In This Edition:

From Kaiser Health News:

Kaiser Health News Original Stories

3. The Coronavirus, The Congressman And Me

When four KHN reporters were possibly exposed to COVID-19, they tried to take preventive steps. But even for health care journalists, getting tested for the virus ― and figuring out what to do next — is an uphill task. (Shefali Luthra, 3/13)

5. KHN's 'What The Health?': Coronavirus Goes Viral

The rapidly spreading coronavirus has led to the cancellation of sporting events, conferences and travel, with Congress and President Donald Trump scrambling to catch up to the spiraling public health crisis. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has issued long-awaited rules aimed at making it easier for patients to carry copies of their medical records. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Kimberly Leonard of Business Insider join KHN's Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, for extra credit, the panelists suggest their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too. (3/12)

7. Political Cartoon: 'Walls Work?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'Walls Work?'" by Signe Wilkinson .

Here's today's health policy haiku:

ONE WAY IT COULD MIRROR THE FLU...

Does the virus have
Kryptonite? Scientists hope
Warm weather does trick.

- Anonymous

If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if you want us to include your name. Keep in mind that we give extra points if you link back to a KHN original story.

Summaries Of The News:

Global Health Watch

8. 'We've Resolved Most Of Our Differences': House Barrels Toward Coronavirus Vote After Day Of Hammering Out Partisan Complaints

The legislation will include measures to boost paid family leave and unemployment insurance, ensure free coronavirus testing, and strengthen nutritional aid like food stamps. The final sticking points between House Democrats and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the administration's point person on the deal, involved paid sick leave. The House is expected to vote on Friday, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) canceled the Senate's weeklong recess next week to assess the legislation.

The New York Times: Congress Nears Stimulus Deal With White House As Wall Street Suffers Rout
Financial markets plunged on Thursday in the biggest one-day drop since the Black Monday stock market crash of 1987, and Congress neared a deal with the White House on a sweeping economic rescue package to respond to the colossal effect of the coronavirus pandemic. After a day of intense negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, Ms. Pelosi told reporters that "we've resolved most of our differences" and the House would vote on Friday on the measure "one way or another." It would then go to the Senate, which called off a recess that had been scheduled for next week in anticipation of a compromise. (Cochrane, Smialek and Tankersley, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Hopes Of Bipartisan Deal Rise As White House, Democrats Negotiate Coronavirus Relief
"We've resolved most of our differences, and those we haven't we'll continue to have a conversation — because there will obviously be other bills," Pelosi told reporters outside of her office in the Capitol, at the end of a long day of intense talks with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The legislation will include measures to boost paid family leave and unemployment insurance, ensure free coronavirus testing, and strengthen nutritional aid like food stamps. The emerging agreement builds upon a bill House Democrats released late Wednesday that included a number of provisions Republicans opposed, setting off hours of frenzied negotiations on Capitol Hill to reach bipartisan consensus. (DeBonis, Werner and Stein, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Fallout: Deal On Economic Stimulus Package Is Near
The deal — being forged by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin via frequent phone calls — is expected to eliminate insurance co-payments for COVID-19 testing and provide billions of dollars in aid to state and local governments for food programs and unemployment benefits. It is also expected to include up to 14 days of sick pay for workers dealing with the coronavirus who don't receive sick pay from their employers and up to three months' leave for people who need to care for sick relatives. (Haberkorn and Wire, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Pelosi Says House, Trump Administration Near Coronavirus Pact
Efforts to put together a bill began only this week as lawmakers have rushed to respond to the pandemic that has tanked financial markets and infected more people world-wide. Democrats delayed procedural steps Thursday on the bill to allow for further negotiations and the possibility that they could amend the legislation. Republicans had raised concerns about the Democratic proposal to offer paid leave, criticizing the decision to have the Social Security Administration run the program in particular. Mrs. Pelosi said during a Thursday press conference that Democrats were reviewing proposals from Mr. Mnuchin. (Duehren and Andrews, 3/12)

Politico: Pelosi And Mnuchin Closing In On A Deal On Coronavirus Aid Package
The final sticking points involved complex talks led by Mnuchin and Ways and Means Chairman Richie Neal (D-Mass.) over sick leave for employees impacted by the coronavirus as well as their family members, said multiple Democratic and GOP aides. Pelosi and Mnuchin held several conversations throughout Thursday. Pelosi then tapped Neal to try hammer out an accord over the paid leave issue with Mnuchin, said Democratic aides. The multibillion-dollar House proposal — which aims to shore up safety-net programs like food aid and unemployment insurance — represents Washington's most aggressive response to the growing coronavirus crisis, which has sent financial markets into a panic as it quickly spreads across the globe. (Bresnahan, Ferris and Caygle, 3/12)

ABC News: Coronavirus-Relief Bill Aims To Expand Free School Lunch Program
With coronavirus-related school closures looming, federal lawmakers have proposed a bill that includes help for families that are struggling to feed their kids while at home. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, presented to the House on Wednesday, includes a provision for expanding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that provides money for low-income families to purchase healthy food. The proposal is one of at least eight provisions up for consideration by the Senate. (Carrega, 3/12)

