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Not a subscriber? Sign up | Morning Briefing: Summaries Of The News | | Tuesday, March 31, 2020 Visit Kaiser Health News for the latest headlines | In This Edition: From Kaiser Health News: 1. Her Genetic Test Revealed A Microscopic Problem — And A Jumbo Price Tag Molecular diagnostics are at the frontier of science, but insurance and billing questions create a minefield for patients. (Liz Szabo, 3/31) 2. Online Coronavirus Tests Are Just The Latest Iffy Products Marketed To Anxious Consumers Americans are worried about the novel coronavirus, so they are turning to the internet for solutions to stem their fears. Buyer, beware. It could be dangerous. (Victoria Knight, 3/31) 3. More Than 5,000 Surgery Centers Can Now Serve As Makeshift Hospitals During COVID-19 Crisis Under pressure, the federal government announced it will let surgery centers, hotels and even college dorms serve as hospitals to treat an overflow of patients. (Liz Szabo and Cara Anthony, 3/30) 4. COVID-19 Bonanza: Stimulus Hands Health Industry Billions Not Directly Related To Pandemic Congress retreats on long-planned cost cuts to benefit the health care industry with a grab bag full of incentives. (Fred Schulte, 3/30) 5. Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic? Families are weighing the challenges of providing home care with the isolation or potential danger of leaving folks in senior housing or long-term care. (Judith Graham, 3/31) 6. Already Taxed Health Care Workers Not 'Immune' From Layoffs And Less Pay Revenue is way down for primary care, specialty physicians and some hospitals as patients avoid non-urgent visits. Practices small and large are doling out layoffs and furloughs to staff. (Martha Bebinger, WBUR, 3/30) 7. Political Cartoon: 'Homeschooling?' Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'Homeschooling?'" by Jeff Danziger. Here's today's health policy haiku: 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: 8. Navy Hospital Ship Comfort Arrives In NYC As Number Of Coronavirus Deaths In Country Climbs Past 3,000 The number of U.S. deaths is nearing the total China has reported. Shortly after the USNS Comfort arrived in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the statewide death toll had risen by 253 in a single day. The naval ship will offer 1,000 hospital beds to help alleviate the strain for local hospitals. Meanwhile, other sites in the city, including Central Park, are being turned into field hospitals to help handle the overflow. And FEMA is sending refrigerated trucks to make up for the lack of space in the city's morgues. The Associated Press: US Nears China's Virus Death Toll As New York Calls For Help
The mounting death toll from the virus outbreak in the United States had it poised Tuesday to overtake China's grim toll of 3,300 deaths, with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying up to 1 million more healthcare workers were needed. "Please come help us," he urged. Hard-hit Italy and Spain have already overtaken China and now account for more than half of the nearly 38,000 COVID-19 deaths worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. (Perry and Noveck, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: New York Hospitals Plan Coordination As Coronavirus Deaths In State Top 1,200
A U.S. Navy hospital ship arrived in New York City on Monday to help alleviate the strain of the coronavirus crisis on local hospitals, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo outlined a new statewide plan to coordinate medical care for the infected. The USNS Comfort will provide 1,000 hospital beds to the city, which has become the epicenter of the virus's outbreak in the country. After welcoming the ship on Manhattan's West Side, Mr. Cuomo held a press conference at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, which is being converted into a 2,500-bed hospital and began receiving patients Monday. (Chapman, 3/30) The Associated Press: 'Staggering': New York Virus Death Toll Rises Above 1,200
The Comfort, which was also sent to New York after the 9/11 terror attacks, has 12 operating rooms that could be up and running within 24 hours, officials said. The ship is docked just north of a temporary hospital constructed inside the cavernous Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. State and city officials are trying to increase hospital capacity by up to 87,000 beds to handle the outbreak. "We bring a message to all New Yorkers – now, your Navy is returned and we are with you committed in this fight," said Rear Admiral John Mustin. (Hays and Villeneuve, 3/30) Politico: USNS Comfort Arrives In New York City
"Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City," Mayor Bill de Blasio said as he greeted the ship at Pier 90. "There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort." The ship, emblazoned with red crosses on its white hull, will not treat coronavirus patients, but will take on other patients including trauma cases, freeing up beds at local hospitals focused on combating the pandemic. It will have 750 beds ready to treat patients immediately. (Durkin, 3/30) Politico: FEMA Sends Refrigerated Trucks To New York City To Hold Bodies
FEMA is sending refrigerated trucks to New York City to serve as temporary morgues as the death toll from the coronavirus grows. There is a "desperate need" for morgue space in Queens in particular, FEMA regional administrator Thomas Von Essen said Monday. The borough has the most coronavirus cases in the city, and Elmhurst hospital has been swamped with gravely ill patients. (Durkin, 3/30) Reuters: U.S. Coronavirus Death Toll Rises Past 3,000 On Deadliest Day
In a grim new milestones marking the spread of the virus, total deaths across the United States hit 3,017, including at least 540 on Monday, and the reported cases climbed to more than 163,000, according to a Reuters tally. People in New York and New Jersey lined both sides of the Hudson River to cheer the U.S Navy ship Comfort, a converted oil tanker painted white with giant red crosses, as it sailed past the Statue of Liberty accompanied by support ships and helicopters. (Kelly and Trotta, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Prepares For Prolonged Shutdowns As Coronavirus Strains Hospitals
At the beginning of March, the U.S. had reported fewer than 100 confirmed cases of Covid-19, the pneumonialike disease caused by the virus. It now has more than 159,100 confirmed infections, the most of any country, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, though the country's 2,945 deaths are far less than in Italy and Spain, Europe's worst-hit nations. Italy's death toll climbed Monday to 11,591—the highest of any country. Spain, with 7,340 deaths, is the second hardest-hit country. Both, like the U.S., have surpassed China in total confirmed cases. (Calfas, Ping and Simmons, 3/30) The Washington Post: Coronavirus Pandemic Could Kill As Many As 200,000 In U.S., White House Warns
Michigan, which Trump said Monday was "becoming a hotbed," reported an 18 percent surge in cases from a day earlier, along with more than 50 additional deaths — bringing its total fatalities to 184. Michigan's nearly 6,500 confirmed cases was the third-highest total in the nation, behind New Jersey (more than 16,600) and New York (more than 66,000). (Zapotosky, Wagner and Iati, 3/30) Stat: As Coronavirus Spreads, ER Doctors Warn 'The Worst Of It Has Not Hit Us Yet'
Streets in cities and towns across the country are eerily quiet. Car traffic has dropped so substantially air pollution is abating. In many places, people are hunkered down indoors, trying to avoid contracting Covid-19. But the true battle against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the disease, is playing out in hospitals that are currently — or will soon be — engulfed in an onslaught of patients struggling to breathe. (Branswell, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Queens Stadium To Be Converted Into Temporary Hospital In Coronavirus Fight
New York City's emergency management office plans to build a 350-bed facility at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park as efforts intensify to supplement hospital space as the U.S. battles the coronavirus pandemic. Construction could begin as early as Tuesday at an indoor training center at the facility, which has multiple courts and wide spaces, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Tennis Association. The beds will likely be for patients who don't have Covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, but that could change depending upon need, according to a spokeswoman for the city. (Honan, 3/30) NBC News: 'It's Surreal,' Nurse Practitioner Says Of Field Hospital Set Up In Central Park Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Shelly Kelly, a nurse practitioner from Tulsa, Oklahoma, never imagined that on her first trip to New York City, she would be unable to visit some of the area's biggest attractions. "I had no idea that on my first trip to New York I wouldn't be able to see a Broadway show. I wouldn't be able to go out to all the nice restaurants I've heard about. I wouldn't be able to see people around Times Square. It's completely different," said Kelly, who landed in New York on Sunday. Instead, Kelly will be among a few dozen nurses and doctors from Samaritan's Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian humanitarian organization, working at a field hospital set up in Central Park — across the street from Mount Sinai Hospital — for patients battling COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Griffith, 3/30) ProPublica: Life On A Block With An Emergency Morgue Truck: 'We Hear The Hum Of The Refrigerator Going All Night Long'
Across New York City, there are unthinkable scenes everywhere. Empty public spaces. Teeming emergency rooms. Shuttered churches. For Marc Kozlow, the unthinkable played out on Stanhope Street in Brooklyn this weekend. He lives on the block with his fiancee and dog, a rescue named Hank. Near his apartment is Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, a 350-bed nonprofit hospital in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. Most of the hospital's patients are people of color; about a fifth are 70 or older. (Waldman, 3/30) 9. Trump Thinks Testing Is No Longer A Problem, But Governors Beg To Disagree President Donald Trump said in a phone call with governors that he hadn't heard about testing concerns in weeks. "It would be shocking to me that if anyone who has had access to any newspaper, radio, social networks or any other communication would not be knowledgeable about the need for test kits," Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said about the president's comments. Meanwhile, The New York Times takes a deep dive into the lost month where testing flaws set the country back in its efforts to contain the outbreak. Meanwhile, companies race to put out a fast test, but the virus may be moving even faster. The New York Times: Trump Suggests Lack Of Testing Is No Longer A Problem. Governors Disagree.
President Trump told governors on a conference call on Monday that he had not "heard about testing in weeks," suggesting that a chronic lack of kits to screen people for the coronavirus was no longer a problem. But governors painted a different picture on the ground. Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, a Democrat, said that officials in his state were trying to do "contact tracing" — tracking down people who have come into contact with those who have tested positive — but that they were struggling because "we don't have adequate tests," according to an audio recording of the conversation obtained by The New York Times. (Martin, Haberman and Baker, 3/30) The Hill: Trump Defends US Coronavirus Testing As 'Very Much On Par' With Other Countries
President Trump on Monday insisted that America's ability to test for the coronavirus is "very much on par" with other countries, criticizing a reporter who asked why the U.S. isn't testing as many people per capita as South Korea. Trump said at a Monday evening White House press conference that the population of the U.S. is far more spread out, with less dense regions that have seen less of an impact from COVID-19, suggesting that testing was not needed in those places. (Chalfant, 3/30) The New York Times: The Lost Month: How A Failure To Test Blinded The U.S. To Covid-19
Early on, the dozen federal officials charged with defending America against the coronavirus gathered day after day in the White House Situation Room, consumed by crises. They grappled with how to evacuate the United States consulate in Wuhan, China, ban Chinese travelers and extract Americans from the Diamond Princess and other cruise ships. The members of the coronavirus task force typically devoted only five or 10 minutes, often at the end of contentious meetings, to talk about testing, several participants recalled. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, its leaders assured the others, had developed a diagnostic model that would be rolled out quickly as a first step. (Shear, Goodnough, Kaplan, Fink, Thomas and Weiland, 3/28) PBS NewsHour: Why The U.S. Is Still 'Severely Constrained' In Ability To Test For COVID-19
Despite recent signs of advancement, many health experts say the U.S. capacity to test for the novel coronavirus remains too limited and progress too slow. President Trump has previously claimed anyone could be tested -- but that isn't what we're hearing from people who have tried. (Nuzzo, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: Limited Testing Poses Challenges To Mapping COVID-19 Spread
As information continues to emerge about COVID-19, researchers and companies are trying new approaches to map the outbreak.But how to accurately display and project the spread of the disease has proven difficult, particularly given the limited number of tests available to confirm where cases of COVID-19 actually are. (Cohen, 3/30) Stat: Test Makers Are Moving Fast, But The Coronavirus May Be Moving Faster
In Lake Success, a village on the border of suburban Long Island and the New York City borough of Queens, there is a building that was erected to house defense engineers during World War II. It was designed to withstand enemy bombing, with a pool of water on the roof to help camouflage it in the event of airstrikes. Today, it is on the front line of a very different war. (Herper, 3/31) ABC News: New Rapid Coronavirus Diagnostic Test Can Provide Results In As Little As 5 Minutes
A new novel coronavirustest may make diagnosing COVID-19 as easy as the flu. The new point-of-care test, having just received an emergency-use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will be able to deliver results in as little as five minutes, according to the manufacturer. This test from medical device company Abbott, which begins shipping April 1, may soon be available at your local urgent care clinic. (David, 3/30) 10. The One-Two Punch That Changed Trump's Mind On Re-Opening: Poll Numbers And Projected Deaths President Donald Trump walked back optimistic projections that the country would start returning to normal by Easter. Reporting on what changed his mind shows that it wasn't just the coronavirus forecasts that swayed him--voters' opinions did as well. Meanwhile, a statistical model that the White House is consulting shows a death total that could climb past 84,000 Americans, though numbers shift daily with more information. The New York Times: Behind Trump's Reversal On Reopening The Country: 2 Sets Of Numbers
The numbers the health officials showed President Trump were overwhelming. With the peak of the coronavirus pandemic still weeks away, he was told, hundreds of thousands of Americans could face death if the country reopened too soon. But there was another set of numbers that also helped persuade Mr. Trump to shift gears on Sunday and abandon his goal of restoring normal life by Easter. Political advisers described for him polling that showed that voters overwhelmingly preferred to keep containment measures in place over sending people back to work prematurely. Those two realities — the dire threat to the country and the caution of the American public — proved decisive at a critical juncture in the response to the pandemic, his advisers said. (Baker and Haberman, 3/30) The Associated Press: How Dire Projections, Grim Images Dashed Trump's Easter Plan
The projections were grim: Even if the U.S. were to continue to do what it was doing, keeping the economy closed and most Americans in their homes, the coronavirus could leave 100,000 to 200,000 people dead and millions infected. And the totals would be far worse if the nation reopened. Those stark predictions grew even more tangible and harrowing when paired with televised images of body bags lined up at a New York City hospital not far from where President Donald Trump grew up in Queens. (Lemire, Colvin and Miller, 3/30) CNN: Model Cited By White House Says 82,000 People Could Die From Coronavirus By August, Even With Social Distancing
