment for hospital workers, she has switched from sewing scarves to sewing masks. (Frandino, Stapleton and Respaut, 3/24) WBUR: Can The U.S. Crowdsource Its Way Out Of A Mask Shortage? No, But It Still Helps Given the overall crisis, scores of citizen-led donation groups are popping up across the country, including GetusPPE.org, DonatePPE.org, Mask Match and one to move gear from labs to hospitals called PPE Link. Then there's also a group of volunteers called Mask Crusaders who've set up ad hoc chapters in New York, Chicago, L.A., Seattle and elsewhere. The hastag #GetMePPE continues to trend across social media.They're asking contractors, nail salon owners, museums — anyone — to search their closets and storage bins for disposable nitrile gloves as well as masks. (Westervelt, 3/25) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Individuals, Businesses Volunteer To Produce Fabric Facemasks As medical supplies grow scarcer in the face of the spreading coronavirus, health care workers on the frontline are most at risk.One mom in Michigan told The Associated Press her daughter, a nurse, had been required to keep the same medical mask on for her entire shift. "If nurses quit or become too fatigued or even become ill themselves, then we don't have a frontline anymore," the concerned mom said. (Elder, 3/24) Reuters: Virus Fight At Risk As World's Medical Glove Capital Struggles With Lockdown Disposable rubber gloves are indispensable in the global fight against the new coronavirus, yet a month's lockdown in stricken Malaysia where three of every five gloves are made has upended the supply chain and threatens to hamstring hospitals worldwide. (Lee and Das, 3/25) 18. Hospitals Prepare For Reality Of Rationing Care: 'Priority Is Assigned To Those Most Likely To Be Saved' Faced with bed and medical device shortages, hospitals will be put in the terrible position of deciding on which patients to devote their resources. Atlanta has already warned that the city's ICU's are at capacity and it's only projected to get worse. Meanwhile, health experts scour for locations that can be turned into hospitals. ABC News: As Coronavirus Pandemic Surges, Hospitals Prepare For Grim Possibility Of 'Ventilator Triage' Faced with more critically ill COVID-19 patients than equipment to treat them, hundreds of hospitals are mapping out how they can ration care and equipment in order to save the greatest number of patients possible. In the last two days, guidelines were provided to scores of hospitals around the country, including every hospital in Pennsylvania, that include a point system that could – in extreme cases – end up determining what patients live or die. (Abdelmalek, Folmer and Margolin, 3/25) The New York Times: Who Should Be Saved First? Experts Offer Ethical Guidance How do doctors and hospitals decide who gets potentially lifesaving treatment and who doesn't? A lot of thought has been given to just such a predicament, well before critical shortages from the coronavirus pandemic. "It would be irresponsible at this point not to get ready to make tragic decisions about who lives and who dies," said Dr. Matthew Wynia, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. (Frakt, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Older Coronavirus Patients Face Looming ICU Bed Shortage The need for intensive-care beds for older Americans, the population hardest hit by Covid-19, may outstrip the supply in some regions of the U.S., a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. The Journal examined the number of beds in intensive-care units available for every 100,000 people aged 60 and older in 306 U.S. health regions. Although the national average is 116 ICU beds per 100,000 people 60 and older, nearly one in five regions have fewer than 75, and six have fewer than 50. The analysis was based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Census Bureau. (McGinty, Maremont and Evans, 3/24) The Hill: Atlanta Mayor Says ICU Units At Capacity Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) said Tuesday that the city's intensive care units (ICUs) are at capacity and warned that hospitals in the area could soon be maximized amid the coronavirus pandemic. "I suspect that at some point soon our hospitals may get near capacity," Bottoms told a local CBS affiliate."While there are still beds available ... our ICU units are at capacity. This is why we have gone a step further in Atlanta and asked people to please stay home," she added. (Budryk, 3/24) WBUR: Health Experts Are Scouring The State For Places To Put Temporary Emergency Hospitals Health experts are not leaving any building off the table if it might work as a converted hospital. Hotels, university dormitories, convention centers and gymnasiums are all being floated as possible locations for field clinics to treat COVID-19 patients in the coming days and weeks, says Dr. Josh Barocas, an infectious disease doctor at Boston Medical Center. (Chen, 3/24) Boston Globe: Massachusetts Hospitals Scramble To Get More Ventilators Before Deluge Of Coronavirus Patients Massachusetts hospitals are scrambling to bring in more ventilators by almost any means possible, including buying and renting machines and repurposing other medical devices, in anticipation of an expected surge in critically ill coronavirus patients. But limited equipment is not the only challenge: Ventilators generally need rooms with a piped-in oxygen supply and staff who know how to run them. Some hospitals are retraining operating room staff or calling back retired providers to avoid a looming ethical crisis: If hospitals don't have enough ventilators, how do doctors choose which sick patients get them? (Kowalczyk and Ostriker, 3/24) Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus: Lack Of Data Leaves Ohioans Wondering Hospitals Prepared Ohio's leaders have made it clear: the state doesn't have enough novel coronavirus tests. It doesn't have enough hospital beds. It doesn't have enough masks and other personal protective equipment for doctors. But how many of those critical resources does Ohio have? State health officials and hospitals are scrambling to compile those numbers in the middle of a novel coronavirus crisis. (Balmert, 3/24) New Orleans Times-Picayune: New Orleans On Track To Run Out Of Health Care Capacity By 1st Week Of April, John Bel Edwards Says As the number of coronavirus cases in Louisiana continues to surge, Gov. John Bel Edwards warned federal officials the New Orleans area is on track to run out of its ability to deliver health care by April 4. Edwards made the projection in a letter sent to the White House Monday, seeking a Major Disaster Declaration and federal aid to help Louisiana, which has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infections per capita in the U.S. (Karlin, 3/24) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: As COVID-19 Crisis Worsens, Pa. And N.J. Have Even Fewer Life-Saving Ventilators Than Anticipated Health officials have worried for weeks that Pennsylvania and New Jersey won't have enough ventilators to try to save the most critically ill COVID-19 patients.But the situation is worse than anticipated. Instead of at least 3,000 ventilators, Pennsylvania only has 2,000, state Health Department officials said this week. The state could need three times as many at the apex of the virus' spread, according to a study from the Harvard Global Health Institute. (Laughlin and Ruderman, 3/24) KQED: Bay Area Hospitals: So Far, Coronavirus Cases Are Manageable. But It's Still Early The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in California have nearly quadrupled in the past week, from 565 last Monday to more than 2,300 according to the latest counts from California health departments. (Stark, 