The Hill: Pelosi: House 'Close' To Striking Deal With Trump On Coronavirus Response Package
The sides have been at odds over several provisions of the sweeping, multibillion-dollar package. Republicans, for instance, have balked at the Democrats' paid leave proposal, fearing it creates a permanent entitlement benefit, in lieu of simply addressing the current coronavirus. Democrats, for their part, have objected to GOP demands that the legislation include language explicitly prohibiting the use of federal funds for abortion services. (Lillis and Wong, 3/12)

Politico: McConnell Delays Senate Recess Amid Coronavirus Crisis And FISA Deadline
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that the Senate will delay its recess scheduled for next week to continue working on an economic relief package to address the coronavirus outbreak. "Notwithstanding the scheduled state work period, the Senate will be in session next week," the Kentucky Republican tweeted. "I am glad talks are ongoing between the Administration and Speaker Pelosi. I hope Congress can pass bipartisan legislation to continue combating the coronavirus and keep our economy strong." (Levine and Desiderio, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: Congress Approves Boost In Food Aid For Seniors But Funding Falls Short Of Growing Need
Advocates for senior citizens hailed the bipartisan passage of a federal bill that calls for boosting money for nutrition programs so that fewer older adults go hungry. But the proposed funding still wouldn't keep up with America's fast-growing senior population. The legislation reauthorizes the Older Americans Act, which provides for home-delivered and group meals for anyone 60 and older while supporting an array of other services, such as transportation and in-home care. (Ungar, 3/12)

9. Trump Mulls Emergency Declaration As Travel Ban Is Panned By Public Health Experts As A Useless Distraction

President Donald Trump has been hesitant to declare an emergency as it might contrast with his optimistic messaging in the early days of the crisis. Meanwhile, the travel ban he announced this week is criticized by public health experts. And, former Trump administration officials have been sounding the alarm even while their former colleagues project a rosy outlook. Media outlets also take a peek inside the White House's slowly shifting views on the coronavirus outbreak.

The Hill: Trump Weighing Potential Emergency Declaration For Coronavirus
President Trump is weighing whether to declare a national emergency over the coronavirus, which would free up additional resources to combat the rapidly spreading disease. The president indicated to reporters that using an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act was under consideration, but would not say definitively whether he would sign it on Thursday. (Samuels, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Could Sign A Coronavirus Emergency Declaration Soon, Adviser Says
White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow made the disclosure in a conference call with GOP lawmakers Thursday morning, the people said. The White House declined to comment, and Mr. Kudlow didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. White House officials have for weeks been discussing an emergency declaration, likely under the 1988 Stafford Act, which would free up billions in Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds, administration officials said. The money would help local and state officials respond to the outbreak. (Restuccia, 3/12)

Politico: Trump Expected To Sign Order Unleashing Coronavirus Funding
Trump on Thursday said he is still mulling what emergency funding steps he will take. He is also pushing for Congress to pass a stimulus package, but lawmakers are bogged down over the details. "We have things that I can do," Trump said in the Oval Office while sitting alongside Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. "We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act. … I have it memorized as to the powers in that act. If we need to do something. I have the right to do a lot of things people don't even know about." (Kumar, 3/12)

Politico: Trump Officials Did Sound The Coronavirus Alarm. They Just Don't Work There Anymore.
On the January day a new coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, China, Tom Bossert, President Donald Trump's former homeland security adviser, tweeted a stark warning: "we face a global health threat." "Coordinate!" he implored. At the time, the coronavirus outbreak was isolated to China — a distant threat to America that did not seem to overly concern President Donald Trump. But Bossert was just one of several former Trump administration officials waving their arms. Other people like Scott Gottlieb, head of the Food and Drug Administration until 2019, and Gary Cohn, who once helmed the National Economic Council, were also on TV and Twitter, arguing the administration must prepare for the situation to get worse. The people who had once been seen as Trump's guardrails inside the administration were now trying to educate from the outside. (McGraw, 3/12)

Politico: 'I Don't Want People Dying': Trump Defends Travel Ban After Confusing Primetime Address
President Donald Trump served up a freewheeling defense of his European travel ban Thursday, as senior administration officials sought to deliver a more controlled line of messaging in the aftermath of his primetime speech on the White House's coronavirus response. "I don't want people dying. That's what I'm all about," the president told reporters one day after announcing a 30-day ban on foreign visitors from most of Europe to fight the pandemic. (Forgey, 3/12)

NPR: Trump's European Travel Ban Questioned By Public Health Experts
The new restrictions which apply to 26 countries in Europe (but not the United Kingdom) came as a surprise to many E.U. leaders when Trump announced them. They also came as a surprise to many public health experts. "From a public health perspective, it's remarkably pointless," says Francois Balloux, an epidemiologist at University College London who worked with the World Health Organization on the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Balloux says closing borders only works in the very early days of an outbreak, or for countries that haven't yet detected any cases at all. The U.S., as of Thursday afternoon, had confirmed 1,323 cases. (Beaubien, 3/12)