As of Monday morning, it estimates that more than 2,000 people could die each day in the United States in mid-April, when the virus is predicted to hit the country hardest. The model, which is updated regularly, predicts that 224,000 hospital beds -- 61,000 more than we'll have -- will be needed on April 15, when the US is estimated to reach "peak resource use." (Azad, 3/31) ABC News: What's Behind Trump's Striking Reversal On The Coronavirus Timeline?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's foremost infectious disease expert, said the president's decision came about after he had "intensive conversations" with members of the coronavirus task force. "We convinced him. He listened," Dr. Fauci told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos in a Monday interview on "Good Morning America." (Phelps and Gittleson, 3/30) The Washington Post: Both Public Health And Politics Played A Role In Trump's Coronavirus Decision
An undercurrent of political calculation has coursed through much of Trump's decision-making on the coronavirus. Despite taking some early modest steps, the president initially spent weeks downplaying the threat of the virus, in large part because he was worried about the effect on the economy. He has also clashed with Democratic governors, especially when he has felt they are being insufficiently appreciative of the federal government's relief efforts. And he first settled on an Easter timeline — which he has since extended to the end of April — in part because of an eagerness to reopen the economy sooner rather than later. (Parker, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 3/30) Reuters: Trump Says Coronavirus Guidelines May Get Tougher; 1 Million Americans Tested
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that federal social distancing guidelines might be toughened and travel restrictions with China and Europe would stay in place as he urged Americans to help fight the coronavirus with tough measures through April. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said more than 1 million Americans had been tested for the coronavirus, which he called a milestone. (Holland and Mason, 3/30) The Associated Press: White House Turns To Statistical Models For Virus Forecast
Like forecasters tracking a megastorm, White House officials are relying on statistical models to help predict the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and try to protect as many people as possible. The public could get its first close look at the Trump administration's own projections Tuesday at the daily briefing. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Neergaard, 3/30) NPR: CDC Director Says 1 In 4 May Have No Coronavirus Symptoms
When infectious pathogens have threatened the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been front and center. During the H1N1 flu of 2009, the Ebola crisis in 2014, and the mosquito-borne outbreak of Zika in 2015, the CDC has led the federal response. Yet the nation's public health agency, with its distinguished history of successfully fighting scourges such as polio and smallpox, has been conspicuously absent in recent weeks, as infections and deaths from the new coronavirus soared in the U.S. (Whitehead, 3/31) 11. Smart Thermometers Reveal That Social Distancing Measures Might Be Having Desired Effect Kinsa, a maker of internet-connected thermometers, has more than 1 million in circulation and has been getting up to 162,000 daily temperature readings since COVID-19 began spreading in the country. As of noon Wednesday, the company's live map showed fevers holding steady or dropping almost universally across the country. The New York Times: Restrictions Are Slowing Coronavirus Infections, New Data Suggest
Harsh measures, including stay-at-home orders and restaurant closures, are contributing to rapid drops in the numbers of fevers — a signal symptom of most coronavirus infections — recorded in states across the country, according to intriguing new data produced by a medical technology firm. At least 248 million Americans in at least 29 states have been told to stay at home. It had seemed nearly impossible for public health officials to know how effective this measure and others have been in slowing the coronavirus. (McNeil, 3/30) Los Angeles Times: Social Distancing Is Slowing The Coronavirus In Seattle. But It's Not Enough, Study Says
Social distancing is reducing transmission of the coronavirus in the Seattle area, but not enough to contain it, according to a new study. It estimated that by March 18, each newly infected person was transmitting the virus to an average of 1.4 other people — down from 2.7 in late February, before bans on gatherings and other measures were put in place. But to start reducing the growth in new cases, that figure would have to fall below one. (Read, 3/30) Politico: Bend It Like The Bay Area: Doctors See Flatter Curve After 2 Weeks Of Social Isolation
State leaders and doctors are cautiously optimistic that the Bay Area's early moves to lock down residents two weeks ago have prevented surges of coronavirus patients from overwhelming the region's health care capacity thus far. Six Bay Area counties were first in the country to adopt aggressive tactics with an enforceable March 16 order requiring residents to stay at home. Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly followed with a statewide order three days later restricting the state's 40 million residents from all but essential activities. (Kahn and Marinucci, 3/30) CNN: California Doctors 'Cautiously Hopeful' Early Shelter At Home Measures Are Working
Two weeks after San Francisco issued the country's first shelter-in-place order for residents to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus, hospital emergency rooms throughout the region appear to be seeing the early effects. "The surge we have been anticipating has not yet come," Dr. Jahan Fahimi, an emergency physician and medical director at the University of California, San Francisco, told CNN. "We're all kind of together holding our breaths." (Simon and Becker, 3/31) 12. Hospitals Granted 'Unprecedented Flexibility' As CMS Relaxes Safety Rules Around Treating Patients CMS rule changes involve what counts as a hospital bed, how closely certain medical professionals need to be supervised and what kinds of health care can be delivered at home. The move allows hospitals to use non-medical facilities like gymnasiums and hotels without the need for FEMA to get involved. Hospitals would be allowed to offer health care providers free meals, laundry or child care services, as well. The New York Times: Hospital Safety Rules Are Relaxed To Fight Coronavirus
The federal government announced Monday that it was relaxing many of its usual safety standards for hospitals so they could expand services to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is changing rules on what counts as a hospital bed; how closely certain medical professionals need to be supervised; and what kinds of health care can be delivered at home. These broad but temporary changes will last the length of the national emergency. "This is unprecedented flexibility," said Seema Verma, the administrator for the centers, in an interview. (Sanger-Katz, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: CMS Eases Requirements For Transferring Non-COVID-19 Infected Patients
During a White House Rose Garden event, CMS Administrator Seema Verma unveiled the hospitals without walls program. "Under the CMS's temporary new rules, hospitals will be able to transfer patients to outside facilities, such as ambulatory surgery centers, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, hotels, and dormitories, while still receiving hospital payments under Medicare. For example, a healthcare system can use a hotel to take care of patients needing less intensive care while using its inpatient beds for COVID-19 patients," CMS noted in a press release. (Weinstock, 3/30) Kaiser Health News: More Than 5,000 Surgery Centers Can Now Serve As Makeshift Hospitals During COVID-19 Crisis
The Trump administration cleared the way Monday to immediately use outpatient surgery centers, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, hotels and even dormitories as makeshift hospitals, health care centers or quarantine sites during the coronavirus crisis. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it is temporarily waiving a range of rules, thereby allowing doctors to care for more patients. (Szabo and Anthony, 3/30) In other news from CMS — Medscape: CMS To Front Medicare Payments To Physicians For 3 Months
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expanding a program of accelerated and advance provider payments normally used during natural disasters to supplement the cash flow of Medicare participating healthcare providers and suppliers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program expansion was made possible by the recently enacted $2. 2 trillion federal rescue package known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. (Terry, 3/30) Stateline: Coronavirus And The States: Medicaid Waivers Offer Flexibility; Top Officials Clash
The federal agency overseeing Medicaid has moved quickly to grant applications from 34 states to exempt them from several Medicaid rules in order to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. The states received exemptions from some or all of the same handful of rules. (Ollove, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: COVID-19 Could Slow Payers' Movement Toward Interoperability Compliance
The CMS' interoperability rule, released earlier this month, includes a host of deadlines related to data-sharing, spanning from later this year to 2022. One of the main provisions is that CMS-regulated insurers like those with Medicare Advantage and Medicaid managed care offerings will be required to get processes up and running so that beneficiaries can download claims and encounter data using third-party apps. To do that, insurers will have to implement application programming interfaces—better known as APIs—by January 2021, just over nine months from when the final rules were released. (Cohen, 3/27) 13. Governors Given Free Rein By Trump, But There's Only So Much They Can Do Without Federal Help "That is a Darwinian approach to federalism; that is states' rights taken to a deadly extreme," said Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor who served for eight years on the Homeland Security Task Force of the National Governors Association. Some view President Donald Trump's decision to let states take the lead as a way for him to avoid the worst of the criticism in the midst of the pandemic. Meanwhile, states who haven't issued shut-down orders are facing increasing pressure to do so. And media outlets look at how states are being impacted by the crisis. Politico: 'A Darwinian Approach To Federalism': Governors Prep For New Authority From Trump
The Trump White House is doubling down on a strategy to govern the coronavirus pandemic: pushing authority and responsibility for the response onto the states. As the virus spreads across the U.S. and new hot spots emerge in states such as Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan and Texas, senior administration aides have privately argued the coronavirus response is a test of local politicians' leadership and resourcefulness — with the White House acting as a backstop for the front-line state-by-state efforts. (Cook and Diamond, 3/31) PBS NewsHour: More U.S. States Lock Populations Down As COVID-19 Cases Climb
The coronavirus pandemic keeps burning through the U.S. population. The country now has 160,000 confirmed cases of the illness and 2,900 deaths -- and infections are still rising. In New York state, the nation's worst hot spot, Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to appeal for outside help. But health care systems across the country are straining to support the surge in patients. (Nawaz, 3/30) The Washington Post: Stay-Home Orders Issued In Maryland, Virginia, D.C. On Monday
Maryland, Virginia and the District on Monday barred residents from leaving home unless it's absolutely necessary, joining a handful of other states that have issued such orders in hopes of controlling the fast-spreading novel coronavirus. While all three jurisdictions had already banned most gatherings, closed businesses and schools, and urged people to stay home as much as possible, the orders made clear that compliance is no longer optional — and added fines and potential jail time for some violations. (Olivo, Wiggins and Schneider, 3/30) The Hill: Holdout Governors Face Pressure To Issue Stay-At-Home Orders
Holdout governors are coming under pressure to take more aggressive action as the coronavirus spreads to more areas of the country. Sweeping orders that residents stay at home and that nonessential businesses close have garnered attention, but a number of states have yet to take such statewide actions. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, President Trump's former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, issued warnings to Texas and Florida on Sunday. (Sullivan, 3/30) The New York Times: Florida Pastor Arrested After Defying Virus Orders
Before the Rev. Rodney Howard-Browne, the pastor of a Pentecostal megachurch in Florida, held two church services on Sunday — each filled with hundreds of parishioners — lawyers from the sheriff's office and local government pleaded with him to reconsider putting his congregation in danger of contracting the coronavirus. The pastor ignored them, proceeding with the services at the River at Tampa Bay Church and even providing bus transportation for members who needed a ride. (Mazzei, 3/30) Houston Chronicle: Hotze, Pastors Ask Texas Supreme Court To Rule Harris County Stay-At-Home Order Unconstitutional
A hardline conservative power broker and three area pastors filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court Monday arguing that Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo's stay-at-home order violates the Constitution by ordering the closure of churches and failing to define gun shops as "essential" businesses. The emergency petition for a writ of mandamus, filed by anti-LGBTQ Republican activist Steven Hotze and pastors Juan Bustamante, George Garcia and David Valdez, contends Hidalgo's order undercuts the First Amendment by limiting religious and worship services to video or teleconference calls. Pastors also may minister to congregants individually. (Scherer and Downen, 3/30) The New York Times: Days After A Funeral In A Georgia Town, Coronavirus 'Hit Like A Bomb'
It was an old-fashioned Southern funeral. There was a repast table crammed with casseroles, Brunswick stew, fried chicken and key lime cake. Andrew Jerome Mitchell, a retired janitor, was one of 10 siblings. They told stories, debated for the umpteenth time how he got the nickname Doorface. People wiped tears away, and embraced, and blew their noses, and belted out hymns. They laughed, remembering. It was a big gathering, with upward of 200 mourners overflowing the memorial chapel, so people had to stand outside. (Barry, 3/30) Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Hospitalizations Spike In California
While Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an urgent call Monday for retired healthcare workers and students nearing graduation to join in caring for an expected surge of coronavirus patients, officials scrambled to contain a rash of outbreaks in nursing homes and find space for thousands of new hospital beds. Authorities in Los Angeles County moved to isolate and quarantine patients at 11 assisted living facilities, up from just three on Friday. (Gutierrez, Dolan, Gerber and Shalby, 3/30) ABC News: New Orleans Doctor On How City Is Dealing With Becoming A COVID-19 Hot Spot
New Orleans has become a hot spot for the novel coronavirus in the U.S. just one month after its Mardi Gras celebrations drew over a million people to the streets to celebrate. "We understood, once COVID arrived, why it came when it did," Dr. Susan Gunn, who works in pulmonology and critical care at Ochsner Hospital, told ABC News. "Now, college kids are back from spring break, which may cause another spike." (Yang and Nalty, 3/30) NBC News: 11 Vets Die At Massachusetts Soldiers' Home; 5 Tested Positive For COVID-19
The superintendent of a veterans facility in Massachusetts was placed on leave Monday, the same day it was reported that 11 residents had died, including at least five who had tested positive for the coronavirus illness COVID-19. A state official said test results are pending for five others who died at the Soldiers' Home in Holyoke. The status of the 11th person who died was unknown. (Helsel, 3/31) ProPublica: He Was Ordered To Self-Isolate. He Didn't. Now He's Facing Criminal Charges.