3/24) Modern Healthcare: As COVID-19 Cases Threaten Capacity, Children's Hospitals Resist Taking Adults As the COVID-19 outbreak threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the U.S., many children's hospitals are united in the message: Don't send your adult patients here. That's the essence of guidelines the Children's Hospital Association, which represents 200 children's hospitals, made public Tuesday. After fielding questions from hospitals, governors and mayors about whether children's hospitals could take adult patients, the organization said adults can't safely be treated in children's hospitals, given the equipment and staff is centered around caring for kids. (Bannow, 3/24) Modern Healthcare: Community Health Centers To Get $100 Million To Bolster COVID-19 Response, But More Is Needed, Advocates Say Federal health officials on Tuesday said they have awarded community health centers $100 million to help in their response efforts to the COVID-19 outbreak. The funding is part of the $8.3 billion emergency funding package signed into law by President Donald Trump on March 6. Funding will be allocated by the Health Resources and Services Administration with health centers receiving awards ranging from $50,000 to $320,000. (Johnson, 3/24) Crain's Chicago Business: Chicago To Re-Open Shuttered Hospitals, Use Hotels For COVID-19 Patients Chicago officials are close to inking a deal to reopen a suburban hospital to provide more acute hospital care as coronavirus cases increase.MetroSouth Medical Center, a 314-bed hospital less than 20 miles from downtown Chicago closed last year amid dwindling patient volumes and rising operating costs, one of many community hospitals struggling to survive. Now the hospital could see new life as Chicago, like cities around the world, grapples with a potential surge in patients during the pandemic. (Quig and Goldberg, 3/24) The New York Times: Video: Coronavirus Has Hospitals In Desperate Need Of Equipment. These Innovators Are Racing To Help. Health care workers are facing a serious shortage of critical equipment needed to treat the coronavirus. We spoke to the makers who are building innovative protective gear and ventilators for them. (3/24) The Hill: Jimmy Carter Calls For Donations To Carter Center To Be Redirected To Support Those Fighting Coronavirus Former President Jimmy Carter is calling for donors to his nonprofit organization to redirect their contributions to local groups working to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The former president, his wife, Rosalynn, and their grandson, Jason, who serves as chairman of The Carter Center's board of trustees, asked those wishing to make a donation to the organization to "forgo your next gift for the work of The Carter Center and direct it to a local group that is reducing the suffering caused by this pandemic." (Folley, 3/24) 19. Ongoing Shortages Drive Local Officials To Hunt For Tests, Make Own Deals With Labs With testing still difficult to navigate and supplies in short supply a month into the virus crisis, cities and hospitals are trying to take matters into their own hands. "I can't believe we're at this point," Connie Savor Price, chief medical officer at Denver Health Medical Center, tells The Wall Street Journal. "It's dystopian." Other media outlets report on more testing news, as well. The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Communities Struggle To Deal With Coronavirus Testing Backlogs Despite efforts to ramp up mass testing for the new coronavirus this week, many cities and states are facing more shortages and backlogs as demand surges. Nearly a month into the outbreak, local officials are increasingly taking matters into their own hands so they can obtain critical equipment and grasp the extent of the virus's spread in their communities. That includes working with private labs and forging direct relationships with test suppliers on the other side of the world. (Frosch, Paul and Mai-Duc, 3/25) Kaiser Health News: Some States Are Reporting Incomplete COVID-19 Results, Blurring The Full Picture Several states are reporting only positive COVID-19 test results from private labs, a practice that paints a misleading picture of how fast the disease is spreading. Maryland, Ohio and others are posting the numbers of new positive tests and deaths, for instance, but don't report the negative results, which would help show how many people were tested overall. (Schulte, 3/25) ABC News: Quest Diagnostics Has Capacity To Run 25,000 Coronavirus Tests A Day: CEO In the two weeks since Quest Diagnostics began processing novel coronavirus samples in its infectious disease lab, the private medical company has increased its capacity to 25,000 tests per day in three labs across the country -- with plans to expand. Quest, one of the nation's top commercial laboratory companies, has dialed up testing as the pandemic increasingly infects American citizens. (Dukakis, 3/25) Detroit Free Press: Emergency Order: Michigan Labs Must Make Coronavirus Tests Top Priority The state's top public health official issued an emergency order Tuesday, establishing new rules for managing the novel coronavirus pandemic as the virus continues to spread in the state.Among them: Michigan labs and facilities that are sampling and processing tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus, must make that work their top priority. (Shamus, 3/24) Stat: Startups Touting At-Home Coronavirus Tests Suspend Plans After FDA Input In a rapid about-face, a handful of startups that had already rolled out at-home coronavirus test kits or planned to start selling them soon have suspended their efforts. It's the latest twist in an ongoing situation that has unfolded as tech companies have rushed to fill testing gaps with direct-to-consumer kits — and as regulators have rushed to wrangle them. (Brodwin, 3/24) Economic Toll 20. Federal Reserve Pulls Out All The Stops To Try To Bolster Economy But calls for the Fed to lend to all corners of the economy are striking given a move by Congress just 10 years ago to restrict its emergency lending authority after the last economic meltdown. Meanwhile, governors plead with the federal government and Congress for financial help as their unemployment claims skyrocket. Politico: Fed Breaks The Bank In Bid To Rescue Economy The Federal Reserve has been thrust into the lead role of saving the U.S. economy from the coronavirus pandemic, taking on the extraordinary task of rescuing households, businesses and local governments as Washington lawmakers have spent weeks debating how to come to grips with the crisis. In just over a week, the Fed has slashed its main borrowing rate to zero, pledged unlimited purchases of U.S. government bonds, announced plans to back state and local governments, and even promised to buy debt from large corporations. It has said it will set up a program to lend to small businesses and eased pressure on rates for student loans, auto loans and credit card debt. (Guida, 3/24) Politico: DeVos Halts Collection Of Defaulted Federal Student Loans The Trump administration has stopped seizing the wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits of people who are in default on their federal student loans, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO on Tuesday. The Education Department is putting a stop to collecting on defaulted federal student loans amid the coronavirus pandemic and ordering private collection firms to stop pursuing borrowers "until further notice," according to the official and a memo sent to the companies. The department plans to make the policy retroactive to March 13, the day President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, the official said. (Stratford, 3/24) Politico: Governors