The New York Times: Trump's Travel Ban Leaves Americans In Europe Scrambling To Get Home
Across Europe on Thursday, Americans scrambled to make sense of conflicting messages from Washington about if and when they would be allowed to return to the United States. They awoke to the news that President Trump had announced a 30-day suspension of most travel from Europe in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus. "To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days," Mr. Trump said. The travel restrictions would start at midnight Friday, he added. (Murphy, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump's Coronavirus Travel Ban Deepens Tensions With European Allies
President Trump's announced travel ban on Europe, beyond surprising European capitals, deepens tensions among trans-Atlantic allies whose ties are already strained over trade, security, climate change and what Europeans say is the U.S. failure to consult them. European governments complained that the announcement, made early Thursday Europe time, came without notice and coordination on what is a global health problem. Moreover, the U.S. ban, European Union leaders said, directly affects European citizens, barring many of them from travel to the U.S., and disregards the EU's "strong action" to contain the new coronavirus. (Norma, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Inside Trump's Failed 10-Minute Attempt To Control The Coronavirus Crisis
In the most scripted of presidential settings, a prime-time televised address to the nation, President Trump decided to ad-lib — and his errors triggered a market meltdown, panicked travelers overseas and crystallized for his critics just how dangerously he has fumbled his management of the coronavirus. Even Trump — a man practically allergic to admitting mistakes — knew he'd screwed up by declaring Wednesday night that his ban on travel from Europe would include cargo and trade, and acknowledged as much to aides in the Oval Office as soon as he'd finished speaking, according to one senior administration official and a second person, both with knowledge of the episode. (Rucker, Parker and Dawsey, 3/12)

NBC News: Behind Trump's Coronavirus Shift
As President Donald Trump jetted back to Washington on Monday after a weekend of golfing and fundraising in Florida, an intervention was awaiting him at the White House. Administration officials, increasingly concerned about the messaging on and response to the coronavirus, had spent the weekend scrambling to craft a strategy to shift the president's response, which had been focused on downplaying the threat and accusing the media of creating undue concern, according to people involved in the effort. (Pettypiece, 3/12)

The Washington Post: For Trump, The Coronavirus Crisis Is All About The Numbers — And They Don't Look Good
During weeks of briefings and discussions over the escalating coronavirus, President Trump has repeatedly fixated on one thing above all: the numbers. He has aggressively quizzed aides about infection statistics — asking how many cases are in each state, and how the quantity compares with other countries. He has clung to the rosiest projections, repeating only the figures that support his belief that the coronavirus is not morphing into a global catastrophe. And he has intensely followed the plummeting stock market, which plunged more than 1,600 points Wednesday. (Parker, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Crisis Tests Trump's Unusual Governing Style
President Trump's rare prime-time speech Wednesday was designed to reassure the nation about his administration's response to a quickly spreading coronavirus. Instead, Mr. Trump's scripted speech included errors about health-insurance payments and European travel restrictions, people involved in the speechwriting said Thursday. He also inserted his own mistakes as he spoke, the people said. (Bender, 3/12)

Meanwhile —

The Washington Post: Trump's Long-Standing Ties To Cruise Industry Tested By Coronavirus Pandemic
Huddled with donors at his private Mar-a-Lago Club on Friday, President Trump told supporters that he was intent on protecting the cruise industry from the fallout of the coronavirus crisis — even as top health officials and other key advisers were privately pushing him to keep the public off the ships. Two days later, the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned U.S. citizens, particularly those with medical issues, not to travel by cruise ship, sending the industry into a panic, according to people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private discussions. (Dawsey, O'Connell, Parker and Reinhard, 3/12)

10. FDA Grants Emergency Clearance To Quick Virus Test, But Health Experts And Lawmakers Still Lament Government's Testing Fumbles

Scientists across the country are working around the clock to develop quicker tests for the coronavirus. But many worry that the lack of testing in the early days of the outbreak will come back to haunt the country. Meanwhile, travelers returning from international hot spots say they're still not getting screened when they re-enter the country.

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Grants New Coronavirus Test Emergency Approval
A new, high-speed coronavirus test has been granted emergency clearance by the Food and Drug Administration, the latest effort to expand capacity to diagnose the fast-spreading pathogen. The test was developed by diagnostics giant Roche Holding AG RHHBY -8.96% and is designed to run on the company's automated machines, which are already installed in more than 100 laboratories across the U.S. It is only the third coronavirus diagnostic to receive emergency-use authorization from the FDA, following a test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and one from the New York State Department of Health. (Roland and Loftus, 3/13)

CBS News: Johns Hopkins Develops Its Own Coronavirus Test
Doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore have created their own coronavirus test, which they hope will help address the need for more testing for COVID-19. Doctors at Hopkins said the country needs more widely available tests that return results more quickly. That's why they created a test on their own, reports CBS Baltimore. Hopkins began using the test on Wednesday and by Thursday night, they were to have tested 50 samples. (3/13)