In what may be the first case of its kind in Illinois, a man who walked into a busy gas station store after posting on Facebook that he had been ordered to self-isolate because of coronavirus symptoms now faces criminal charges of reckless conduct. The 36-year-old man, who had stopped in the store so his 4-year-old son could use the bathroom, was recognized by an employee who had gone to high school with him and saw his social media post. After the man left, the employee alerted her supervisor, who then called authorities. (Cohen, 3/30) NBC News: Las Vegas Officials Invited Homeless To Parking Lot After Coronavirus Closed Shelter
Officials are facing criticism for using a Las Vegas parking lot as a temporary shelter after a facility was closed when a homeless man tested positive for COVID-19 last week. Officials from Las Vegas and Clark County opened the temporary shelter at an event site lot a few miles north of the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday after determining that 500 people using Catholic Charities' overnight facility would have nowhere to sleep, said David Riggleman, the city's communications director. (Stelloh, 3/30) State House News Service: Baker: Expect Surge Of Coronavirus Patients In Mass. As Early As April 7
The surge in coronavirus cases long expected by public health officials could start to hit Massachusetts between April 7 and April 17, Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday, stressing the importance of taking steps to prepare additional health care capacity. With the state's testing apparatus up to thousands of patients per day, confirmed COVID-19 cases have recently been increasing at a rapid pace. Massachusetts had 5,752 cases as of Monday and 56 deaths attributable to the disease. (Lisinski, 3/30) The Hill: Brooklyn Man Accused Of Lying About Hoarding Medical Supplies, Coughing At Officers
A Brooklyn man has been accused of lying about hoarding medical supplies and of coughing on police officers, officials announced Monday. Baruch Feldheim, 43, was arrested over his alleged large supply and illegal sale of surgical masks, medical gowns and other medical supplies. He also was charged with assault for allegedly coughing on FBI agents while saying he had COVID-19, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced in a release. (Coleman, 3/30) Detroit Free Press: 2 Of Detroit's Homeless Positive For COVID-19 As City Adds 300+ Beds, Testing
Two people in the city's homeless shelter system have tested positive for COVID-19 and are being separated with 27 others at a new facility opened amid the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.Detroit has added about 325 shelter beds for homeless people, rooms for isolation and launched a formal testing program for symptomatic members of the homeless community in an attempt to quell the spread, Donald Rencher, director of the Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department, said Monday. (Moran, 3/30) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Coronavirus Testing Could Double; Army Scouts Locations
As the number of coronavirus cases in the state continues to climb, Wisconsin is hoping to double its testing capacity through a new partnership with laboratories across the state. Gov. Tony Evers announced Monday that the state is launching a public-private partnership with Exact Sciences, Marshfield Clinic Health System, Promega and UW Health. The goal is to share knowledge, resources and technology with the Wisconsin Clinical Lab Network in an effort to bring additional testing capacity. (Spicuzza, 3/30) Boston Globe: 8 Boston Homeless People Test Positive For Coronavirus
The novel coronavirus has spread to Boston's homeless community, with eight people testing positive for COVID-19 in recent days, medical officials said Monday. Of the eight who tested positive, five spent time at local shelters in recent days, said Dr. Denise De Las Nueces, medical director the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. (Coleman, 3/30) Boston Globe: Ordered To Close And Excluded From Federal Aid, Marijuana Entrepreneurs Staring Down Insolvency
To open their businesses, Massachusetts marijuana entrepreneurs already had to navigate a long and expensive obstacle course, overcoming zoning restrictions, hostile neighbors, municipal demands, a plodding state licensing process, and a scarcity of financing. Now, small cannabis companies are warning that Governor Charlie Baker's decision to shutter recreational marijuana facilities until at least April 7 amid the coronavirus pandemic — while leaving medical marijuana operations and liquor stores open as "essential" services — could force them to give up altogether. (Adams, 3/30) 14. 'Every Ventilator Is A Life': GM Shrugs Off Trump's Attacks; Ford, GE Vow To Produce 50,000 Ventilators In 100 Days Private companies rush to produce ventilators that hospitals and states say are desperately needed, despite President Donald Trump's attacks on General Motors. Ford says the simplified ventilator design it will use to produce thousands of ventilators has been cleared by the FDA. The New York Times: Inside G.M.'s Race To Build Ventilators, Before Trump's Attack
While much of the U.S. economy has ground to a halt because of the coronavirus outbreak, several dozen workers in orange vests and hard hats were hauling heavy equipment on Sunday at a General Motors plant in Kokomo, Ind. The crew was part of a crash effort to make tens of thousands of ventilators, the lifesaving machines that keep critically ill patients breathing. The machines are in desperate demand as hospitals face the prospect of dire shortages. New York State alone may need 30,000 or more. (Boudette and Jacobs, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: GM Hustles To Pump Out Ventilators To Fight Coronavirus
When President Trump last week criticized General Motors Co.'s GM -0.28% effort to produce ventilators, GM executives were flabbergasted. They felt the company was being unfairly targeted by the president, say people familiar with their thinking. GM had begun collaborating with a ventilator company a couple of weeks earlier. It had mobilized more than 1,000 employees and nearly 100 auto suppliers to start making the machines, which can be used to help patients with the disease caused by the new coronavirus. "We won't let it deter us," GM global manufacturing chief Gerald Johnson said in an interview over the weekend. "Every ventilator is a life." (Colias, 3/30) Reuters: Ford, GE To Produce 50,000 Ventilators In 100 Days
Ford Motor Co said on Monday it will produce 50,000 ventilators over the next 100 days at a plant in Michigan in cooperation with General Electric's healthcare unit, and can then build 30,000 per month as needed to treat patients afflicted with the coronavirus. Ford said the simplified ventilator design, which is licensed by GE Healthcare from Florida-based Airon Corp and has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, can meet the needs of most COVID-19 patients and relies on air pressure without the need for electricity. (Carey, 3/30) CNN: Ford To Build 50,000 Ventilators In 100 Days
The Airon Model A-E ventilator that Ford will produce operates on air pressure alone and requires no electricity. Airon currently makes three of the ventilators per day at its factory in Melbourne, Florida. Ford's plant will produce the ventilators around the clock with three shifts of workers, Ford said, and it will make 7,200 of the devices per week. (Valdes-Dapena and Wattles, 3/30) The New York Times: Trump's Virus Defense Is Often An Attack, And The Target Is Often A Woman
As he confronts a global pandemic, President Trump's attention has also been directed at a more familiar foe: those he feels are challenging him, and particularly women. "Always a mess with Mary B.," Mr. Trump tweeted last week, attacking the female chief executive of General Motors, Mary T. Barra, as he accused the company of dragging its feet on producing ventilators. "As usual with 'this' General Motors, things just never seem to work out," he wrote, "this" G.M. apparently referring to the one led by the first female chief executive of an American auto manufacturer. (Karni, 3/30) 15. A N.Y. Hospital Tells Doctors They'll Be Supported In Decisions To 'Withhold Futile Intubations' Amid Ventilator Shortages Doctors have been bracing themselves to cope with the looming threat of having to ration care because of a lack of ventilators and other medical equipment. As other New York hospitals split ventilators between two patients, NYU Langone Health has started telling doctors to "think more critically" about who gets care. In other news on equipment shortages: how taxpayer-funded low-cost ventilators ended up overseas, innovators who are rising to solve the problem, and tariffs that may be hurting the country's efforts to fight pandemic. The Wall Street Journal: NYU Langone Tells ER Doctors To 'Think More Critically' About Who Gets Ventilators
NYU Langone Health, one of the nation's top academic medical centers, told emergency-room doctors that they have "sole discretion" to place patients on ventilators and institutional backing to "withhold futile intubations." A March 28 email from Robert Femia, who heads the New York health center's department of emergency medicine, underscored the life-or-death decisions placed on the shoulders of bedside physicians as they treat increasing numbers of coronavirus patients with a limited supply of ventilators. New York state guidelines, established in 2015, recommend that hospitals appoint a triage officer or committee—someone other than the attending physician—to decide who gets a ventilator when rationing is necessary. (Ramachandran and Palazzolo, 3/30) CNN: NYU Langone Tells Emergency Doctors To Consider Who Gets Intubated, WSJ Reports
"In Emergency Medicine, we do not have the luxury of time, data, or committees to help with our critical triage decisions. Senior hospital leadership recognizes this and supports us to use our best clinical judgment," the email from Dr. Robert Fernia said, according to The Journal. "For those patients who you feel intubation will not change their ultimate clinical outcome (for example cardiac arrests, some chronic disease patients at end of life, etc) you will have support in your decision making at the department and institutional level to withhold futile intubations," the email continued. (del Valle, 3/31) Stateline: States, Hospitals Grapple With Medical Rationing
State and local health departments across the country have developed detailed emergency health plans in recent years, often in response to major natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, or outbreaks of diseases, such as the avian and swine flus. Many of these plans, such as those in Minnesota and New York, included guidelines for rationing care in the event of shortages of medical supplies or personnel. Federal health agencies have not issued guidelines on how to make such decisions. For example, states say they don't understand the criteria the federal government has been using in allocating limited medical resources from the U.S. stockpile. (Ollove, 3/31) ProPublica: Taxpayers Paid Millions To Design A Low-Cost Ventilator For A Pandemic. Instead, The Company Is Selling Versions Of It Overseas.
Five years ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tried to plug a crucial hole in its preparations for a global pandemic, signing a $13.8 million contract with a Pennsylvania manufacturer to create a low-cost, portable, easy-to-use ventilator that could be stockpiled for emergencies. This past September, with the design of the new Trilogy Evo Universal finally cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, HHS ordered 10,000 of the ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile at a cost of $3,280 each. But as the pandemic continues to spread across the globe, there is still not a single Trilogy Evo Universal in the stockpile. (Callahan, Rotella and Golden, 3/30) The New York Times: Hive Mind Of Makers Rises To Meet Pandemic
It started with a fanciful email from one self-described science geek to another. "Hey, we should make a ventilator," Dr. Chris Zahner, a University of Texas pathologist and former NASA engineer, wrote to Aisen Caro Chacin, an artist and medical device designer, after he learned about Italian hospitals struggling to treat the crush of coronavirus patients gasping for air. Two and a half days later, Dr. Zahner and Dr. Chacin were testing out their prototype at the university's medical fabrication lab in Galveston: a simple air pump that uses ordinary blood pressure cuffs, car valves sold by auto parts stores and items found in most hospital supply closets. (Jacobs and Abrams, 3/30) The New York Times: D.I.Y. Coronavirus Solutions Are Gaining Steam
There are moments when Gui Cavalcanti feels like he woke up in a dystopian universe — a guy with no background in medical or disaster response, suddenly leading an international effort on Facebook to design medical equipment to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, the gravest public-health threat of our time. "I have never worked so hard for a job I didn't want in the first place," Mr. Cavalcanti wrote in a text, as part of a recent interview. Essential medical supplies, from exam gloves to ventilators, are in short supply. (Petri, 3/31) Reuters: Coronavirus Shows U.S. Too Dependent On Cheap Medical Imports, USTR Says
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday said the United States would seek to promote more domestic manufacturing of key medical supplies in light of the strategic vulnerabilities laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic. (3/30) WBUR: How Tariffs May Be Impacting Fight Against Coronavirus
The trade war with China includes about $5 billion worth of tariffs on medical products from the country. And while states across the country are struggling to get medical supplies they need to fight the coronavirus, President Trump confirmed on Friday that reports he's considering pulling back on those tariffs are not true. (Hobson, 3/30) 16. 'Please Come Help Us': States, Hospitals Call On Retired Doctors, Med Students And Workers From Cold Spots For Relief It's not just equipment and gear where there are shortages: doctors and other health providers are being stretched thin, as well. To help alleviate some the strain, states and hospitals are asking for help from places that are not in crisis yet, along with calling on retirees and med students. Meanwhile, a lack of protective gear continues to endanger the workers. The Wall Street Journal: To Fight Coronavirus, States Call On Retired Medical Staff And New Graduates
Dr. Lay is among thousands of retired and inactive doctors and nurses who are returning to the field to help as the number of coronavirus patients surges, inundating health-care facilities across the U.S. In heavily hit New York, 76,000 health-care workers, many of them retired, had volunteered to help as of Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. In addition, some medical schools are starting to graduate students early so they can jump into the fray. Dr. Lay is working to get approved to also do telemedicine consultations, but said he is willing to do anything. "Heck, I can take out the garbage," he said. Though he has spent time away from the field, he said: "An injured soldier is better than no soldier at all." (De Avila and Chen, 3/31) Stat: Volunteer Network Tries To Help Health Care Workers Who Have 'Helped Us'
It started with a need: With the closure of schools and a shortage of household supplies in local stores, health care professionals responding to the Covid-19 pandemic were struggling to support their families. In Minneosta, a couple of medical students came up with an idea. Why couldn't they help try to relieve the burden? The result was a volunteer network throughout the state that matches medical students with health care workers in need of child care, pet-sitting, or just help with errands like grocery runs. (Zia, 3/31) Los Angeles Times: Health Corps For Coronavirus Help Created In California
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an urgent call for healthcare workers to join the state in caring for an expected surge of COVID-19 patients while announcing an executive order to expand the services medical professionals can perform in their jobs. Newsom said he believes the state can add 37,000 healthcare workers by asking recently retired providers, those in the process of getting a medical license in the state and students enrolled in medical or nursing schools to apply to the newly created California Health Corps. (Gutierrez, 3/30) WBUR: Cuomo Makes Plea To Medical Workers Nationwide: 'Please Come Help Us In New York'