Beg For Cash As Unemployment Claims Crush States Governors are pleading for more financial help from Congress as unemployment claims surge to near-unprecedented levels this month, leaving states incapable of covering the mountainous costs. The full problem won't become clear until the Department of Labor releases national unemployment data on Thursday. But eye-popping numbers have already trickled out as state after state has imposed sweeping orders shutting down non-essential businesses. (Landergan and Murphy, 3/24) Politico: Trump Hasn't Yet Released Disaster Unemployment Funds The three states that President Donald Trump has formally declared coronavirus disaster areas have not received the disaster unemployment assistance that they expected to follow that designation. New York, California and Washington state all requested access to several aid programs provided under a disaster declaration, including disaster unemployment assistance. (Rainey, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: Who Qualifies For Coronavirus Paid Sick Leave Under New Law? The federal government's emergency coronavirus relief law includes paid sick leave benefits for American employees at small to midsize firms who have to take time off because of the spreading virus. But the law signed by President Trump last week includes exceptions that some analysts said could exclude nearly 20 million private sector workers, including an exemption for small businesses that's causing confusion as to how it will be implemented. Congressional Democrats have introduced additional legislation to close those gaps and make paid sick leave available to all U.S. workers. (Peltz, 3/24) The New York Times: Drivers Say Uber And Lyft Are Blocking Unemployment Pay In a typical week, Jerome Gage, a Lyft driver in Los Angeles, makes $900 to $1,000 before expenses during roughly 50 hours on the road. This week, with most of the state holed up and demand for rides evaporating, he expects to work even longer to make far less than half that amount. Given the option, Mr. Gage said, he would stop wasting his time and risking his health and file for unemployment benefits. But unlike workers employed by restaurants, hotels and retail establishments, gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers typically have not been able to collect unemployment benefits or take paid sick leave. (Scheiber, 3/24) San Francisco Chronicle: SF Supervisors To State: Enforce AB5 To Protect Gig Workers From Virus Some San Francisco supervisors are calling on government officials to quickly reclassify Uber and Lyft drivers and other gig workers as employees under AB5, California's new law that makes it harder for companies to claim that workers are independent contractors. (Said, 3/24) Science And Innovations 21. 17-Year-Old's Death Linked To Coronavirus, Emphasizing That The Young Aren't Immune To The Outbreak While the case is complex in terms of how COVID-19 played a role in the death, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials say it highlights the risk to young people, who have experienced far lower mortality rates than the older generations. The New York Times: Teenager's Death In California Is Linked To Coronavirus A California teenager whose death was linked to the coronavirus may be one of the youngest victims of the outbreak in the United States. Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Tuesday said the death, of a 17-year-old boy from Lancaster, Calif., was from the coronavirus. Hours later, it walked back that statement, saying the death would be further evaluated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality," the health department said in a statement. (Gross and Arango, 3/24) Los Angeles Times: L.A.'s First Child Coronavirus Death: What We Know Experts have long said older people are more susceptible to the virus and that young people in general are less likely to contract the illness. But health officials said Tuesday the death underscores the threat that coronavirus poses to the entire population. "This is a devastating reminder that COVID-19 affects people of all ages," L.A. County Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer said. (Shalby and Lin, 3/24) The Associated Press: Boy, 17, With Coronavirus Dies As Cases Surge In California Hours later, after Gov. Gavin Newsom had cited the death of the teenager as evidence the virus can strike anyone, the county issued a new statement. "Though early tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality" and the case will need evaluation by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the statement said. (Jablon, 3/25) CNN: A Baby Is In Isolation After An Alabama NICU Nurse Tested Positive For Coronavirus, Family Says When Brandon Waltman went to visit his newborn baby girl in the neonatal intensive care unit of an Alabama hospital Monday night, he was told she had been placed in isolation. His daughter Emmarie Grace Waltman has been in the NICU of the University of South Alabama Women's Hospital for the past month. After a nurse recently tested positive for Covid-19, Waltman said, he was told that as a precaution Emmarie was taken to another room and put in isolation. (Kirkland and Holcombe, 3/25) 22. A Human Snapshot: Outbreak Adds Stress To Vulnerable Populations; Preppers Have Their Day; Selfless Acts Abound Media outlets look at how the outbreak is affecting Americans on a personal level. Los Angeles Times: Domestic Abuse Victims In 'Worst-Case Scenario' During Outbreak, Providers Say One evening last week, a 38-year-old woman showed up in the emergency room of a Los Angeles hospital. She had been beaten by her boyfriend. Under normal circumstances, the hospital would contact a domestic violence advocate, who would meet with the woman in person and help her find shelter and other services. But that night, because of limitations on visitors and health guidelines due to COVID-19, an advocate had to connect by phone. (Newberry and Santa Cruz, 3/24) CNN: For Those Struggling To Stay Sober, Coronavirus Shutdowns Offer Hope As Well As Temptation There's no easy time to get sober, but a global pandemic is tougher than most. Back when I was trying and failing to quit, I'd reach for any excuse to bail on my better self. A bad day. A text from my ex, or no text. One day, a snowstorm walloped the city, shuttering my office, and I pulled on my rubber boots with a sigh as if to say, "I guess I'm drinking now." (Hepola, 3/25) The Wall Street Journal: The New Front-Line Coronavirus Workers: Grocery Clerks, Delivery Drivers Much of the American workplace has shut down, sending millions of employees home to wait out the coronavirus pandemic. Among those still on the job are grocery-store clerks, prison guards and delivery drivers. "Who would have ever thought that we would be on the front lines?" said Joyce Babineau, a 67-year-old supermarket supervisor in Dartmouth, Mass., a coastal village 60 miles south of Boston. Ms. Babineau is in one of the groups deemed essential—men and women who carry on even as cities and communities shut down around them. (Bauerlein, Levitz and Lazo, 3/24) The Washington Post: Cancer Patients Face Delayed Surgeries, Scaled-Back Treatments As The Coronavirus Advances As the coronavirus battered the West Coast, Bryce Olson faced an excruciating decision: He was supposed to travel from his home in rural Oregon to San Diego every three weeks to take part in a clinical trial for aggressive prostate cancer. But after his last trip in early March, he wondered whether he should drop out of the trial and stay home, at least for a few months. He worried that if he contracted the virus during his travels, he could die before his weakened immune system could mount a counterattack. But skipping cancer