ProPublica: The FDA Is Forcing The CDC To Waste Time Double Testing Some Coronavirus Cases
A federal directive that's supposed to speed up the response to a pandemic is actually slowing down the government's rollout of coronavirus tests. The directive, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requires that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a sister agency, retest every positive coronavirus test run by a public health lab to confirm its accuracy. The result, experts say, is wasting limited resources at a time when thousands of Americans are waiting in line to get tested for COVID-19. (DePhillis and Chen, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Virus Testing System Is Failing, Fauci Tells Congress
The federal government's top infectious-disease doctor said the nation's system for disease testing has failed during the coronavirus outbreak because people typically need a doctor's permission to be tested. "The system is not really geared to what we need right now," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified Thursday at a congressional hearing. "That is a failing. It is a failing. Let's admit it." (Burton, Armour and Wise, 3/12)

CBS News: "It Certainly Is Not Too Late": Fauci Says Wider Coronavirus Testing System Will Be Up And Running Soon
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is on the coronavirus task force, said at a House meeting on Thursday that the current testing system "is not really geared to what we need right now." Hours after calling the testing system a "failing," Fauci spoke to "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell in an exclusive interview. (3/12)

CNN: Lawmakers Fume Amid Lack Of Coronavirus Testing
Members were exasperated with what they said was a lack of clarity in the officials' answers, as lawmakers struggle to understand how the US has been so far outpaced by other countries grappling with the pandemic. As he left Thursday's briefing, GOP Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina said there is "a growing frustration among members as a whole to get more definitive answers" from the administration about testing capabilities.He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "struggled to give a really strong answer" on why the United States hasn't been able to duplicate testing that is being used in places such as South Korea. (Byrd, Fox, Raju and Barrett, 3/12)

The New York Times: Travelers From Coronavirus Hot Spots Say They Faced No Screening
As thousands of Americans flee from Europe and other centers of the coronavirus outbreak, many travelers are reporting no health screenings upon departure and few impediments at U.S. airports beyond a welcome home greeting. Since January, officers from Customs and Border Protection have been on heightened alert for travelers who could potentially spread the virus. The Department of Homeland Security has told employees to look for visible physical symptoms and search through their travel documents and a federal database that tracks where they came from. Those customs officers will soon have to spot symptoms among a flood of more Americans funneled to designated airports from multiple countries in Europe, an administration official said, after President Trump announced new travel restrictions on the region this week. (Kanno-Youngs, 3/13)

11. Markets Have Worst Trading Day Since 1987 As Coronavirus Fears Weigh Heavy On Global Economy

The markets made up some ground early on Friday morning, but the global economy has been thrown into a state of tumult as world leaders struggle to deal with the spreading pandemic. The Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday took drastic measures by pumping $1.5 trillion into the bond market to try to stabilize it.

The Washington Post: Markets Plunged, Despite The Fed Announcing Flooding The Short-Term Lending Markets With $1.5 Trillion
The stock market crashed to its worst day since 1987, shrugging off dramatic intervention by two central banks and a prime-time address by President Trump as Americans realized the coronavirus will impose new limits on their daily lives. The Dow Jones industrial average posted its largest one-day point loss in history, dropping almost 2,353 points to close at 21,200.62. In percentage terms, the 10 percent loss marked the Dow's worst day since the infamous October day known as "Black Monday." (Lynch, Heath, Telford and Long, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Stock Futures Jump After Dow's Worst Day Since 1987
Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose as much as 4.5% in early morning trading Friday. U.S. stocks plunged Thursday, with the Dow falling 10% as the rapidly spreading coronavirus drove fears of a global slowdown despite action from the Federal Reserve. The pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 rose 2.3% at the open Friday. Italy's financial regulator suspended short selling of 85 Italian companies until the end of the trading day. The U.K.'s regulator also banned the trading activity on the same companies dual-listed on British exchanges. (Hirtenstein and Chiu, 3/13)

The Hill: Fed To Spend $1.5T To Pump Liquidity Into Financial Markets Amid Coronavirus Panic
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced Thursday that it will spend $1.5 trillion to purchase financial assets in a titanic bid to pump cash into the bond market amid panic on Wall Street. The New York Fed said in a Thursday statement it will drastically increase the scale of its repurchase (repo) agreements, during which it buys Treasury bonds and other securities from banks and traders with an agreement to sell the product back with interest the following day or soon after. It will offer $500 billion in repo operations on Thursday followed by $1 trillion in repo agreements Friday "to address highly unusual disruptions in Treasury financing markets associated with the coronavirus outbreak." (Lane, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Behind The Scenes Of U.S. Coronavirus Economic Policy-Making
As the coronavirus affects almost every aspect of business, a collection of Trump administration officials—at times at odds with one another—have been seeking to coordinate government action to soften the anticipated blow to the economy. So far, that coordination has been more ad hoc than organized or torn from the classic crisis playbook, which has administration policy makers acting in concert with the Federal Reserve and seeking buy-in from congressional leaders from both parties before announcing a policy response. (Davidson, Restuccia and Timiraos, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Economists See Rising Risks Of Recession World-Wide
The U.S. and world economies look increasingly likely to slip into recession as expanding swaths of commerce shut down and the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered its worst day since 1987 amid the coronavirus pandemic. The global financial rout deepened on Thursday despite new measures by major central banks to ease market strains and bolster the economy—and as the Trump administration and Congress neared agreement on legislation to provide federal financial assistance to many affected businesses and workers. (Mitchell and Zumbrun, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: As Recession Looms, Priority Is Lessening Severity, Easing Financial Stress
In the last week the coronavirus shock has sharply raised the probability that the U.S., and the world at large, will suffer a recession. The main challenge for the world now is limiting its severity and preventing a health crisis from becoming a financial crisis. Hard data has yet to show a downturn, but it is out of date. Meanwhile, airlines, theaters and others report widespread cancellations. Just this week equity prices have tumbled, oil prices have plunged, and there are signs of growing stress in financial markets. (Ip, 3/12)