More than 1,200 people have now died of the coronavirus in New York, but the worst of the outbreak has yet to arrive, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.Cuomo said the coronavirus is overtaxing the state's health care workers. He asked for the assistance of medical volunteers from other parts of the country as the pandemic continues to devastate New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. (Allyn, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Redeploy Specialists To COVID-19 Front Lines
As the pandemic sweeps the U.S., prominent health systems have rolled out plans to redeploy specialists who don't typically treat infectious diseases to care for patients battling the novel coronavirus. But nowhere has this shift taken on the same urgency as in New York City, which as of Monday morning had more than 36,000 COVID-19 cases. (Bannow and Castellucci, 3/30) Kaiser Health News: Already Taxed Health Care Workers Not 'Immune' From Layoffs And Less Pay
Just three weeks ago, Dr. Kathryn Davis worried about the coronavirus, but not about how it might affect her group of five OB-GYNs who practice at a suburban hospital outside Boston. "In medicine we think we're relatively immune from the economy," Davis said. "People are always going to get sick; people are always going to need doctors." Then, two weeks ago, she watched her practice revenue drop 50% almost overnight after Massachusetts officials told doctors and hospitals to stop performing elective tests and procedures. For Davis, that meant no more non-urgent gynecological visits and screenings. (Bebinger, 3/30) Boston Globe: For Patients And Workers Alike, Home Health Visits Fraught With Fears Of Coronavirus
Those who need in-home care, ranging from housekeeping chores and help bathing to vital health services, are afraid of being infected by workers who travel from home to home. Workers, too, feel vulnerable as they worry about catching and transmitting the virus to their own families while trying to protect themselves and their clients amid a national shortage of masks. (Murphy and Weisman, 3/30) ABC News: Doctor Who Shares Practice With Virus-Stricken Husband Says 'Commitment' To Patients Keeps Her Working
Dr. Luz Ares, a primary care physician who shares a private practice with her husband, Dr. Carlos Gonzalez, said he thought his allergies were acting up when he first began feeling symptoms of the novel coronavirus. It's been 10 days since Gonzalez was admitted into the hospital for COVID-19 on the eve of their 38th wedding anniversary and his 66th birthday, Ares said. But with her husband in stable condition, Ares said she still has a "commitment" to caring for her patients in Elmhurst, New York, the so-called "ground zero" of COVID-19 in New York City. (Rivas, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Prompts Hospitals To Find Ways To Reuse Masks Amid Shortages
Hospitals and research groups are racing to roll out new ways to reuse face masks safely, an effort that could protect front-line workers grappling with shortages while also creating a potential path to reducing medical waste long term. As the coronavirus spreads, demand for N95 respirators is far outstripping supply, endangering the lives of health workers. The masks, which capture 95% of air particles when properly fitted, are a crucial defense against the virus but are typically used just once. (Chaudhuri, 3/31) The Hill: Shortage Of Medical Gear Sparks Bidding War Among States
A shortage of life-saving medical gear has pitted states against each other and the federal government as they scramble to try to purchase the medical equipment needed to fight COVID-19. Governors have been pleading with the Trump administration to take charge and make sure states can access enough equipment, but President Trump has been reluctant to do so, urging states to order their own personal protective equipment. Experts and governors said the lack of a central coordinating authority has turned the medical supply market into a free-for-all. (Weixel, 3/30) NBC News: 'So Many Patients Dying': Doctors Say NYC Public Hospitals Reeling From Coronavirus Cases
A doctor at a major public hospital in New York City described having worn a single N95 mask, a critical tool in protection from the coronavirus, for an entire week. Normally, the Brooklyn doctor would change it after every visit with a patient. Colleague after colleague, including nurses and residents, have been falling sick with the virus. Patients were coming in for unrelated health issues and suddenly testing positive for coronavirus after coming to the hospital. (Silva, 3/30) NBC News: No Evidence For Trump's Suggestion That Masks Are 'Going Out The Back Door' Of New York Hospitals
President Donald Trump again questioned the rate at which a hospital in New York is using medical supplies, suggesting that theft was why the unnamed facility needs 300,000 masks a week. The president claimed Monday that a distributor told him that a New York hospital's mask purchases were far too high to reflect actual need. "There's only a couple of things that could happen — is it going out the back door? And I've reported it to the city and let the city take a look at it. But when you go to 10,000 masks to 300,000 masks... there's something going on," Trump said during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House. (Timm, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Agency Auctioned Off Small Lots Of N95 Masks In February
As the coronavirus was emerging as an international concern, a U.S. government agency sold 80 cases of protective masks that are now in high demand, though it canceled another sale weeks later as the nation was bracing for a domestic outbreak, reserving them for government use. The quantity of masks sold by the GSA was a tiny fraction of what is needed nationwide. Because of high demand, officials around the country are scrambling for additional masks, with some medical workers having to re-use them due to the shortage. (Kendall, 3/30) 17. Funding Cuts Come As Gut-Punch To New York Hospitals Stretched To The Limits With Surge Of Patients "During a time I need to commit all the energy I have to really save lives and expand access and not skimp on resources, now I have to worry about how we're going to continue to pay our bills," said Dr. David Perlstein, CEO of St. Barnabas Hospital. In other hospital news: rural areas worry about already tight resources, outbreak deniers film activity outside facilities, White House asks for data on patients, cities and states scramble to set up overflow locations, and more. The New York Times: N.Y. Hospitals Face $400 Million In Cuts Even As Virus Battle Rages
For the last few weeks, Dr. David Perlstein has been scrambling to find more beds and ventilators, knowing that the coronavirus outbreak, which has filled his Bronx hospital with more than 100 patients, will undoubtedly get much worse. Then a week ago, Dr. Perlstein, the chief executive officer of St. Barnabas Hospital, was given some disturbing news by a state senator: His hospital could soon lose millions of dollars in government funding. (Ferre-Sadurni and McKinley, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: New York Healthcare Workers Say They've Never Faced A Medical Emergency Of This Scale Before
New York's battle with COVID-19 has brought the region's hospital system to its knees.The state is asking hospitals to double their bed counts and is desperately trying to find 10 times as many ventilators as they currently have. Convention centers and college dorms have been enlisted to make room for an anticipated surge of patients. Doctors and nurses have turned to social media to beg for the protective gear that will keep them from becoming patients themselves. (Lamantia, 3/30) NBC News: Coronavirus Strains Rural Hospitals 'To The Absolute Limit'
Brad Huerta found himself vacuuming the halls of his rural Idaho hospital last week. As the CEO of Lost Rivers Medical Center, in Arco, Idaho, it's not his normal job, nor is it normal for the maintenance staff to be directing traffic of patients coming in with symptoms outside, or having the emergency department doctors take on extra shifts to fill in as nurses. But rural hospitals trying to stay afloat in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic are a long way from normal. Often underfunded, understaffed and undersupplied, they're now facing the looming impacts of COVID-19. (Shivaram, 3/30) NBC News: Coronavirus Deniers Take Aim At Hospitals As Pandemic Grows
On Saturday, a video taken outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York went viral, showing a quiet scene in an attempt to counter the idea that the coronavirus pandemic has strained some hospitals. The video, taken by former Fox News commentator Todd Starnes, jump-started a conspiracy theory that resulted in a trending hashtag and millions of video views — all of which pushed the idea that the pandemic has been overblown by public health organizations and the media. A day later, a different video of the same hospital went viral on Facebook and Twitter. It showed bodies being loaded onto an 18-wheeler outside the same hospital. (Zadrozny and Collins, 3/30) ABC News: White House Asking Hospitals To Email Them Data On Coronavirus Patients
Vice President Mike Pence has taken the extraordinary step of asking the nation's nearly 4,700 hospitals to submit via email daily updates to a federal inbox on how many patients have been tested for novel coronavirus, as well as information on bed capacity and requirements for other supplies. The request from Pence to hospital administrators was a stunning admission by the government that it still doesn't have a handle on the scope of the fast-moving virus and what it needs to combat it. (Flaherty, 3/30) San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Hospitals Face Huge Challenge: Stopping Spread Of Coronavirus Within Their Own Walls
As California hospitals brace for a surge of patients sickened by the new coronavirus, they must confront one of their biggest challenges: stopping the spread of the virus within their own walls. If history is any guide, however, it will not be easy. In recent years, even some of the state's best hospitals have faced difficulties curbing infections in their facilities. (Dizikes and Palomino, 3/30) Boston Globe: State Hunting For 1,000 Nursing Home Beds To Treat Recovering Coronavirus Patients
State officials Monday were scrambling to find about 1,000 skilled nursing beds for recovering COVID-19 patients across Massachusetts, raising the possibility of relocating hundreds of nursing home residents in a first-in-the-nation plan to relieve pressure on hospitals bracing for a surge of new patients. The goal, Governor Charlie Baker said at a news briefing Monday afternoon, is to "ensure that we have the right kinds of beds in the right places to serve people once the surge arrives." (Weisman and Krantz, 3/30) Detroit Free Press: TCF Center To Become A Coronavirus Field Hospital, But Staffing A Concern
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has issued an executive order designed to help ease what is expected to be a serious shortage of health care professionals to staff the 900-bed field hospital that will be created at TCF Center in Detroit.When the transformation of the center from its status as the state's largest convention center to a field hospital is complete, the beds and medical equipment will all be in place. (Gray, 3/30) Detroit Free Press: Henry Ford Health Uses Mobile Unit For Newborn Appointments
Henry Ford Health System is expanding options for new parents as metro Detroit hospitals fill with novel coronavirus patients. The Department of Pediatrics at the hospital announced its mobile medical unit will be utilized for newborn follow-up appointments for babies discharged from Henry Ford Health Systems or needing an urgent appointment. (Spelbring, 3/30) Las Vegas Review-Journal: Southern Nevada Health District Eyes Separate Facility For Coronavirus Patients
The Southern Nevada Health District has called an emergency meeting of its board on Tuesday to consider allocating $3 million for an isolation facility for people who test positive for the coronavirus. Board of Health Chair Scott Black said the facility would be a safe place to isolate for people who test positive for the virus but don't need to be hospitalized. (Hynes and Apgar, 3/30) 18. Pelosi's Priorities In Next Stimulus Bill: Shoring Up Health System, Protecting Front Line Workers, Investing In Infrastructure Congress just passed a record-breaking $2.2 trillion stimulus package, but House Democrats are already planning for phase 4: "Our first bills were about addressing the emergency. The third bill was about mitigation. The fourth bill would be about recovery. Emergency, mitigation, recovery," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Republicans are less sure that another massive relief package is needed and are adopting a wait-and-see attitude. Meanwhile, a top Pentagon watchdog is tapped to oversee the distribution of the trillions of dollars in stimulus. The New York Times: Pelosi Floats New Stimulus Plan: Rolling Back SALT Cap
As lawmakers prepare for another round of fiscal stimulus to address economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the next package include a retroactive rollback of a tax change that hurt high earners in states like New York and California. A full rollback of the limit on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, would provide a quick cash infusion in the form of increased tax rebates to an estimated 13 million American households — nearly all of which earn at least $100,000 a year. (Tankersley and Cochrane, 3/30) Politico: Pelosi Aims To Move Fast On Next Rescue Package
"Our first bills were about addressing the emergency. The third bill was about mitigation. The fourth bill would be about recovery. Emergency, mitigation, recovery," Pelosi said on a conference call. "I think our country is united in not only wanting to address our immediate needs — emergency, mitigation, and the assault on our lives and livelihoods — but also, how we recover in a very positive way." But Democrats' approach could put them on a collision course with senior Republicans, who say they are very much in wait-and-see mode when it comes to another potential multi-trillion-dollar bill and are warning Pelosi not to try to jam the Senate with a progressive plan. (Ferris, Desiderio and Levine, 3/30) Reuters: U.S. Congress Eyes Next Steps In Coronavirus Response
Democrats who control the House of Representatives were discussing boosting payments to low- and middle-income workers, likely to be among the most vulnerable as companies lay off and furlough millions of workers, as well as eliminating out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus medical treatment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would work with Republicans to craft a bill that could also provide added protections for front-line workers and substantially more support for state and local governments to deal with one of the largest public health crises in U.S. history. (Morgan and Cornwell, 3/30) The Hill: Democrats Eye Major Infrastructure Component In Next Coronavirus Package
As an additional component, Democrats are also eyeing new funding for water, broadband, schools and other infrastructure systems that have proven insufficient, they said, in the face of the current coronavirus crisis. "There are infrastructure needs that our country has that directly relate to how we are proceeding with the coronavirus," Pelosi said on a conference call with reporters. "And we would like to see in what comes next something that has always been nonpartisan, bipartisan, and that is an infrastructure piece that takes us into the future."(Lillis, 3/30) Politico: Pentagon Watchdog Tapped To Lead Committee Overseeing $2 Trillion Coronavirus Package
The nation's top government watchdogs on Monday appointed Glenn Fine, the acting inspector general for the Pentagon, to lead the newly created committee that oversees implementation of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill signed by President Donald Trump last week. Fine will lead a panel of fellow inspectors general, dubbed the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and command an $80 million budget meant to "promote transparency and support oversight" of the massive disaster response legislation. His appointment was made by a fellow committee of inspectors general, assigned by the new law to pick a chairman of the committee. (Cheney, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: Government To Begin Sending Stimulus Payments In The Next Three Weeks
The government will begin sending out stimulus payments to households in the next three weeks, and will distribute them automatically, with no action required for most people, officials said Monday. But some seniors and others who typically don't file returns will need to submit a simple tax return to receive the economic-impact payments, the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service said in an announcement. (McKinnon, 3/30) The Associated Press: Conditions For Companies That Get Virus Aid: Room For Abuse?