treatments could unleash a disease that had menaced him for six years. (McGinley, 3/24) The Wall Street Journal: As Coronavirus Panic Spreads, Living Underground Doesn't Seem So Strange Not long ago, it crossed Joe and Jennifer's minds that maybe they had made a mistake installing a 50-foot-long fortified bunker 10 feet below their property in Northern California. Then toilet paper flew off the shelves, and gun sales skyrocketed as the U.S. edged into panic amid the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, the pandemic ushering in massive interruptions to daily life and unprecedented uncertainty. (Watson, 3/24) The Washington Post: Dialysis Patients Are At High Risk During Covid-19 Outbreak Care for the nation's 500,000 kidney dialysis patients, who routinely undergotreatment while packed together in group settings, is posing an especially difficult problem for physicians and experts planning for the anticipated surge of coronavirus cases. Patients with severe kidney disease, already vulnerable because of their life-threatening illness, are worried that receiving dialysis in large facilities with dozens of other people could expose them to infection. (Bernstein, Rowland and Hamburger, 3/24) CNN: How To Prepare For Coronavirus Quarantine If You Or A Loved One Has Covid-19 It's a scenario all too many of us are facing -- or will soon face. You or a loved one has a mild fever, body aches, the start of a nagging, dry cough. Food doesn't taste good nor smell as it once did. Maybe you have shortness of breath or struggle to breath deeply. You've called your doctor, and you are suddenly face-to-face with the scary reality of Covid-19. (LaMotte, 3/25) The New York Times: You've Got Mail. Will You Get The Coronavirus? Scientists agree that the main means by which the SARS-CoV-2 virus jumps from an infected person to its next host is by hitching a ride in the tiny droplets that are sprayed into the air with each cough or sneeze. But with deliveries now at holiday levels as locked-down Americans shop online rather than in person, the question remains: Can you catch the coronavirus from the parcels and packages your overburdened mail carrier keeps leaving at your door? The first formal process for curbing the spread of infection by detaining travelers from an affected region until their health was proved was instituted in what is now Dubrovnik, Croatia, in 1377, against the bubonic plague. (Twilley, 3/24) The New York Times: The Complicated Calculus Of Helping Neighbors During A Pandemic For more than a week, Clark Hamel has not left his Brooklyn apartment. He cannot risk exposure to the coronavirus: Since he was a teenager, he has been on drugs that suppress his immune system so he will not experience the excruciating symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Still, Mr. Hamel, 24, and his partner have not been alone. In a gesture of friendship, another young couple in their building has also effectively shut themselves off from the outside world in order to protect Mr. Hamel. They venture out only to pick up groceries, leaving the food outside his apartment in bags and disinfecting milk cartons with bleach wipes. (Correal, 3/24) The Hill: Selfless Acts: How Americans Are Helping Each Other Through The Coronavirus People across the United States are taking steps to help one another amid the coronavirus pandemic. From companies donating masks and ventilators to hospitals, to everyday people helping their neighbors, there are countless examples of people trying to do the right thing during an extraordinarily difficult time. (3/24) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How People With Compromised Immune Systems Are Staying Safe Amid Coronavirus For many medically fragile people, self-isolation is an especially difficult task — their conditions require frequent in-person doctor visits, or treatment that can't be administered at home.That's partly why it's so important that the healthy people practice social distancing, as well, experts say — to avoid spreading COVID-19 to people whose immune systems can't handle the virus, or whose medical needs make it impossible to completely self-isolate. (Whelan, 3/24) Boston Globe: Backlash Grows Against Reusable Grocery Bags As Virus Spreads Four years after becoming the state's first municipality to ban the use of plastic bags and impose fees for acquiring others at grocery stores, Cambridge this week issued an emergency order temporarily forbidding the use of reusable bags at retail stores, reflecting a growing fear they could be spreading the coronavirus. (Abel, 3/24) The Associated Press: They Already Had An Anxiety Disorder. Now Comes A Pandemic. At first, Jonathon Seidl wasn't worried about the coronavirus despite his anxiety disorder. But that changed. The 33-year-old digital media strategist from Dallas, who takes medication, said his concern was less about getting sick than about the battering the economy could sustain. Would he be able to feed his family? Would there be a run on food stores? He could not shake his worries. (Ritter, 3/25) The New York Times: Spring Breaker Who Said, 'If I Get Corona, I Get Corona,' Apologizes A young man whose bold defiance of social distancing guidelines while on spring break in Miami drew widespread attention — "If I get corona, I get corona," he declared in a television interview — apologized this week for his comments. "I wasn't aware of the severity of my actions and comments," the man, Brady Sluder, said on Instagram on Sunday. "I'd like to take this time to own up to the mistakes i've made and apologize to the people I've offended." (Ortiz, 3/24) The New York Times: What Does Our Body Temperature Say About Our Health? As public health officials struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus, determining whether a person has a fever is now a high-stakes matter, and using temperature guns to screen people has become a visible strategy for detecting possible cases. "Any infectious disease — one of the cardinal signs of infection is raised body temperature," says Waleed Javaid, the director of infection prevention and control for the Mount Sinai Downtown Network. But there's a catch: "That means you know the body temperature before you raised it." (Tingley, 3/24) Health IT 23. White House Outreach To Big Tech Companies During Pandemic Puts Antitrust Probes On Hold, But For How Long? Yes, the Trump administration has turned to Silicon Valley's giants for various reasons including best practices guidelines during the pandemic, but issues surrounding antitrust laws won't remain dormant for long, say Justice Department attorneys. Other news on technology reports on suspicious websites offering false promises, privacy issues with tracking people's movement through smartphones, and higher than normal use of screen time for teens. Politico: Why Silicon Valley's Virus-Era D.C. Glow May Not Last Big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are enjoying an unexpected boost in their D.C. popularity after the White House enlisted them to use their tremendous size, reach and mastery of data to fight the coronavirus. But those same traits continue to pose a peril for Silicon Valley's giants, who are the subjects of multiple federal antitrust probes that are nearing a critical stage despite the pandemic. (Overly, Nylen and Orr, 3/25) NBC News: Coronavirus Misinformation Makes Neutrality A Distant Memory For Tech Companies Open up Instagram these days and you might be bombarded with calls to "Stay Home." On YouTube, you may see a link to a government website about the coronavirus. Or go to Twitter and try to find the phrase "social distancing is not effective." It might be there, but probably not for long — because Twitter has banned the phrase as