Reuters: U.S. Excludes Some Chinese Medical Products From Tariffs
The U.S. Trade Representative's office said it granted on Thursday exclusions from import tariffs for some medical products imported from China, including face masks, stethoscope covers and blood pressure cuff sleeves. The exclusions were granted as the United States grapples with a coronavirus outbreak that threatens to strain its healthcare system. (3/12)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Horsford Bill Aims To Ease Coronavirus Job Impacts
Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., has introduced legislation aimed at providing additional funding for Nevada and other states should unemployment rise because of the COVID-19 outbreak .In a statement released Thursday, Horsford said his bill, H.R. 6199, would immediately provide Nevada with $5 million to help offset a probable increase in unemployment applications, with another $5 million available should the state suffer significant job losses. (Appleton, 3/12)

12. Experts Project As Many As 214 Million Americans Could Become Infected, And Up To 1.7 Million Could Die

Those are the worst-case scenarios that experts are forecasting, but even scaled back numbers that account for the protective measures that are being implemented are still grim. Meanwhile, experts say the reason the numbers aren't higher in the U.S. is because of a lack of testing, not because the virus isn't here and circulating.

The New York Times: The Worst-Case Estimate For U.S. Coronavirus Deaths
Between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to one projection. That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die. And, the calculations based on the C.D.C.'s scenarios suggested, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the U.S. could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation's medical system, which has only about 925,000 staffed hospital beds. Fewer than a tenth of those are for people who are critically ill. (Fink, 3/13)

PBS NewsHour: The Reason U.S. COVID-19 Numbers Aren't Higher? Not Enough Tests
Compared to the number of people who have been tested for COVID-19 in China, Japan, and South Korea, the U.S. has so far tested "only a tiny fraction," said Dr. Lawrence Gostin, global health law professor at Georgetown University who also directs the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National & Global Health Law. "We are likely to have much more testing capacity in the coming weeks, but it may be too little, too late." (Santhanam, 3/12)

The New York Times: How The World's Largest Coronavirus Outbreaks Are Growing
Milan, Italy. Daegu, South Korea. Qom, Iran. Many of the world's largest coronavirus outbreaks took root in and around well-traveled cities, but they have since grown to encompass entire countries. Cases have spread across Italy's north and down to Rome, leading to a lockdown of the entire country. Iran's capital, where leaders dismissed the virus just two weeks ago, has seen thousands infected. And cases continue to surge across Europe. (Singhvi, McCann, Wu and Migliozzi, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Curve Shows Much Of Europe Could Face Italy-Like Surge Within Weeks
Some of the world's top experts tracking the spread of the coronavirus predict that in a matter of weeks, much of Europe could be facing a similar surge in cases that has locked down Italy, overwhelmed its hospitals in the north and brought the country of 60 million to a standstill. The mathematical models developed by epidemiologists to track the virus show a sharp trajectory of infections in Spain, Germany, France and Britain. The modelers in Europe say a similar arc is likely in the United States, but anticipating the spread is made more difficult by the lack of widespread testing of suspected cases there. (Morris and Booth, 3/13)

13. Hospitals 'Already Stretched To Capacity' Shift Into Surge Mode But Many Warn Coronavirus Patients Will Still Overwhelm System

One of the top concerns for public health experts is how virus cases are likely to overwhelm hospitals, like is happening in Italy. Patients there are dying while waiting for treatment and doctors are forced to choose who to treat and who to let die. European health officials say Italy's experience with its faltering health system is just a preview of things to come for other countries.