A $500 billion federal aid package for companies and governments hurt by the coronavirus includes rules aimed at ensuring that the taxpayer money is used in ways that would help sustain the economy. But questions are being raised about whether those guardrails will prevent the kinds of abuses that have marked some corporate bailouts of the past. In return for the emergency loans, which could be spun by the Federal Reserve into up to $4.5 trillion, companies will face temporary limits on what they can pay executives. (Gordon, 3/30) The Associated Press: Urgent Question From Small Businesses: When Will Aid Arrive?
When will the money arrive? That's the urgent question for small business owners who have been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak. They're awaiting help from the $2 trillion rescue package signed into law Friday. But with bills fast coming due, no end to business closings and an economy that's all but shut down, owners are worried about survival. (Rosenberg, 3/30) Kaiser Health News: COVID-19 Bonanza: Stimulus Hands Health Industry Billions Not Directly Related To Pandemic
The coronavirus stimulus package Congress rushed out last week to help the nation's hospitals and health care networks hands the industry billions of dollars in windfall subsidies and other spending that has little to do with defeating the COVID-19 pandemic. The $2 trillion legislation, which President Donald Trump signed Friday, includes more than $100 billion in emergency funds to compensate hospitals and other health care providers for lost revenue and other costs associated with COVID-19. (Schulte, 3/30) Politico: Congress Eyes Avoiding Washington For At Least A Month
After passing the largest economic relief bill in history, Congress is now considering staying away from Washington for a month or more as the coronavirus makes even the routine act of legislating a dangerous risk for new transmissions. Officially, Congress is scheduled to come back on April 20 as lawmakers try to avoid traveling and congregating amid the raging crisis and as they plot a potential fourth phase of economic relief. (Everett, Caygle and Bresnahan, 3/30) And in other Capitol Hill news — ProPublica: Sen. Burr Faces DOJ Investigation For Selling A Fortune In Stocks Right Before The Market Crashed
Federal authorities are scrutinizing Sen. Richard Burr's stock sell-off before the market crash triggered by the coronavirus outbreak, CNN reported on Sunday. The news comes less than two weeks after ProPublica and the Center for Responsive Politics reported that Burr, a Republican from North Carolina, unloaded between $628,000 and $1.72 million of his holdings on Feb. 13 in 33 separate transactions, a significant portion of his total portfolio. The sales came soon after he offered public assurances that the government was ready to battle the coronavirus. (Faturechi, 3/30) 19. Democrats Had A Battle Plan Ready Against Trump For 2020 Election. Now It's Likely Moot. President Donald Trump's reelection chances are likely to rest upon his response to the pandemic, and there's not much Democrats can do other than wait and watch. Issues like gun control, climate change, immigration and other hot-button topics are likely to fall to the wayside in face of the pandemic. Meanwhile, Trump touts his own performance to voters as he tries to sell a message that he's handled the crisis well. Politico: How Coronavirus Blew Up The Plan To Take Down Trump
For many Democrats, it's the election of a lifetime. Yet the question preoccupying the party for several days this month was whether their presumptive presidential nominee, Joe Biden, could get the webcast working in his rec room. It was a telling obsession, one that revealed the extent of the party's anxiety as it comes to a nail-biting conclusion: Despite all the arguments Democrats have crafted and all the evidence they have amassed against Donald Trump, his reelection is likely to rise or fall on his handling of the coronavirus crisis and its fallout alone. (Siders, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Democratic Groups Adjust To Coronavirus, Spend Big To Beat Trump
Well-funded Democratic nonprofits and super PACs are adjusting their messaging and tactics in response to the coronavirus pandemic as they pour tens of millions of dollars into ad campaigns and digital platforms in an attempt to beat President Trump in November. The left-leaning groups have spent months polling, interviewing voters in battleground states and building digital outreach operations to avoid any missteps from 2016. Now that the pandemic has shut down traditional canvassing and campaigning, the groups say they are leaning more on that digital infrastructure. (Parti and Day, 3/30) The Hill: Trump Seeks To Sell Public On His Coronavirus Response
President Trump is aggressively seeking to sell the public on his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, a push slammed by critics for presenting a rosier picture than reality. At the White House's daily press briefings, Trump has taken credit for doing a "hell of a job" and fashioned himself as a wartime president against a backdrop of steadily escalating coronavirus cases and deaths. (Chalfant and Samuels, 3/30) The Washington Post Fact Checker: New Trump Video Offers More Spin Than 'Hope'
President Trump was slow to respond to the emergence of a novel coronavirus, often reassuring Americans that the situation was under control. When confirmed cases and deaths started to spike at the end of March, his presidential election campaign released a video intended to show Trump getting the job done and earning bipartisan praise. But as always with these campaign videos, the little snippets can be misleading. So let's deconstruct this ad. (Kessler, 3/31) ABC News: 'We Have Some Form Of Hope': Why Some Democrats Are Giving Trump High Marks On Coronavirus
In the middle of a crisis of unrivaled magnitude, President Trump is finding himself on new terrain in more ways than one after a new ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed a small bump of support in the president's approval among Democrats - up 13 points. While that 13-point rise was only to a meager 17%, it does, perhaps, represent a significant movement of some Democrats behind the president with those Americans looking beyond political polarization to score his performance as the coronavirus grips the country. (Karson and Cunningham, 3/30) And in the states — Politico: States Struggle To Prepare For Voting During A Pandemic
Time is running out to allow millions of Americans to vote this fall without fear of contracting the novel coronavirus. Mail voting — the voting method that best preserves social distancing — is infrequently used in many states, and those that don't have extensive mail voting might be unable to implement systems before November. And while 33 states, including most 2020 presidential battlegrounds, already allow any voter to cast a ballot by mail who wants to, a number of those states aren't prepared to handle the crush of mailed-in ballots that could be coming their way in November. (Montellaro, 3/31) 20. Although Some Cities Have Banned Evictions, Advocates See Need For More Extreme Measures The idea of a rent strike, where rent is waived instead of delayed, is gaining momentum on social media platforms as millions face the first of the month without any way to meet their bills. Meanwhile, a spate of major companies announced furloughs on Monday in the latest sign of the country's economic distress from the crisis. The Associated Press: Rent Strike Idea Gaining Steam During Coronavirus Crisis
With millions of people suddenly out of work and rent due at the first of the month, some tenants are vowing to go on a rent strike until the coronavirus pandemic subsides. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis are among many cities that have temporarily banned evictions, but advocates for the strike are demanding that rent payments be waived, not delayed, for those in need during the crisis. The rent strike idea has taken root in parts of North America and as far away as London. (Salter, 3/30) The Hill: Majority Of Young Americans Support Universal Basic Income, Public Healthcare: Poll
A majority of younger Americans support both a universal basic income established by the federal government and some sort of public healthcare option, according to a new survey. The poll from University of Chicago's GenForward Survey Project indicates that 51 percent of Americans between the ages of 18-36 support a federally-funded basic income of $1,000 per month for all U.S residents, a plan touted by businessman Andrew Yang during his 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Younger Americans also want to see the current U.S. healthcare system expanded at the federal level, the poll finds, with 35 percent supporting the creation of a so-called "public option," or a public healthcare plan that would compete with private insurers. Another 17 percent said that the U.S. healthcare system should be replaced with a single-payer "Medicare for All" system. (Bowden, 3/30) The Washington Post: Furloughs At Macy's, Gannett And Gap Signal Mounting Economic Distress
Major companies signaled a new wave of economic distress Monday, sending hundreds of thousands of workers home without pay, as the Trump administration scrambled to get stimulus money to Americans already feeling the weight of unpaid bills. Macy's announced it will furlough most of its 125,000 workers as sales evaporated with the shuttering of 775 stores. Kohl's and Gap also announced furloughs of about 80,000 each. Media giant Gannett announced furloughs for newspaper employees who earn more than $38,000 a year and pay cuts across the company. (Bhattarai, Siegel and Stein, 3/30) The New York Times: Some In N.Y.C. Can't Afford To Quarantine. So They Brave The Subway
As the coronavirus pandemic has all but shut down New York City, its subway — an emblem of urban overcrowding — has become almost unrecognizable, with overall ridership down 87 percent. But even as officials crack down on gatherings in New York, removing hoops from basketball courts and sending the police to break up parties, subway stations in poorer neighborhoods are still bustling, as if almost nothing has changed. (Goldbaum and Cook, 3/30) PBS NewsHour: How The Coronavirus' Economic Toll Could Also Affect Public Health
The novel coronavirus pandemic has already begun to take its toll on the U.S. economy as businesses have shuttered, millions of Americans have been laid off and large swaths of the country have been told to shelter in place. The financial implications are clear, though their full extent won't be known until the economy begins the task of getting back on its feet. But less clear are the public health consequences of the downturn. (Frazee, 3/30) New Orleans Times-Picayune: How A New Orleans Restaurant Group Pivoted To Healthcare, Saving Jobs, Serving Rising Need
Lepre is still working because one New Orleans hospitality business found a way to pivot from a sector that has collapsed during the coronavirus crisis to one where demand is exploding, digital health care known as telehealth. It could serve as a blueprint for others seeking an economic lifeline as the pandemic disrupts the economy. (McNulty, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Creates An Epidemic Of Scams
Danita Sienknecht was on a car ride with her husband one recent morning when a stranger called her with an outlandish offer. If she wired him $4,000 overnight, someone would show up at her door the next morning with two doses of a coveted coronavirus vaccine she knew doesn't exist. The caller, who knew her name, said he was at a Holiday Inn not far from her southwest Missouri home and told the 84-year-old to send the money right away. He called her 29 more times when she refused to call back. (Gurman, 3/30) 21. With Home Deliveries Soaring, Instacart, Amazon Workers Demand Better Protections, Pay, Sick Leave Millions of Americans are ordered to stay in place and many rely on deliveries for essential items like groceries. Many of the workers at Instacart and Amazon placing those orders are concerned about their own health and are asking for increased protection, additional pay and sick leave. Some are walking off the job. The New York Times: Coronavirus Prompts Instacart And Amazon Strikes Over Health Concerns
Signaling both growing anxiety and growing solidarity brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, workers in a variety of occupations across the country are protesting what they see as inadequate safety measures and insufficient pay for the risks they are confronting. On Monday, a contingent of workers who fulfill orders for the grocery delivery service Instacart stayed off the job, demanding greater pay and better access to paid leave and disinfectant. A group of workers walked off the job at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island on Monday, and a sickout called by Whole Foods Market workers is set for Tuesday. (Scheiber and Conger, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: Some Instacart And Amazon Workers Stay Home, Calling For More Pay In Coronavirus Pandemic
Sarah Polito, an organizer of the Instacart strike who said she has delivered groceries for the company for nearly two years, said she and fellow workers are asking for hazard pay of $5 per order, a default tip of 10% and sick pay. "We're being treated as employees but not getting paid as such," Ms. Polito said. (Kang and Herrera, 3/30) Reuters: Instacart, Amazon Workers Strike As Labor Unrest Grows During Coronavirus Crisis
Fifteen workers at an Amazon.com Inc warehouse in Staten Island, New York, also walked off the job on Monday following reports of COVID-19 among the facility's staff. Amazon said later it fired an employee who helped organize the action for alleged violations of his employment, including leaving a paid quarantine to participate in the demonstration. New York's attorney general said her office was "considering all legal options" in response to the firing, citing the right to organize in the state. (Russ, 3/30) WBUR: Amazon, Instacart Grocery Delivery Workers Demand Coronavirus Protection And Pay
At Amazon, which employs some 800,000 people, workers have diagnosed positively for COVID-19 in at least 11 warehouses, forcing a prolonged closure of at least one warehouse in Kentucky. The company says it has "taken extreme measures to keep people safe," including allowing unlimited unpaid leave time for employees who feel uncomfortable working. Amazon says its decision on whether to close a w (Selyukh and Bond, 3/30) PBS NewsHour: As More People Order Delivery, Workers Fear Virus Exposure
More than 250 million Americans in 30 states have been asked or ordered to stay at home. Although some still buy essentials in person at stores, many are ordering online instead. As a result, warehouse and delivery workers and professional shoppers have become central to the current economy -- and a growing number are concerned about the risks they face by doing their jobs. (Solman, 3/30) 22. Federal Judges Lift Restrictions Imposed On Abortions In Texas, Ohio And Alabama Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state exercised proper discretion in halting the procedures because abortions are not "immediately medically necessary." The court decisions could have repercussions for three other states as well. Iowa, Mississippi and Oklahoma also suspended abortions, calling them nonessential during the crisis. The Hill: Judges Block Texas, Ohio, Alabama From Banning Abortion As Part Of Coronavirus Response
Two federal judges on Monday temporarily blocked Texas, Ohio and Alabama from enforcing a ban on abortions as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel wrote in an opinion Monday afternoon that the ban in Texas, which state officials say is intended to conserve medical supplies, is likely unconstitutional. "Regarding a woman's right to a pre-fetal-viability abortion, the Supreme Court has spoken clearly. There can be no outright ban on such a procedure," he wrote in his order authorizing a temporary restraining order. (Hellmann, 3/30) The New York Times: Texas Abortion Clinics Can Keep Operating, Judge Rules
The decision was a win for abortion providers, which had been scrambling to block similar restrictions in other states. Lawyers for clinics filed suit on Monday in Alabama, Iowa, Ohio and Oklahoma, states that had tried to include abortion in medical procedures that had to be delayed to preserve protective gear for medical workers. (Tavernise, 3/30) Politico: Judges Block 3 States From Enforcing Abortion Bans Pegged To Pandemic