harmful. (Ingram and Glaser, 3/24) The New York Times: Coronavirus Spurs A Wave Of Suspect Websites Looking To Cash In A popular technology company that has helped launch thousands of online retail sites has become a favorite tool for fly-by-night businesses looking to cash in on the coronavirus pandemic. New e-commerce sites that use the company's services are filled with wildly exaggerated claims about virus-fighting products that may not even exist. The New York Times analyzed registrations with the company, Shopify, which allows just about anyone with an email address and a credit card to create retail websites in short order. (Keller and Lorenz, 3/24) Stat: Can Location Data From Smartphones Help Slow The Spread Of Coronavirus? It's emerging as one of the more promising — and potentially controversial — ideas to slow the spread of the coronavirus: collecting smartphone data to track where people have gone and who they've crossed paths with. The White House has discussed the notion, and several companies are reportedly in talks with the Trump administration to share aggregated user data. (Robbins, 3/24) Good Morning America: American Academy Of Pediatrics 'Recognizes' Kids Will Use More Screens With millions of children prevented from attending school because of the novel coronavirus, parents are struggling to keep them busy at home. Even after schoolwork, there are hours in the day left to fill. The American Academy of Pediatrics told "Good Morning America" in an email, "AAP recognizes many children will be using more screen media now, whether for entertainment, education, or social connection." (Shaw Brown, 3/24) Medicare 24. A Look At What Medicare Covers In Terms Of Coronavirus Treatment Medicare beneficiaries are some of the Americans with the highest-risk of needing coronavirus treatment. The New York Times: Medicare Is Updating Coverage To Help In The Coronavirus Crisis Older Americans are at a high risk for serious illness from the coronavirus, and most who are over age 65 are covered by Medicare. Medicare already covers its enrollees for much of what they might need if they contract the virus and become seriously ill — and it has expanded some services and loosened some rules in response to the crisis. Here's a look at what enrollees can expect from Medicare, some problems to look out for and some additional changes that advocates think still need to be made. (Miller, 3/24) In other news from Medicare — Modern Healthcare: Medicare Payment Change Will Shift Heart Procedures Out Of Hospital Last month, Winnie Marie Jones underwent a heart catheterization procedure in which three stents were placed in her coronary arteries to open blockages. Unlike her husband, Robert, who had a cardiac stent procedure several years ago, Winnie didn't go to the hospital for the surgery. The 70-year-old Medicare patient had it done in a free-standing ambulatory surgery center, Medfinity Plano, located about 15 minutes from where she lives in Garland, Texas. She was back home less than five hours after the procedure started. (Meyer, 3/21) Global Watch 25. Global Responses: China Eases Lockdown; Russia Braces For Outbreak; India Locks Down 1.3 Billion People While China is its loosening two-month long restrictions in Hubei, other countries begin to impose more restrictions for ''long haul'' battle. The New York Times: Coronavirus In China: Hubei Province Lockdown Eased After 2 Months The Chinese province of Hubei, where the coronavirus pandemic began, will on Wednesday begin allowing most of its 60 million residents to leave, ending nearly two months of lockdown and sending a strong signal of the government's confidence that its tough measures have worked to control the outbreak. Wuhan, the provincial capital and the city hardest hit by the virus, will remain sealed off until April 8, though public transportation there will start running again, the government said. (Wang and Wee, 3/24) Reuters: Explainer: China's Symptom-Free Coronavirus Carriers Raise Fears Of New Wave Of Infections The existence of a substantial but unknown number of asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus in China has raised concerns among the public that people could still be spreading COVID-19 without knowing they are sick. (Stanway, 3/25) The Wall Street Journal: 'My World Collapsed With A Bang': How The Coronavirus Ravaged A Wuhan Family The last message Li Song received from her husband was a hand emoji of the OK sign, assuring her that he was on the mend after being hospitalized with pneumonia. Four hours later, the hospital called to tell her he had died. Ms. Li, 53, had spent days scrambling to save her 53-year-old husband, Hong Ling, after they both contracted the coronavirus that has killed more than 15,000 people and infected more than 350,000 world-wide. (Yang, 3/25) The Associated Press: Russia Ramps Up Measures Against Coronavirus As Cases Grow Russian authorities acknowledged Tuesday that a low number of coronavirus cases in the country could be a result of insufficient screening and warned that the nation must brace for the worst. President Vladimir Putin donned a yellow protective suit to visit the top Moscow hospital treating coronavirus patients and conferred with officials on how to stem the outbreak. Hospital chief Denis Protsenko told Putin the country needs to "prepare for the Italian scenario." (Litvinova and Isachenkov, 3/24) Reuters: India Locks Down Its 1.3 Billion People To Halt Coronavirus Spread India ordered a 21-day lockdown of its 1.3 billion people on Tuesday to try to protect the world's second most populous country from the coronavirus spreading around the world. Health researchers have warned that more than a million people in India could be infected with the coronavirus by mid-May, prompting the government to shut down all air and train travel, businesses and schools. (Miglani and Anand, 3/24) The Associated Press: Grim Find: Bodies Of Virus Victims In Spanish Nursing Homes Spanish army troops disinfecting nursing homes have found, to their horror, some residents living in squalor among the infectious bodies of people suspected of dying from the new coronavirus, authorities said Tuesday. Defense Minister Margarita Robles said the elderly residents were "completely left to fend for themselves, or even dead, in their beds." She said the discovery over the weekend included several nursing homes but did not name them or say how many bodies were found. (Giles and Parra, 3/24) CIDRAP: Italian Doctors Note High COVID-19 Death Rate, Urge Action Italy's high rate of death from COVID-19 (7.2%, vs. 2.3% in China) may be explained by the country's relatively high proportion of older people, a different definition of coronavirus-related deaths, and approach to testing strategies, according to a commentary yesterday in JAMA. In a letter today in The Lancet, a separate group of Italian doctors implored countries to learn from their country's experience and swiftly implement strict infection-control measures. (Van Beusekom, 3/24) The Associated Press: In Pandemic, Rumors Of Martial Law Fly Despite Reassurances Millions of Americans have been ordered to stay home. Businesses and schools are shuttered. And National Guard units have been activated in more than half the states. Yet despite what you may have read in a text message or on social media, there are currently no plans for a national quarantine, let alone martial law. Those National Guard units? They're busy distributing food and medical supplies. (Klepper, Dupuy and Kinnard, 3/25) CNN: Prince Charles Tests Positive For Novel Coronavirus Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth II's son and the first in line to the British throne, has tested positive for coronavirus and is now self-isolating in Scotland. The