The New York Times: U.S. Hospitals Prepare For Coronavirus, With The Worst Still To Come
One Seattle-area hospital has already seen patient care delayed by the stringent infection-control practices that the government recommended for suspected coronavirus cases. Another in Chicago switched Thursday morning into "surge" mode, setting up triage tents in its ambulance bay and dedicating an entire floor to coronavirus patients. At least one is already receiving emergency supplies from the federal government's stockpile. With the bow wave of coronavirus infections still to come, hospitals across the country are trying to prepare for a flood of critically ill patients who will strain their capacities like nothing they have seen in at least a generation. Even with some time to prepare, administrators fear they will not be ready. (Kliff, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Hospitals Face Major Challenges As Coronavirus Spreads
William Olson, the chief of operations for eight Oregon hospitals, grew worried when he was shown a heat map of coronavirus cases and flulike symptoms among patients across seven Western states. The maps captured trends for patients of Providence, which owns 51 hospitals and shared the results early Monday with its hospital executives. Seattle's outbreak, depicted in blue dots, was already ballooning. And now Portland had its own blue specks. If the pattern held, his hospitals were about to be severely tested. "That was the alarm bells going off," he said. Mr. Olson said Renton, Wash.-based Providence has sent its real-estate team to hunt for empty lots suitable for medical tents, an exercise under way in all its markets. Also on the Catholic health system's list of possible extra space for patients: a former dormitory for nuns. (Evans and Wilde Mathews, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Are Hospitals Ready For Coronavirus Patients? A Health Official Ducks Question 4 Times In Fox News Interview.
The question was important, straightforward and crucial to the country's preparedness for dealing with the coronavirus crisis: Are America's hospitals equipped to treat a possible influx of patients afflicted with covid-19? Do they have enough intensive care units and enough ventilators? And the official being questioned by Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Thursday night was in a position to know. After all, Seema Verma is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which, as its website says, "oversees one of the largest federal agencies that administers vital health care programs to over 100 million Americans." She is also on the White House coronavirus task force. As hard as she tried, however, MacCallum could not get a straight answer. (Barbash, 3/13)

The New York Times: Italy's Health Care System Groans Under Coronavirus — A Warning To The World
The mayor of one town complained that doctors were forced to decide not to treat the very old, leaving them to die. In another town, patients with coronavirus-caused pneumonia were being sent home. Elsewhere, a nurse collapsed with her mask on, her photograph becoming a symbol of overwhelmed medical staff. In less than three weeks, the coronavirus has overloaded the heath care system all over northern Italy. It has turned the hard hit Lombardy region into a grim glimpse of what awaits countries if they cannot slow the spread of the virus and ''flatten the curve'' of new cases — allowing the sick to be treated without swamping the capacity of hospitals. (Horowitz, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Virus Outbreak Pushes Italy's Health-Care System To The Brink
When her hospital in the northern Italian city of Cremona had its first case of coronavirus three weeks ago, Francesca Mangiatordi was on a night shift. Since then, as dozens of new cases poured in, the emergency-room doctor has been faced with heart-rending choices, such as how to allocate scarce oxygen supplies among critically ill patients. "These are the choices I would have never wanted to make," she said. "It's somewhat like being in war." (Lombardi and Petroni, 3/12)

CIDRAP: ECDC: COVID-19 Not Containable, Set To Overwhelm Hospitals
In a stark and urgent COVID-19 risk assessment update today, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that, in a few weeks or even days, other countries in the region may face huge surges that mirror those of China and Italy. It advised countries to quickly shift to mitigation strategies to protect vulnerable people and prevent overwhelmed hospitals. (Schnirring, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News: Coronavirus Pushes Hospitals To Share Information About Stocks Of Protective Gear
Masks, gloves and other equipment are crucial as health care workers face the COVID-19 outbreak. There is a strategic national stockpile that the U.S. government controls — but no one knows what, beyond that stockpile, is available in the private sector. Some hospitals have a surplus of the protective equipment and some not enough. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working on a system that would track the inventory across the U.S. (Farmer, 3/13)

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Balance Disclosure And Privacy As COVID-19 Spreads
Hospital responses to the pandemic have varied. While some are actively communicating and being transparent, others are declining to publicly disclose if one of their patients has COVID-19 to minimize liability. Hospitals weigh these decisions as they toe a fine line between disclosing accurate information, complying with privacy laws and not inciting fear. (Kacik, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Shows Why We Need Better Public Health Funding, Experts Say
To illustrate the gulf between the nation's costly health care and its underfunded public health, Alfred Sommer, former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, often tells a story: When people wake up after triple bypass surgery at the famous hospital across the street in Baltimore, they typically thank their doctors for the lifesaving miracles they performed — and sometimes even make donations to the institution. "Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, 'Thank God I don't have smallpox.' Or, 'Thank God my water is potable,' " Sommer said. (Sellers, 3/12)

Meanwhile, in the states —

The Wall Street Journal: Cuomo Warns New York Hospitals Of Coronavirus Surge
New York hospitals may need to halt all elective surgeries and recall former doctors and nurses to handle a surge in novel coronavirus patients, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. Mr. Cuomo said at a press conference that stopping the surgeries would help avoid overwhelming the health-care system. The move would add 25% to 30% to the system's capacity he said. New York's Department of Health would expedite recertification for former doctors and nurses, he said. The state is also considering how the capacity of healthcare systems in upstate New York could relieve those downstate. (West, 3/12)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Coronavirus In Ohio: Hospitals To 'Surge' Patient Load When Necessary
As Ohio accelerates its defense against the spread of the novel coronavirus, hospital officials across the state worked Thursday to reassure residents that their facilities can handle a major increase in patients who get sick from the infection. The executives also said doctors, nurses and other caregivers are prepared to manage a surge in patient counts from the highly contagious virus and the upper-respiratory disease it causes, COVID-19. (Saker, 3/13)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: State Orders All Hospitals, Clinics, Nursing Homes To Restrict Visitors, Limit Procedures To Protect People From Coronavirus
Visitors to licensed health care facilities in Louisiana will be limited in an effort to stop the spread of coronavirus, according to a statement from the Louisiana Department of Health. The only visitors allowed into any licensed facility are "those deemed essential, vital or necessary to the care and well-being of patients, clients and residents," according to a statement from the Department. (Woodruff, 3/12)