In Ohio, District Court Judge Michael Barrett similarly sided with Planned Parenthood and other groups challenging the state's ban and issued a two-week temporary restraining order. In Alabama, District Court Judge Myron Thompson ordered the suspension of the state's abortion ban until he can hear arguments in a video conference on April 6. "The State's interest in immediate enforcement of the March 27 order — a broad mandate aimed primarily at preventing large social gatherings — against abortion providers does not, based on the current record, outweigh plaintiffs' concerns," he said. (Ollstein, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: Judges Block States From Limiting Access To Abortions During Coronavirus Pandemic
Judge Yeakel wrote that delaying abortions causes irreparable harm because, as pregnancies progress, abortions become less safe and eventually illegal. The judge, who was appointed by former GOP President George W. Bush, added that the providers' lawsuit is likely to be successful. "The Supreme Court has spoken clearly," Judge Yeakel wrote of a woman's right to an early-term abortion. "There can be no outright ban on such a procedure. This court will not speculate on whether the Supreme Court included a silent 'except-in-a-national-emergency clause.' " (Findell and Kendall, 3/30) The Oklahoman: Abortion Rights Groups Sue Stitt Over Coronavirus-Related Abortion Ban
Reproductive rights groups are suing Oklahoma officials over Gov. Kevin Stitt's order prohibiting most abortions during the COVID-19 outbreak. Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Dechert LLP on Monday asked a federal judge to immediately block Stitt's order. Stitt and Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter are named in the lawsuit. (Forman, 3/31) Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Judge Temporarily Blocks State Health Order Halting Abortions During Coronavirus
"A global pandemic is no time to be playing politics with healthcare, and we are relieved that the district court has acknowledged that abortion is an essential and time-sensitive health care service," said Chrisse France, the executive director of Cleveland's abortion clinic Preterm, in a statement. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost plans to appeal. (Balmert, 3/30) Houston Chronicle: Federal Judge Suspends Texas Abortion Ban During Coronavirus Shutdown
Doctors and staff reported patients in tears last week as their appointments were cancelled, some begging for pills to end their pregnancies on their own. Providers said they had discussed sending women to clinics in other states, but worried that travel was not safe, let alone a viable option for those already struggling from the financial fallout of the outbreak. "Many people are already financially insecure and futures are uncertain," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, who oversees abortion clinics in Texas and is one of the plaintiffs.(Blackman, 3/30) 23. Meet The Controversial Doctor Who Touts The Use Of Malaria Drugs To Fight Coronavirus Didier Raoult, the head of a university hospital institute in Marseille, France has been a leading voice in the fight to use a malaria drug to treat COVID-19. But the self-described "maverick" has a storied history of controversial remarks. Politico: In France, Controversial Doctor Stirs Coronavirus Debate
Sitting behind his desk in a hospital in the southern French city of Marseille, Didier Raoult has convinced thousands, including the U.S. president, that a common antimalarial drug can save people infected by Covid-19. In a few short weeks, the controversial microbiologist has become France's best-known doctor after announcing the coronavirus "endgame" on Youtube. (Braun, 3/30) CNN: Fact Check: Trump Again Touts Unproven Drugs For Coronavirus
President Donald Trump made another series of inaccurate and misleading statements during his coronavirus press briefing Monday afternoon from the White House Rose Garden. Trump inaccurately characterized previous statements he has made downplaying the severity of the crisis. He again talked up medications that have not been clinically proven safe or effective for use against the coronavirus. Immediately after boasting about having superior knowledge of South Korea, he misstated the population of Seoul. And in touting progress on coronavirus testing, he omitted important context. (Dale and Cohen, 3/30) Meanwhile, in other treatment news — San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Researchers In Race To Develop Coronavirus Antibodies Test To Understand Immunity
In a new frontier to fight COVID-19, Bay Area researchers are racing to develop new blood tests that can not only help diagnose the disease, but could help determine whether people become immune after catching it and lay the groundwork for a vaccine. Scientists at UCSF and the San Francisco Vitalant Research Institute are among several across the country developing tests. UCSF hopes to start using its test as early as this week, although it won't be widely available to the public. (Moench, 3/30) 24. To Mask Or Not To Mask: Will U.S. Walk Back Early Warnings For General Public Meant To Stave Off Shortages? Some are wondering if it would have been smart for Americans to wear masks in the early days of the outbreak. There's still no simple consensus on best practices, especially in the midst of mask shortages for health care workers, but the CDC is considering altering its recommendation that people cover their faces in some way. Meanwhile, WHO stands by its recommendation for healthy people not to wear masks. Politico: Mask Mystery: Why Are U.S. Officials Dismissive Of Protective Covering?
In recent weeks, facing public uncertainty about coronavirus and a severe domestic shortage of medical-grade face masks, top Trump administration officials offered adamant warnings against widespread use of masks, going so far as to argue that members of the general public were more likely to catch the virus if they used them. ... But as the crisis has played out around the world and intensified in parts of the U.S., reasons have emerged to doubt the wisdom of this guidance, which ranks among the most forceful warnings against mask use by national health authorities anywhere and does not differentiate between medical-grade masks and simple cloth coverings. A number of societies where mask use is more widespread, and where mask shortages have been less severe, seem to have had more success containing the virus. (Schreckinger, 3/30) The Washington Post: CDC Considering Recommending General Public Wear Face Coverings In Public
Should we all be wearing masks? That simple question is under review by officials in the U.S. government and has sparked a grass-roots pro-mask movement. But there's still no consensus on whether widespread use of facial coverings would make a significant difference, and some infectious disease experts worry that masks could lull people into a false sense of security and make them less disciplined about social distancing. (Achenbach, Sun and McGinley, 3/30) CNN: Face Masks: WHO Stands By Recommendation To Not Wear Them If You Are Not Sick Or Not Caring For Someone Who Is Sick
World Health Organization officials Monday said they still recommend people not wear face masks unless they are sick with Covid-19 or caring for someone who is sick. "There is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit. In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO health emergencies program, said at a media briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday. (Howard, 3/31) 25. 'Tremendous Resource': More Than 7,000 Scientists Respond To Researcher's Tweet To Join Database Government agencies are tapping into the nationwide database created last week by a 34-year-old Harvard University scientist looking for others wanting to volunteer to help fight the virus. Other public health news is on what makes coronavirus so risky for the elderly, a call to loosen blood donor restrictions, advice from two women who survived Spanish Flu, Holocaust, plasma treatments, and high risks for cancer patients. ABC News: 'Calling All Scientists': Experts Volunteer For Virus Fight
Michael Wells was looking for a chance to use his scientific training to help fight the coronavirus when — on the same day the pandemic forced his lab to temporarily close — he decided to create his own opportunity. "CALLING ALL SCIENTISTS," he tweeted on March 18. "Help me in creating a national database of researchers willing and able to aid in local COVID-19 efforts. This info will be a resource for institutions/(government) agencies upon their request." (Schor, 3/30) Stat: What Explains Covid-19's Lethality For The Elderly?
Researchers on Monday announced the most comprehensive estimates to date of elderly people's elevated risk of serious illness and death from the new coronavirus: Covid-19 kills an estimated 13.4% of patients 80 and older, compared to 1.25% of those in their 50s and 0.3% of those in their 40s. The sharpest divide came at age 70. Although 4% of patients in their 60s died, more than twice that, or 8.6%, of those in their 70s did, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London and his colleagues estimated in their paper, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Begley, 3/30) ABC News: Senators, Activists Urge FDA To Revise Blood Donation Policy For Gay, Bisexual Men Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
Democratic senators and gay rights advocates are calling on the federal government to loosen restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, citing the recent blood shortages caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic as a catalyst for change. The Food and Drug Administration's current recommendations restrict men who have sex with men, commonly referred to as MSM, from donating blood within 12 months of their last sexual encounter. The policy harkens back to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, which disproportionately impacted MSM. (Schnell, 3/31) The New York Times: They Survived The Spanish Flu, The Depression And The Holocaust
For most of us, it is almost impossible to comprehend the ferocity and regularity with which life was upended during the first half of the 20th century. Plague and conflict emerged on an epic scale, again and again. Loss and restriction were routine; disaster was its own season. At 101, Naomi Replansky, a poet and labor activist, has endured all of it. Born in her family's apartment on East 179th Street in the Bronx in May 1918, her arrival in the world coincided with the outset of the Spanish flu. (Bellafante, 3/28) The Associated Press: Hay Fever Or Virus? For Allergy Sufferers, A Season Of Worry
The spring breezes of 2020 are carrying more than just tree pollen. There's a whiff of paranoia in the air. For millions of seasonal allergy sufferers, the annual onset of watery eyes and scratchy throats is bumping up against the global spread of a new virus that produces its own constellation of respiratory symptoms. Forecasters are predicting a brutal spring allergy season for swaths of the U.S. at the same time that COVID-19 cases are rising dramatically. (Rubinkam, 3/30) CIDRAP: Scientists Search For Ways To Impede, Treat COVID-19
Nursing homes must identify and bar staff and visitors who may be infected with COVID-19, monitor patients for infection, and take stringent infection-control measures to prevent outbreaks such as the deadly one in King County, Washington, experts said in an epidemiologic study published Mar 27 in The New England Journal of Medicine. Meanwhile, preliminary research from China involving five patients suggests that transfusion with the plasma of recovered coronavirus patients that contains neutralizing antibody could benefit patients critically ill with the pandemic coronavirus and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). (Van Beusekom, 3/30) WBUR: For Cancer Patients, Coronavirus Pandemic Presents New Risks To Treatment
Some doctors are warning that if cancer patients contract COVID-19, the virus could be more dangerous than the cancer itself. There are about 650,000 cancer patients in the U.S. who are set to have chemotherapy this year. The treatment that gives many the best hope of recovery also puts them in the most compromised position during a viral outbreak, particularly one as contagious as the coronavirus. (Young and Raphelson, 3/30) 26. 'Ticking Time Bombs': Inmates Express Concerns About Inability To Escape Pandemic In NYC Jails An inmate tells The New York Times about lying ''back to back'' with other men like on a "slave ship" and being guarded by men who had little protective gear. So far, about 170 prisoners have tested positive in the city. Officials around the country grapple with how to respond to the crisis as at least 8 states have inmates who tested positive. News on the prison system is from California, Illinois, Indiana and Georgia, as well. NBC News: Prisoners In New York City Jails Sound Alarm As Coronavirus Spreads: 'I Fear For My Life'
On the morning of March 15, amid escalating fears about the COVID-19 outbreak, a 62-year-old educational consultant showed up at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for a flight to Trinidad, where he planned to attend a funeral, he said. But police stopped the consultant at the gate and arrested him under a year-old warrant, alleging he'd given bogus information for a state identification card in New Jersey. The arrest led the consultant into New York's notoriously brutal and unsanitary jail system, where COVID-19 was beginning to spread. (Schuppe, 3/30) ABC News: One Of The Largest Single-Site Jails In The US Grapples With 134 Coronavirus Cases
The number of detainees testing positive for coronavirus at the Cook County Jail in Chicago skyrocketed over the weekend, leaving Sheriff Tom Dart grabbling with a dilemma that runs against the very grain of a veteran lawman and former prosecutor: whether to free alleged criminals instead of keeping them locked up. As of Monday afternoon, one of America's largest single-site jails had 134 inmates who have tested positive for COVID-19, up from just 38 on Friday, Dart told ABC News. Of all the inmates tested so far only nine were negative, he said. (Hutchinson, 3/31) Indianapolis Star: Coronavirus In Indiana: ACLU Calls For Early Releases For Some Inmates
The ACLU of Indiana has called on the Indiana Supreme Court to "immediately issue emergency steps" to reduce the number of inmates in the state's prisons and jails to thwart what could be a devastating spread of coronavirus behind bars."We're asking the Supreme Court to, among other things, direct trial courts to review persons out of their courts who are either in the DOC or in county jails to determine if they can be released to try and avoid the spread of the COVID-19," said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana. (Evans, 3/30) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Coronavirus Is Spreading In Georgia Prisons
COVID-19 continues to spread in Georgia's jails and prisons.The disease caused by the novel coronavirus is present in eight of the state's prisons. Twenty-two people — split evenly among staff and offenders — have tested positive at 10 different facilities, most located in south Georgia. At Lee State Prison, 14 miles north of one of the state's worst hot spots for the virus, five staff members and seven inmates have tested positive. (Boone, 3/30) 27. Outbreaks In Los Angeles County Nursing Homes Nearly Quadruple The county released names of 11 homes with outbreaks and is working with them on infection control, quarantine and isolation protocols. Also, NBC reports more than 400 long-term care facilities have confirmed cases. News on nursing homes comes from New York and Louisiana, as well. Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Outbreaks At Nursing Homes Rise In L.A. County
Los Angeles County officials are investigating coronavirus outbreaks at 11 area nursing homes, where elderly residents with underlying health conditions are among the most vulnerable to the deadly new pathogen. That's nearly quadruple the number of nursing home outbreaks county officials had announced on Friday. The county defines an outbreak as three or more cases involving residents or staff at a facility. (Dolan, Gerber and Ryan, 3/30) The Hill: More Than 400 Long-Term Care Facilities Report Coronavirus Cases
Hundreds of long-term care facilities across the U.S. have confirmed cases of the coronavirus among their residents, with the number of facilities growing rapidly. NBC News reported Monday that more than 400 facilities have reported cases of the virus, a 172 percent increase from the number of facilities that had reported cases this time last week, which was 146. (Bowden, 3/30) New Orleans Times-Picayune: 28 Long-Term Care Coronavirus Clusters Now In Louisiana, Including Poydras Home On Magazine
State officials on Monday said 28 long-term care facilities, mostly nursing homes, have now been identified as clusters of the novel coronavirus, an increase eight over the previous day. Moreover, Monday's report from the state Department of Health indicates the number of such facilities identified as clusters has more than tripled since Friday, when the total stood at eight. (Roberts III, 3/30) Kaiser Health News: Should You Bring Mom Home From Assisted Living During The Pandemic?