Prince of Wales is only displaying mild symptoms and is otherwise in good health, Clarence House said in a statement. It is not known how he caught the virus because of his busy schedule of public events in recent weeks. (Reynolds, Foster and Wilkinson, 3/25) The Wall Street Journal: Governments Prepare For The 'Long Haul' In Battle Against Coronavirus As the new coronavirus spreads across the world, governments and scientists are bracing for a monthslong siege rather than a swift victory—one marked by shifting strategies and potentially prolonged economic disruption. Sweeping restrictions and unprecedented lockdowns from New York and San Francisco to Milan, Paris, Manila and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are expected to slow the spread of the disease, but they aren't likely to halt the contagion altogether, public-health experts say. Places like Singapore and Hong Kong are learning that early accomplishments in containment can be undone by new waves of infection. (Solomon, McKay and Emont, 3/25) The Associated Press: Survivors Of World Conflicts Offer Perspective Amid Pandemic As Western countries reeling from the coronavirus pandemic awaken to a new reality of economic collapse, overwhelmed hospitals, grounded flights and home confinement, it's tempting to think the end of days is at hand. But for millions across the Middle East and in conflict zones farther afield, much of this is grimly familiar. The survivors of recent wars, too often dismissed as the pitiable victims of failed states, can offer hard-earned wisdom in times like these. (Krauss and Akram, 3/25) CIDRAP: As COVID-19 Rages, WHO Calls For More Efforts To Prevent TB With nations around the world confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) reminded people today that another respiratory illness—tuberculosis (TB)—remains the world's leading infectious disease killer and urged more action to prevent the disease. In a statement marking World TB Day, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to continue tackling longstanding health problems like TB, a lung disease that could leave millions worldwide at even greater risk for poor outcomes from the novel coronavirus. (Dall, 3/24) Prescription Drug Watch 26. Drug Pricing Legislation Fades Into Background As Coronavirus Dominates Lawmakers' Attention Read about the biggest pharmaceutical development and pricing stories from the past week in KHN's Prescription Drug Watch roundup. The Hill: Chances For Drug Pricing, Surprise Billing Action Fade Until November The chances of Congress passing legislation to lower drug prices and protect patients from surprise medical bills are fading, at least until after the November election. As the coronavirus crisis overshadows all other activity on Capitol Hill, the massive response package being negotiated on Tuesday is expected to push off a key deadline for drug pricing and surprise billing legislation. The coronavirus response package is going to renew a range of expiring health care programs, such as community health center funding, until Nov. 30, sources say. (Sullivan, 3/24) Stat: Preventing Shkreli-Like Debacles May Not Save The Government Much After Martin Shkreli took a 5,000% price hike on a decades-old medicine and thwarted rivals, a movement grew to ensure companies could not corner the market on generics that lack patent protection and competition. But a new analysis suggests such efforts would not save tons of money, simply because total government spending on such drugs is not as much as some might imagine. (Silverman, 3/19) FiercePharma: Lilly Says There Is No Shortage Of Its Insulin Or Other Drugs Eli Lilly says it's heard the reports that some patients can't get their insulin but insists its supply pipeline is full. Pharmacies that have shortages should be able to get it in a couple of days from wholesalers it insists. Lilly in an update on supplies today said it has received a few reports that some U.S. pharmacies have told patients they are out of insulin due to "manufacturer backorder." Lilly says it has told everyone along the supply chain it doesn't have any products on backorder—"including insulin"—and that patients need to let their pharmacies know that. (Palmer, 3/24) Reuters: Intra-Cellular Prices Schizophrenia Drug At $1,320 Per Month Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc said on Monday its lead drug to treat schizophrenia was now available at U.S. pharmacies for a list price of $1,320 a month. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December approved the drug, Caplyta, as a once-daily dose of 42 mg, which had shown to regulate three neurotransmitter systems linked to severe mental illnesses. Existing anti-psychotic drugs in the U.S. market include Rexulti from Danish drugmaker H. Lundbeck A/S and Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Vraylar from Allergan Plc, and Johnson & Johnson's Invega. (Roy, 3/23) Kaiser Health News: Senators Who Led Pharma-Friendly Patent Reform Also Prime Targets For Pharma Cash Early last year, as lawmakers vowed to curb rising drug prices, Sen. Thom Tillis was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on intellectual property rights, a committee that had not met since 2007. As the new gatekeeper for laws and oversight of the nation's patent system, the North Carolina Republican signaled he was determined to make it easier for American businesses to benefit from it — a welcome message to the drugmakers who already leverage patents to block competitors and keep prices high. (Huetteman, 3/24) Stat: FDA Slams Indian Drug Maker For Tossing 'Cartloads' Of Documents Amid global anxiety over the novel coronavirus, a newly issued warning letter by the Food and Drug Administration serves as a reminder that quality manufacturing needs to remain a priority. Consider the March 17 missive sent to Windlas Healthcare, which formulates finished medicines for some of the world's largest drug makers. The company committed several serious infractions that alarmed the agency following an August 2019 inspection of a manufacturing facility in northern India. (Silverman, 3/23) 27. Perspectives: Will Americans Actually Be Able To Afford A Vaccine If One Is Available? Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues. The Hill: We Need A Coronavirus Vaccine — I Just Wish We Could Afford It Since its discovery in Wuhan, China, in December last year, coronavirus has infected more than 100 000 people in 103 countries and resulted in panic, travel bans and quarantines. Talk has turned to a potential vaccine, with President Trump promising one in "a couple of months." However, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar effectively decided the opposite by stating that the U.S. would not place price controls — regulations to control the cost— on potential coronavirus vaccines. In Azar's words: "The priority is to get vaccines and therapeutics. Price controls won't get us there." (Safura Abdool Karim, 3/20) Stat: Saving Lives Should Be Good Business. Why Doesn't That Apply To Finding New Antibiotics? Ihave spent my career as a biomedical entrepreneur working to develop products that have the potential to save lives while also generating returns for shareholders. Two years ago, I co-founded a new company, Octagon Therapeutics, focused on a critical unmet medical need and a growing market opportunity: more effective antibiotics. It turned out to be a disaster. (Isaac Stoner, 3/18) Stat: Insulin Prices And PBM Rebates: Pin The Tail On The Patient Over the past 15 years, insulin prices have more than doubled. Pharmaceutical companies have been on the receiving end of most of the blame, and the chorus of angry voices has grown louder given Speaker Nancy Pelosi's H.R. 3 bill, which shows that Americans