14. Human Trials For Vaccine May Start Within A Few Weeks, But Health Experts Warn Against Unrealistic Expectations

A vaccine for broad public use is still 12 to 18 months away. Anyone promising anything faster "will be cutting corners that would be detrimental," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Meanwhile drugmakers are working non-stop to try to find a treatment for the illness.

CNBC: Human Trials For A Coronavirus Vaccine Could Begin 'Within A Few Weeks'
Human trials for a potential vaccine to prevent COVID-19 could begin "within a few weeks" with a vaccine ready for public use within the next 12 to 18 months, a top U.S. health official said Thursday. "We said ... that it would take two to three months to have it in the first human," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday at a hearing on the nation's preparedness for the outbreak. (Lovelace and Higgins-Dunn, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Why Will It Take So Long To Make A Coronavirus Vaccine That Can Prevent COVID-19?
Nothing can stop a global outbreak in its tracks better than a vaccine. Unfortunately, creating a vaccine capable of preventing the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 will probably take at least a year to 18 months, health officials say. "That is the time frame," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee this week. Anyone who says they can do it faster "will be cutting corners that would be detrimental." (Khan, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: As Virus Spreads, Drugmakers Are On The Case
Dozens of drugmakers are scrambling to develop vaccines that could prevent people from contracting the new coronavirus, or therapies to treat people infected with the respiratory disease it causes. Testing of several potential drugs and vaccines has already started, and more trials are in the works. Additional studies could follow if researchers find that products approved for other uses, or even ones they discarded, show promise in their labs tackling the virus. "You're seeing the industry wheel into action," says Jeremy Levin, chairman of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization trade group and chief executive of Ovid Therapeutics Inc. (Hopkins, 3/12)

15. How Coronavirus Is Shutting Down America: Normal Daily Life Grinds To A Halt As People Take Measures To Flatten The Curve

Experts are recommending that anyone who can practice social distancing--like working from home and avoiding large public gatherings--should do so to help curb the coronavirus outbreak, which left uncheck has the potential to spread like wildfire through the states. Meanwhile, organization, companies, universities and state leaders are instituting policies that keep people from congregating in tight spaces together.

Politico: America Shuts Down
Financial markets are careening. Public tours of the very symbols of American political power — the White House, Capitol Hill and Supreme Court — are being put on hold while some congressional offices are shuttering altogether. Campaign rallies are being canceled. Professional sports leagues have suspended play. And Broadway and Disneyland are shutting down. Each day, more and more employees are working remotely at companies large and small. Even the White House is considering mass teleworking. Schools are being closed or going virtual. Ohio students are getting a three-week spring break beginning Monday, while schools will be closed for two weeks across Maryland and six weeks in three Washington state counties. And travel is being discouraged — and in the case of foreign visitors from most of Europe, banned. Some cruise lines are even halting voyages on their ships. (McCaskill, 3/12)

The New York Times: Efforts To Control Coronavirus Could Get Even More Extreme
First came handwashing instructions and social distancing. Then came the prohibitions on large events and the shuttering of schools. Next up, should the coronavirus outbreak grow even more dire, are government measures that could have an even greater impact on daily life. Washington State — where 31 people have died from the virus, the most in the United States — has escalated through most of a 13-step strategy checklist for controlling infectious outbreaks and now has only a few remaining options: closing workplaces, restricting people to their homes and cordoning off targeted areas to help control the spread of infection. (Baker and Jordan, 3/13)

ABC News: Social Distancing Is Key To Stopping Coronavirus
Measures to prevent the spread of novel coronavirus are underway with schools closed, sports events canceled and business conferences postponed. These measures, considered "social distancing," may be key in containing the spread of the coronavirus. "Social distancing is a public health intervention in which people are discouraged from convening in groups and encouraged to keep physical distance from others in order to slow the spread of illness," said Dr. Neha Chaudhary, child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Brainstorm, Stanford's lab for mental health innovation. (Amin, 3/13)

The Associated Press: Pandemic Increasingly Takes Over Daily Lives, Roils Markets
The coronavirus pandemic has taken over daily lives around the globe, overwhelming hospitals, shuttering schools and offices, halting U.S. presidential campaign rallies and world sports while increasing fears about the financial toll. The intensifying spread of COVID-19 beyond Asia has dashed hopes about a quick containment, even with travel and social events curbed drastically. And political leaders were among those infected or quarantined due to potential exposure. (3/13)