Most retirement complexes and long-term care facilities are excluding visitors. Older adults are asked to stay in their rooms and are alone for most of the day. Family members might call, but that doesn't fill the time. Their friends in the facility are also sequestered. In a matter of weeks, conditions have deteriorated in many of these centers. At assisted living sites, staff shortages are developing as aides become sick or stay home with children whose schools have closed. Nursing homes, where seniors go for rehabilitation after a hospital stay or live long term if they're seriously ill and frail, are being hard hit by the coronavirus. They're potential petri dishes for infection. (Graham, 3/31) 28. Allowing Gun Stores To Remain Open As Essential Prompts Concerns From Gun Control Advocates The Trump administration recommended that states designate gun stores as a critical business during the pandemic. That guidance drew criticism who says that gun rights groups are sowing fears to drive up sales. "Adding more guns to more homes during a time of more anxiety could lead to more deaths. And that's the last thing we need when our hospitals are already bursting at the seams," John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a leading gun control group, told Reuters. Many states, including New Jersey are keeping the stores open. Reuters: Trump Coronavirus Guidance On Keeping Gun Stores Open Draws Criticism
Gun control activists on Monday criticized guidance issued by President Donald Trump's administration recommending that states find that gun stores are critical businesses that can stay open during the coronavirus crisis. The new guidance, issued on Saturday by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, offers the administration's views on which workers are essential during the pandemic at a time when state governors have ordered numerous "non-essential" businesses to close to try to limit the spread of the virus. The agency is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (Hurley, 3/30) The Wall Street Journal: Gun Stores Ruled Essential Businesses During Coronavirus Shutdowns
The federal government is now advising states that gun stores, gun makers and shooting ranges are critical businesses that shouldn't be closed during shutdowns meant to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. The addition of firearms-industry workers over the weekend to a federal list of essential workforces such as doctors, police officers and energy workers, came after gun-industry groups lobbied the Department of Homeland Security and the White House. (Elinson, 3/30) Politico: Murphy: New Jersey Gun Stores Will Be Allowed To Reopen
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that gun shops are now considered essential businesses and can remain open during the coronavirus pandemic. The governor's decision, announced during his daily briefing, is a reversal from his earlier position on gun retailers. (Friedman, 3/30) 29. Pandemic Opens Window Of Opportunity For Global Autocrats To Expand Their Power, Quell Any Dissent Extraordinary times may call for extraordinary measures, but will government leaders relinquish their new power once the crisis has passed? Many fear that it will erase democratic gains made in some countries. Global news comes out of China, North Korea, Sweden, Mexico and Europe, as well. The New York Times: For Autocrats, And Others, Coronavirus Is A Chance To Grab Even More Power
In Hungary, the prime minister can now rule by decree. In Britain, ministers have what a critic called "eye-watering" power to detain people and close borders. Israel's prime minister has shut down courts and begun an intrusive surveillance of citizens. Chile has sent the military to public squares once occupied by protesters. Bolivia has postponed elections. As the coronavirus pandemic brings the world to a juddering halt and anxious citizens demand action, leaders across the globe are invoking executive powers and seizing virtually dictatorial authority with scant resistance. (Gebrekidan, 3/30) The Associated Press: Dismantling Democracy? Virus Used As Excuse To Quell Dissent
Soldiers patrol the streets with their fingers on machine gun triggers. The army guards an exhibition center-turned-makeshift-hospital crowded with rows of metal beds for those infected with the coronavirus. And Serbia's president warns residents that Belgrade's graveyards won't be big enough to bury the dead if people ignore his government's lockdown orders. (Stojanovic, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Russian Soldiers In Italy Contain The Coronavirus And Mark A Political Shift
The images released by the Russian Defense Ministry were unprecedented. Russian and Italian generals gathered around a map of the Italian peninsula, plotting the route of a Russian convoy. Military vehicles, flying Russian flags and emblazoned with "From Russia with Love" in Italian, Russian and English, were shown driving across Italy to the northern city of Bergamo, one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 11,000 Italians. (Trofimov, 3/31) Reuters: China To Focus On Asymptomatic Coronavirus Cases As Public Fears Grow
As it eases its strict coronavirus curbs, China has urged authorities to pay more attention to asymptomatic cases, part of efforts to allay public fears that large numbers of infectious people have gone unreported. China is easing travel restrictions and allowing people to return to work in the city of Wuhan and the surrounding province of Hubei after two months of strict curbs on people's movements with no new cases of the coronavirus reported in the region where it emerged last year for seven days. (Stanway, 3/31) The Washington Post: As Wuhan Reopens, China Revs Its Engine To Move Past Coronavirus. But It's Stuck In Second Gear.
After 10 weeks confined to their apartments, unable to exercise, shop for groceries or walk their dogs, Wuhan residents are emerging into the daylight. The subway and intercity trains are running again. Shopping malls and even the Tesla store are reopening. State-owned companies and manufacturing businesses are turning on their lights, with others to follow. (Fifield, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: China's Coronavirus-Battered Economy Shows Tentative Signs Of Renewed Life
An official gauge of China's manufacturing activity rebounded strongly in March as work resumption picked up, though economists warned that business activity remains far from normal following a devastating coronavirus outbreak. China's official manufacturing purchasing managers index jumped to a reading of 52.0 in March from a record low of 35.7 in February, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. (Cheng, 3/31) Reuters: Coronavirus Epidemic 'Far From Over' In Asia: WHO Official
The coronavirus epidemic is "far from over" in the Asia-Pacific region, and current measures to curb the spread of the virus are buying time for countries to prepare for large-scale community transmissions, a WHO official said on Tuesday. (3/31) The New York Times: North Korea Claims No Coronavirus Cases. Can It Be Trusted?
Shin Dong-yun, a scientist from the North Korean Institute of Virology, rushed to the northwestern border with China in early February. There, he conducted 300 tests, skipping meals to assess a stream of people so that "the country is protected from the invasion of the novel coronavirus." Stories like this, carried in the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun, only deepen one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic: How could North Korea claim to not have a single coronavirus case while countries around the world stagger under the exploding epidemic? (Sang-Hun, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Inside Sweden's Radically Different Approach To The Coronavirus
The ski pistes are open, the restaurants are doing ample business and the malls are awash with shoppers.Welcome to Sweden, the last holdout among the small number of Western countries to have taken a radically different approach to the coronavirus pandemic. While social life in Europe and much of the U.S. now centers on the home after governments imposed increasingly drastic curbs on freedom of movement, Sweden left offices and stores open, issued recommendations rather than restrictions, and waited to see what happens. (Pancevski, 3/30) CIDRAP: Officials Watch For COVID-19 To Stabilize In Europe; Rapid Growth Shifts To Other Areas
Global COVID-19 cases continued their steady increase, with a glimmer of hope that activity may soon stabilize in some of Europe's hot spots, but with growing worries about the threat of the pandemic virus and the impact of social distancing measures in India. The global number of cases pushed well into the 700,000s today, reaching 777,286 from 178 countries, along with 37,140 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 3/30) The Washington Post: Coronavirus On The Border: Why Mexico Has So Few Cases Compared With The U.S.
The U.S.-Mexico border has long been a region of contrasts. But people in both countries are puzzling over the latest one: The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus on the Mexican side is just a small fraction of the U.S. count. On Sunday, confirmed cases in California topped 6,200, compared with just 23 in Baja California. Arizona had 919 cases, dwarfing the 14 in neighboring Sonora. New Mexico reported 237 cases; in Chihuahua state, there were six. The U.S.-Mexico border is the busiest in the world, with an estimated 1 million legal crossings per day. The neighbors' economies are intertwined. (Sheridan, 3/30) The Associated Press: Crammed In Filthy Cells, Political Prisoners Fear Infection
Reza Khandan got the word from friends locked away in Iran's most feared prison, Evin. A prisoner and a guard in their cell block had been removed because they were suspected of having coronavirus, and two guards in the women's ward had shown symptoms. It was frightening news. Khandan's wife, Nasrin Sotoudeh, one of Iran's most prominent human rights lawyers, is imprisoned in that ward in close quarters with 20 other women. (Michael, El Deeb and Keath, 3/31) Politico: 'This Is A 24/7 Job': State Department's Playbook For Getting Stranded Americans Home
As the coronavirus spread and nations shut their borders, the State Department hustled to put together practices for bringing Americans home, according to a document that illustrates the tense nature of the massive multi-country effort to help thousands of desperate Americans amid rapidly changing circumstances. In a step-by-step checklist, obtained by POLITICO, State staff outlined how they had helped Americans stranded in Morocco, where employees at the embassy there worked to charter nine flights over 48 hours starting March 20, before the country unexpectedly closed its borders. The document stands as a sort of playbook for an agency that is continuing to try to return Americans home. (Mintz, 3/30) 30. At Dawn Of Opioid Crisis, Johnson & Johnson Genetically Created 'Supper Poppy' That Was Rich In Opiates The Washington Post takes a look at Johnson & Johnson's operations in Tasmania, which produced genetically modified "supper poppy" plants. In other public health news: e-cigarettes, mental health services, Alzheimer's treatments, and dementia. The Washington Post: Johnson & Johnson Companies Used A Super Poppy To Make Narcotics For Popular Opioid Pills
Johnson & Johnson, a company more widely known for baby powder and Band-Aids, became a major supplier of narcotic raw materials to the U.S. thanks to a Tasmanian breed of poppies. (Whoriskey, 3/26) The New York Times: The World Pushes Back Against E-Cigarettes And Juul
In January 2019, the chairman of Altria, Howard A. Willard III, flew to Silicon Valley to speak to senior executives of Juul Labs, fresh off signing a deal for the tobacco giant to pay nearly $13 billion for a 35 percent stake in the popular e-cigarette company. With public fury growing over Juul's contribution to the epidemic of teenage vaping, he laid out his vision for the company to continue to thrive. "I believe that in five years, 50 percent of Juul's revenue will be international," Mr. Willard told the 200 executives gathered at the Four Seasons in East Palo Alto. (Kaplan, Jacobs and Sang-Hun, 3/30) Atlanta Journal-Constitution: How Georgia Tech Is Working To Improve Mental Health Services
Georgia Tech, more so than any state school in recent years, has faced public pressure and scrutiny to better help students struggling with such issues. Two students died near the end of the fall 2018 semester from apparent suicides. The family of Scout Schultz, a Georgia Tech student shot and killed by a campus police officer in 2017, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in September against the school. (Stirgus, 3/31) Stat: Can This Alzheimer's Trial Design More Cleanly Test The Amyloid Hypothesis?
The fate of aducanumab, a potential Alzheimer's treatment from Biogen, is widely seen as the last hope for an aging idea: that targeting toxic brain plaques can arrest the progress of the disease. But there's a similar, less-discussed Alzheimer's treatment working through a pivotal trial. And its outcome, positive or negative, could shift the yearslong debate over how best to target Alzheimer's. (Garde, Robbins and Feuerstein, 3/30) The Washington Post: Early-Onset Dementia In Her Middle-Aged Husband Was Uncurable — And Almost Unbearable.