pay three times more for the same medicines than Europeans do. (Duane Schulthess, 3/19) The Hill: Congress Needs To Clear A Path For People Living With Diabetes To Stay Safe During Pandemic While estimates suggest that hundreds of millions of Americans may contract the coronavirus, the complications experienced by those infected will vary widely. The whole point of "flattening the curve" is to ensure that those who are most in need of medical resources — the elderly and those with underlying health conditions — can receive medical attention when they need it. The over 34 million Americans living with diabetes make up a significant part of this group, and we need Congress and the states to provide urgent help to blunt the potentially devastating impact on our community. (Tracey D. Brown, 3/23) Des Moines Register: Grassley Prescription Drug Bill Holds Big Pharma Accountable Big Pharma opposes a bill introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley and supported by Sen. Joni Ernst that would curb rising drug prices, but you wouldn't know that from a recent op-ed in the Des Moines Register that calls them pawns of the pharmaceutical industry. The column charged that the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act, which is supported by both Democrats and Republicans, is a giveaway to pharmaceutical companies, falsely claiming that the proposed cap on out-of-pocket costs for Iowans on Medicare wouldn't "stop corporations" and that the bill is merely paying "lip service" to voters. But what it left out were critical details about the bill, while including irrelevant personal attacks on those who support bipartisan solutions. (Laura Kaminenski, 3/18) Editorials And Opinions 28. Different Takes: Shortage Of Hydroxychloroquine Would Harm Many Patients Who Actually Need It; Older Health Care Workers Deserve To Be Protected Opinion writers express views about these health care issues and others. The Washington Post: Stop Hoarding Hydroxychloroquine. Many Americans, Including Me, Need It. Forty-one pills. That's how much medication I have left, with no guarantees for next month. I take the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (brand-name Plaquenil) off-label to treat an autoimmune disorder, and like Americans across the country who battle autoimmune diseases including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, I'm facing a shortage of this life-preserving drug. (Stacy Torres, 3/24) Stat: Protect Older And Vulnerable Health Care Workers From Covid-19 Since the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus emerged late in 2019, health care workers have been at particularly high risk of infection. In China, more than 3,300 health care workers have been infected, including Dr. Li Wenliang, who died after being the first to sound the alarm. More than 4,800 health care workers have been infected in Italy, where harrowing stories from Italian physicians and nurses are being posted on social media. (Aaron Kofman and Alfonso Hernandez-Romieu, 3/25) Modern Healthcare: Deciding Who Lives And Who Dies During The COVID-19 Pandemic Medical leaders in Washington state quietly debated a plan to decide who gets care when hospitals fill up. Not many details are out, but the arguments echo a similar discussion in Italy, where an intensive-care unit protocol withheld life-saving care from certain people. The rejected were those older than 80 or who had a Charlson comorbidity index of 5 or more. With my diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer, I score a 6! (Morhaf Al Achkar, 3/24) The Washington Post: What It's Like Being A New York ER Doctor During This Pandemic Wake up at 6:30 a.m. Priority is making a big pot of coffee for the whole day, because the place by the hospital is closed. The Starbucks, too. It's all closed. On the walk, it feels like Sunday. No one is out. Might be the freezing rain. Or it's early. Regardless, that's good. Walk in for your 8 a.m. shift: Struck by how the calm of the early morning city streets is immediately transformed. The bright fluorescent lights of the ER reflect off everyone's protective goggles. There is a cacophony of coughing. You stop. Mask up. Walk in. (Craig Spenser, 3/24) Boston Globe: In Order To Save Dr. Fauci, We Must Destroy Him President Trump is watching and listening to the same thing we are, i.e., Fauci going to the podium to rebut with facts the latest outbreak of paranoid anxiety or the president's regularly reckless statements. Fauci is an oasis of rigor and reason in a barren desert of confusion and fear. Which, given who he works for, makes him an endangered species. (Kevin Cullen, 3/23) Stat: In A Pandemic, Hospital Staffers Need To Get Better At Hand-Washing After visiting Ellis Island in 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt noted the lack of hand-washing by doctors and wrote the Public Health Service that he was "struck by the way doctors made the examinations with dirty hands," turning the examinations themselves into "a fruitful source of carrying infection." Fast forward 114 years: Today's hospitals aren't doing much better at hand-washing. That's a serious problem in ordinary times; during the Covid-19 national emergency it could become extraordinarily dangerous. (Leah Binder and Michael L. Millenson, 3/25) CNN: How We've Overcome Past Pandemics We are living through a pandemic -- and everything normal about our daily lives has been put on hold. A hug or a handshake could spread a deadly disease that is already galloping out of control... But we will get through this. Do you know how we can say that with certainty? Because we've been through far worse before. (John Avlon, 3/24) CNN: Everyone Needs To See Andrew Cuomo's Inspiring Words On The Fight Against Coronavirus It's a difficult moment for America. We are in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic, which is sickening thousands and killing hundreds -- all while growing its reach exponentially lately. "Social distancing" and "shelter in place" have become familiar terms. The economy continues to free fall. And everywhere there is anxiety, fear and doubt. Which brings me to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- and, specifically, to something he said in his daily press briefing on the coronavirus Tuesday morning. (Chris Cillizza, 3/24) 29. Viewpoints: Pros, Cons Of Reopening The Economy Instead Of Keeping People Safe; Closing Parks When People Need To Be Outdoors Is A Foolish Mistake Editorial pages focus on these health care issues and others emerging during the pandemic. Los Angeles Times: How To Balance Saving Lives, Economy Amid Coronavirus New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state is suffering the worst coronavirus outbreak in the nation, asked recently whether it's necessary to shut down the entire economy to save a single life. Cuomo was being rhetorical — and he was purposefully setting an unrealistic bar. More than 100 people in New York City have died from the virus, and clearly many more lives are at stake.But the idea embedded in his question — that there are trade-offs between halting the disease and minimizing the economic meltdown — is important for politicians to consider. (Roger Lowenstein, 3/24) Bloomberg: Coronavirus: Easter Target Risks Hurting Economy, Markets Given a choice between being sure that the virus was beaten, or taking a risk by reopening the economy as soon as possible, I have heard plenty of voices in the last few days arguing for caution. These aren't only from the medical community, but also from business and Wall Street. It is uncertainty that roils markets. The great imponderable of the moment, which explains the fastest descent into a bear market in history, is the coronavirus. Reopening, seeing the