In summer 2014, when he was 54, Sacramento artist David Wetzl was exhibiting the behaviors of an elderly man with Alzheimer's. "I have a bad brain," he told everyone repeatedly, using a simple phrase to explain his diagnosis to the world. Two years before that, his wife, Diana Daniels, had asked for an MRI because she was suspicious that things weren't right and fearful when he couldn't remember the word "shoelaces." The scan showed with horrific clarity how sections of his brain had shriveled. (Mailman, 3/29) 31. Different Takes: Can Someone Be Honest About Where All The Masks Are?; Nurses Are Underappreciated Heroes Of Pandemic Editorial pages focus on these topics stemming from the pandemic and others. Fox News: We Understand There's A Shortage Of Medical Masks. Stop Lying To Us And Tell The Truth
In any crisis, trust is critical -- and not just for moral reasons, for practical reasons. The government can't coordinate a national response if the public doesn't believe what it says, if it doesn't believe the government is looking out for its best interest. That's why honesty is essential at times like this. When the government lies, people know. They can tell, and then they stop listening. ...Of course, masks work. Everyone knows that. Dozens of research papers have proved it. In South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, the rest of Asia -- where coronavirus has been kept under control -- masks were key. (Tucker Carlson, 3/31) The New York Times: It's Time To Make Your Own Face Mask
It shouldn't have come to this, but here we are. The world is running out of face masks for health care workers, which is one reason American officials, including the surgeon general, have warned members of the public against buying their own masks for protection against the coronavirus. But that doesn't mean face masks for the public are a bad idea, if we had enough masks. Contrary to what American officials told us, many studies show that widespread mask-wearing might be a very effective complement to hand-washing, social-distancing and other measures to mitigate the pandemic. Health officials in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan suggest that people wear masks in certain situations — if they're symptomatic, for instance, or if they're in crowded, not-very-well-ventilated places, like airplanes. Studies have also shown that mask-wearing (in conjunction with hand-washing) reduces the spread of infection within households or other shared living spaces, like residence halls. But how to get your hands on a mask, when there are no masks? The internet has a plan: Make your own. (Farhad Manjoo, 3/31) The Wall Street Journal: Nurses Are The Coronavirus Heroes
I write this an hour after finishing my shift in the hospital emergency department. It's 1 a.m. A nurse I have known for a long time said to me as she left the shift, "In 18 years, I never felt the need to take a shower in the staff locker room so I could feel safe to go home." Earlier she was at the bedside in a negative pressure room, wearing a powered air-purifying respirator as she helped intubate a possible coronavirus patient who'd crashed. The precaution and gear make the work feel more dangerous. "Will that equipment be enough," she asks, "to keep the virus out of my body?" (Paul Dohrenwend, 3/30) Stat: Covid-19 Testing: Overcoming Challenges In The Next Phase Of The Epidemic
Which is a better proxy for estimating the Covid-19 infection rate in the United States: the infection rate in the NBA or the infection rate in China or Italy? The answer to that question reveals some of the pitfalls of diagnostic Covid-19 testing. (Arkun K. Manrai and Kenneth D. Mandl, 3/31) CNN: Doctors Never Vow To Risk Their Lives. Why Do They Still Do It Anyway?
Like many physicians, I find myself on the front lines of a fight that I did not realize I enlisted in. Amid a global pandemic, doctors far and wide are being called to the field to embrace roles they may feel completely inept in, oftentimes without adequate protection. When I spoke with my residency classmates this week -- all healthy doctors in their 30s -- I realized it was likely that many of us would be infected with the novel coronavirus. Given the mortality rates, it is possible one of us might not survive. (Trisah Pasricha, 3/30) The Washington Post: During The Flu Pandemic Of 1918, D.C.'s Girl Scouts Offered More Than Cookies
As the flu pandemic worsened in Washington in October 1918, the Evening Star published the names of the pandemic's local victims and urged readers to fashion masks at home for donation to the Red Cross. (Three thin layers of muslin or four layers of cheesecloth were recommended for these "simple but efficacious preventives.") The paper noted something else, too: District Girl Scouts were spearheading a remarkable effort to feed those sickened by the flu. (Kelly, 3/30) The Hill: COVID-19 Causes More Harm To Seniors Than Just Death
As a geriatric medicine physician specializing in care for older adults, I am witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic cause more problems for older adults than just sickness and death. The implications of widespread social distancing and cancellation of routine home-based medical care will be profound and potentially devastating for elders. (Dr. Alexander Sasha Rackman, 3/30) Chicago Sun Times: Mayor Lori Lightfoot On Lakefront Memes: 'I Love 'Em'
It may not seem like it, judging from her stern face and angry, podium-pounding admonitions in recent days. But Mayor Lori Lightfoot knows the value of humor, especially in these extraordinarily troubled times. Lightfoot said Monday she's getting a kick out of the memes that have emerged from her unprecedented decision to shut down Chicago's most popular gathering spots—including the entire lakefront. Those memes, showing a stony-faced Lightfoot guarding the lakefront trail and other Chicago hotspots blew up the internet over the weekend. (Alice Bazerghi and Fran Spielman, 3/30) Des Moines Register: Coronavirus In Iowa: If You Have A Calculator, You Can Do COVID-19 Math
Nowadays it seems harder than ever to find reliable information, much less make sense of it. I think this is why a lot of Iowans are skeptical about whether strong preventive measures are really necessary to deal with this virus. But numbers have no agenda. And you can trust your own ability to do simple arithmetic. Put this together and you can see for yourself what we are facing. That's why today I want to talk about math. OK, now, stick we me. I know math isn't too popular, but the math will be minimal. All you will have to do in the end is push a button and count. You can do that! According to the numbers, the first reported positive test in Iowa was on March 8. Since then we have the following running total of reported positive tests: 3, 8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 29, 38, 44, 45, 68, 90, 105, 124, 145, 179, 234, 298, 336, 424. (Rick Autry, 3/30) Dallas Morning News: Dallas Must Save Lives, Open Hospital Capacity And Preserve Our Economy
COVID-19 is the most complex challenge we've faced in this generation because it's being fought on three fronts simultaneously: medically, economically and emotionally. The decisions we make today will impact what our world looks like once this crisis is behind us. Our political leaders must make tough decisions after hearing input from medical experts, business leaders and community leaders. Balancing health risks with the risks to jobs and our economy, while keeping citizens emotionally stable, is a tall order. These are tough calls. (John Olajide and Fred Perpall, 3/31) Miami Herald: Four Dead, Hundreds Of Passengers Exposed To Coronavirus
South Florida faces a moral dilemma that will play out on the national stage, and soon, unless the White House steps in. And we believe that it should. Holland America wants permission for its Zaandam cruise ship to dock at Port Everglades on Wednesday, bringing with it four dead, likely of COVID-19, and almost 200 passengers and crew with flu-like symptoms. "Not in our backyard" has been the unwavering response from Gov. DeSantis and the mayors of Broward and Fort Lauderdale, Dale Holness and Dean Trantalis, respectively. (3/31) 32. Viewpoints: Pros, Cons On FDA Approval Of Unproven Drugs For Treatment; States' Patchwork Response Undermines Recovery Opinion writers weigh in on these COVID-19 topics and others. The Wall Street Journal: An FDA Breakthrough On Treatment
The Food and Drug Administration on Sunday green-lighted two malaria medicines that have shown some promise treating the novel coronavirus, and the emergency approvals couldn't come soon enough. Expanding their use could bring quicker relief to patients and hospitals while allowing scientists to better assess their efficacy. The malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine (HC) and chloroquine have been around for more than five decades, so their safety is well documented. New evidence suggests that they could also help fight the novel coronavirus, as op-eds by Dr. Jeff Colyer on these pages have reported. Both chloroquine and HC in vitro block the replication of RNA viruses like the novel coronavirus. (3/30) Stat: We Shouldn't Rush To Use An Unproven Drug To Treat The Coronavirus
As the pandemic deepens, physicians face an agonizing decision — to medicate or not to medicate?Here's the dilemma: Over the past few weeks, some small studies suggested a decades-old malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine may have the potential to combat the novel coronavirus known as Covid-19. And as the results trickled out, the tablet has become more valuable than gold. (Ed Silverman, 3/31) The Washington Post: Trump Rightly Extended Pandemic Guidance. Here's What He Should Do Next.
President Trump abandoned his reckless speculation about going back to work by Easter and wisely extended the federal government's pandemic guidance through April. Mr. Trump properly announced this unpleasant news personally on Sunday and acknowledged much higher estimates of the possible death toll. Since December, too much time has been squandered. Now, the month ahead must be well spent — with action. (3/30) Bloomberg: Coronavirus: Abbott's Five-Minute Tests Aid Every Stage Of Fight
Americans anxious about their coronavirus status and ability to get tested got excellent news over the weekend. On Saturday, medical-device giant Abbott Laboratories said it got the green light from the Food and Drug Administration to roll out a new rapid and portable Covid-19 test. It's going to start doing so this week.Abbott's test can detect the virus in as little as five minutes and runs on a 6.6-pound machine that is already set up in doctors offices around the country to test for strep throat and flu. (Max Nisen, 3/30) The Washington Post: Five Ways The Federal Government Can Help Health-Care Professionals Get Critical Gear
The coronavirus pandemic is a generational event. Much as our firefighters, paramedics and police officers ran toward the flames on 9/11 while crowds ran away from the twin towers, today our nurses, doctors and first responders are running toward the crisis. As most Americans shelter at home, our health-care workers are on the front lines — and too many are heading into battle without proper gear. (Rep. Elissa Slotkin, 3/30) CNN: Trump Touting His Coronavirus Press Conference Ratings Reveals A Deep Leadership Flaw
On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump quoted snippets from a New York Times article by Michael Grynbaum headlined: "Trump's Briefings Are a Ratings Hit. Should Networks Cover Them Live?" The essence of the piece dealt with the delicate journalistic question of what responsibility TV networks owe to their viewers to broadcast the President discussing the ongoing coronavirus epidemic given that these near-daily briefings have now turned into Trump spouting mistruths and settling scores with journalists. (Chris Cillizza, 3/30) Los Angeles Times: Trump's Daily Coronavirus Press Conferences Are Dangerous
On Sunday, President Trump, absent any hard evidence, suggested that large numbers of masks were being stolen from New York hospitals, citing an unnamed facility he said had seen a huge surge in mask usage. "How do you go from 10 to 20 [thousand masks being used], to 300,000?" he said. And he didn't stop there. "Where are the masks going — are they going out the back door?" Trump posited. "Somebody should probably look into that, because I just don't see from a practical standpoint how that's possible." Perhaps — just perhaps — the increased volume of masks being used is correlated with the emergence of a runaway, highly contagious pandemic? I wonder if Joseph Stalin ever said during the Battle of Stalingrad: "This doesn't make sense. Normally they only want 20,000 boxes of ammunition. All of sudden they want 300,000? Someone must be stealing the bullets." (Jonah Goldberg, 3/30) The Hill: We Need A 'Pay Everything' Policy To Combat Coronavirus Recession
The effect of the COVID-19 crisis on the economy differs from recessions of the past, and the tools familiar to policymakers are not designed to address our current situation. For example, cutting interest rates works in most recessions by reducing the cost of new consumer loans. But who needs a loan when people are forced to stay at home, unable to, say, shop for a car or a home? (David Souder, 3/29) Los Angeles Times: Stop Detaining Migrant Children During The Coronavirus Pandemic
A federal judge in Los Angeles, concerned that migrant children being held in federal detention are facing dangerous exposure to the coronavirus, ordered the Trump administration on Saturday to speed up the release of minors to relatives or other qualified sponsors. U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee stopped short of ordering the children's immediate release because of the need to find appropriate places for them to go and the logistical challenges posed by travel advisories related to the public-health crisis. Given the practical realities, Gee seems to have gone as far as she could. The government currently holds about 3,600 unaccompanied minors in shelters overseen by the Office of Refugee Resettlement and about 3,300 children with parents at facilities operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Four unaccompanied minors held at a detention facility in New York have tested positive for the virus, and at least one child in a family detention center is under quarantine. (3/31) Los Angeles Times: Economists Warn Against Lifting The Coronavirus Lockdowns
Until now, the voices warning against prematurely lifting stringent social regulations to combat the novel coronavirus have been those of doctors and epidemiologists. But a blue-ribbon group of economists has just weighed in, and they agree -- virtually unanimously. The panel of 44 economists assembled by the Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago was asked to opine on coronavirus policy in three respects. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/30) Modern Healthcare: Some Optimism For The Post-COVID Healthcare System
COVID-19 has taught us two things. We need intensive-care units and a surge capacity for crises. But we also need to help people at home. (Stephen K. Klasko, 3/30) The Hill: Conservatives Privilege Ideology Over Expertise In This Global Health Crisis
I was deeply troubled by Father Frank Pavone's attack on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in The Hill. Pavone seeks to discredit ACOG's medical expertise by suggesting that the body, along with its 60,000 board-certified obstetrician-gynecologists members, cannot simultaneously support abortion access, a key component of women's reproductive health, and also be an "a dispassionate observer of abortion policy." This is yet another example of conservatives privileging ideology over expertise in the midst of a global health crisis. (Sara Hutchinson Ratcliffe, 3/30) Detroit Free Press: How To Protect Elections, Other Democratic Institutions Against Virus
Stay home! the public health guardians counsel. Avoid congregating in groups! But more than 300 federal lawmakers violated that cardinal prescription last week in order to get a $2-trillion coronavirus relief bill to President Donald Trump's desk, because the U.S. Constitution bars both the Senate and the House of Representatives from adopting legislation without at least half its members physically present. Closer to home, Michigan legislators, one of whom is already sick with COVID-19, have decided to meet just one day a week for the next month. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has suspended some provisions of the state's Open Meetings Act, which in normal times requires county commissions, city councils and school boards to do business in public. (3/30) The Detroit News: Don't Neglect Prisoners During Pandemic
Understanding the epidemiology of the coronavirus is important. But it is equally important to ask these challenging questions: Who is disproportionally affected by the pandemic and how must we, as a collective, support vulnerable populations at this time? A vulnerable group we cannot afford to disregard is the incarcerated population. If we ignore the them, jails and prisons will become an epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Ira Memaj and Robert Fullilove, 3/30) New Orleans Times-Picayune: Arrest Those With Louisiana Coronavirus Foolishness. 'Stupid' Should Stop.
So much for returning to normal come Easter Sunday or even Easter Monday. At least it's not likely in Louisiana. "As you know, my stay at home order is scheduled to end on April 13," Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Sunday afternoon during a joint news conference with New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. "I do want people to know that based on facts on the ground as we get close to that date we will determine whether to extend that date." The novel coronavirus spreading across the world is once again showing that science trumps politics, the economy and elected officials and the facts are as they exist. (Will Sutton, 3/30) | | | | | |