virus proliferate, and then returning to lockdown would be a disaster. Neither business nor investors are likely to deploy capital and start to grow again if they are still worried about the pandemic. They might rather attempt to adapt to lockdown conditions. (John Authers, 3/25) The Wall Street Journal: From Shutdown To Coronavirus Phase Two Our editorial last week on the costs of our government-mandated national economic shutdown struck a chord with readers, including perhaps at the White House. President Trump is now saying he wants the country back to normal by mid-April. While this is right as a direction, the shift to a sustainable health and economic strategy will require a transition and a credible explanation to the public. The initial 15-day national period of mass social distancing ends Monday, which is a chance for reconsidering the anti-virus shutdown strategy. The challenge will be finding a balance between protecting against the virus and resuming commerce and business that is crucial to getting people back to work. (3/24) The Washington Post: Trump's Goal Of Sending People Back To Work Early Is Reckless When the 18-deck cruise liner Diamond Princess returned to Japan on Feb. 3, it had already made six stops in three countries. One passenger had departed in Hong Kong, with symptoms of the new coronavirus, confirmed by tests on land. Japanese authorities eventually tested all 3,711 passengers and crew, and discovered that, of the 712 people with positive test results, 331 of them were asymptomatic, or had no symptoms, at the time of testing. (3/24) The Wall Street Journal: Flatten The Coronavirus Curve At A Lower Cost The bill for the government response to coronavirus will be astronomical. The trillion-dollar "stimulus" is a lot of money, and it will eventually have to be paid for with taxes. The economic shutdowns are even more expensive. The U.S. economy produced about $21 trillion in 2019. If "essential" businesses still open are even half of that, each month of a national shutdown costs the economy almost a trillion dollars. The damage will become harder to fix as businesses fire workers and close forever. OK, governors had to call a sudden economic stop to get a handle on an out-of-control situation. These precious weeks can bend the curve and buy some time to prepare the health-care system. But governors must also use this time to work with businesses on a plan for reopening the economy in a way that mitigates health risks. (John H. Cochrane, 3/24) Dallas Morning News: Dan Patrick's 'Get Back To Living' Plan Is A Path To An America We Don't Want To Be Before Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick dragged it fully into the public spotlight, there was a dangerous argument lurking on the sidelines of our public discourse: That we should make a different trade-off between economic growth and public health than we have been making as we combat the coronavirus pandemic. We understand that reasonable people have legitimate concerns about the damage being done to the economy. And we recognize that the financial damage being done may itself likely come with a cost of human lives. But the argument we see creeping out of the shadow compares dollars and cents to human lives. And here's where we believe the lieutenant governor's leadership takes us down a dangerous path because it can quickly get to a place where people accept creating a greater health risk, particularly for those who are old, infirm or otherwise vulnerable, to save us from losing a few points off our economic growth. (3/24) The New York Times: Coronavirus Is Advancing. All Americans Need To Shelter In Place. President Trump needs to call for a two-week shelter-in-place order, now, as part of a coherent national strategy for the coronavirus to protect Americans and their livelihoods. Once he does, and governors follow his request, there will be time to debate how soon some controls might be lifted, or how soon certain people, like those under a particular age, might be free to resume something like normal life. There will be more time then to develop palliative treatments, and more time for the federal government to order up the test kits and ventilators needed nationwide. (3/24) The New York Times: To Prevent A Coronavirus Depression, Will Trump Trade Away Lives? Listening to our marginally articulate president the other night, I suddenly understood: The economy wasn't merely his pride. It was more like his lover. He can't get enough of it. He won't be kept from it. Ain't no mountain high enough. Ain't no pandemic grim enough. Briefing after briefing, I see it, sense it: how he itches to feel that rush again. He digresses from the terrifying present and uncertain future to revisit the heady past, when he lavished trinkets on the Dow and it purred on cue, telling him how potent he was. (Frank Bruni, 3/24) WBUR: The Federal Check Won't Be Enough. Now's The Time For Mass. To Introduce A Universal Basic Income If millions of us can't go to work, our system will collapse. How do we rectify this? By giving every household some cash. Call it emergency universal basic income (UBI), call it a cash stimulus, but that's the idea that many economists and members of Congress have embraced. Several other countries are already doing this in their own ways. (Miles Howard, 3/25) The Wall Street Journal: Parks And Virus Recreation Officials seeking to slow the spread of coronavirus have imposed sweeping restrictions on roughly one in four Americans. Several states have closed churches, restaurants and bars, gyms and other businesses. Some governors and mayors are now moving to limit access to parks and other outdoor spaces. The goal as always is to slow the virus's spread, but with cabin fever raging for shut-ins, we have to wonder whether closing down large open spaces does more harm than good. (3/24) NBC News: Fighting Coronavirus: U.S. Military Could Help More If Trump Wasn't Commander In Chief The good news is that America's national security institutions have a massive capacity to help the country fight its latest war, the one on the deadly and highly contagious COVID-19. The bad news is that their commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, failed to mobilize them in advance to fully harness their power — and continues to be reluctant to do so even now. (Sebastien Roblin, 3/24) CNN: This Is A National Emergency. Trump And Congress Must Act There is nothing like a supreme national emergency to realize the fragility of our lives and focus the mind. We have witnessed grave and traumatic events before: the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918; the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing depression; Britain after Dunkirk, facing a Nazi invasion; Pearl Harbor; the terrorist attacks of 9/11; and the 2008 financial crisis. Now the coronavirus, or Covid-19, batters us all. (Charlie Dent, 3/24) CNN: The DOJ Doesn't Need Emergency Powers To Cope With Coronavirus The Justice Department's request to Congress for certain "emergency powers" during the coronavirus crisis is a first step down a potentially dangerous path. Among other things, the DOJ reportedly seeks to empower federal judges to extend or suspend normal deadlines for charging and trying criminal cases. (Elie Honig, 3/24) Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent operating program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. (c) 2020 Kaiser Health News. All rights reserved. Follow us on Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn You are subscribed to this email alert as stevenmagallanes520.nims@blogger.com. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive. Or, permanently unsubscribe from all emails. 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