CNN: Americans Face New Norms As Coronavirus Outbreaks Show No Sign Of Slowing Down
For many Americans, the past 48 hours have felt like uncharted territory. Travel restrictions into the US are going into effect today. Leaders across the country are banning public gatherings, dozens of school districts and universities hit the pause button on classes, sports leagues suspended their seasons and major entertainment venues -- like Broadway and Disney World -- announced a halt in activities. Despite the unprecedented measures, one top US health official said the number of outbreaks is "definitely going to get worse before it gets better." (Maxouris, 3/13)

CIDRAP: From Broadway To Baseball, US Events Canceled Over COVID-19
All these efforts are attempts at forcing social distancing, which has been touted by public health experts as one of the best ways to flatten the epidemiological curve of the virus, or distribute the number of infections over a long period of time so as not to strain the nation's healthcare system. On Twitter, scientists, researchers, and journalists used the hashtag #flattenthecurve to encourage social distancing measures, such as working from home and canceling major events. (Soucheray, 3/12)

The Hill: Why Canceling Events Makes Sense In The Age Of COVID-19
Governments, businesses and sports leagues are taking drastic steps to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 1,300 people across the United States. The measures, virtually unprecedented in the century since the Spanish flu that killed more than 50 million people around the globe, are aimed at reducing the transmission of the potentially life-threatening virus between those already infected and those who are at risk. Public health experts say the steps are necessary, even critical, to stop the spread of the virus. (Wilson, 3/12)

Stateline: As Coronavirus Cancellations Swell, Officials Weigh How Far To Go
With cases of the new coronavirus multiplying daily, state and local officials have shut down schools and universities, canceled sporting events, concerts and conferences, and even asked houses of worship to stop public ceremonies. In the space of only days, they have moved to sharply curtail the routines of millions of people. While many of these actions may have serious consequences for the economy and the collective psyche of Americans, public officials have not hesitated to take bold steps that only a few days ago seemed unimaginable. (Ollove, 3/13)

The New York Times: Twenty-Four Hours When Sports Hit The Halt Button
One by one, beginning Wednesday night and all through Thursday, the pillars of the American athletic landscape toppled, unceremoniously, to the ground, marking one of the most astonishing nights and days in United States sports history. Professional basketball disappeared first, then the college game followed; hockey melted away; baseball went on indefinite hiatus; and soccer took leave, as well. Before Thursday, Americans could have held some hope that the country's traditional sports leagues would, in the coming weeks, supply moments of needed respite and emotional escape from the weighty concerns of the coronavirus pandemic. (Keh, 3/12)

The Associated Press: Virus Darkens Stages, Silences Orchestras Across The US
The closures of museums and theaters and concerts come even as families find their kids locked out of school with nothing to do and arts institutions worry about keeping the lights on without ticket sales. "It's the people that are down here, trying to earn that dollar that it's going to affect the most," said Mike Beliles, of Wilmington, North Carolina, who was visiting Nashville. "It's the people who are trying to make ends meet and they aren't able to work." (3/13)

The Associated Press: Some US Colleges Cancel, Postpone Graduation Over Virus
Colleges across the U.S. have begun canceling and curtailing graduation amid fears that the coronavirus pandemic will stretch into spring. Some are exploring "virtual"alternatives, while others are considering inviting seniors back for commencement at a later date or just mailing out diplomas. Schools including Brigham Young University, the Savannah College of Art and Design and Berea College are among those telling students that current commencement ceremonies have been canceled. (3/13)

ABC News: Two-Thirds Of Americans Concerned About Contracting Coronavirus, As Country Grapples With Growing Crisis: POLL
Two-thirds of Americans are concerned that they or someone they know will be infected with the novel coronavirus, but in a country with a growing partisan divide, political tribalism is having a large impact when it comes to anxiety over the disease, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday. Although unease over the coronavirus is high, it also strongly breaks along partisan lines. Among Democrats, 83% are concerned about getting coronavirus, including 47% who are very concerned, and among Republicans, 56% are concerned, including only 15% who are very concerned. Only 17% of Democrats are not concerned while a larger 44% of Republicans are not concerned. (Karson, 3/13)

Reuters: 'People Are Terrified': Daily Life On Hold As Americans Face Coronavirus Threat
In Texas, a photographer worries about paying his bills. In Pennsylvania, an aspiring dancer struggles with a canceled audition. In suburban Los Angeles, a mother wonders whether anyone will show up for her son's bar mitzvah. Across the United States, the coronavirus outbreak is shuttering schools, emptying sports arenas and clearing out offices as Americans practice "social distancing" - staying at least 6 feet (1.8 m) apart from one another - that health authorities say is necessary to slow the advance of the deadly pandemic. (3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: When Big Events Get Canceled Due To The Coronavirus, Who's On The Hook?
Event cancellations are multiplying because of the coronavirus. For the most part it is event organizers and local communities, not insurers, who will foot the bill. The limited involvement of the insurance industry sets the fallout from coronavirus cancellations apart from natural disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes that tend to result in substantial insurance payouts. (Steinberg, 3/13)

16. What's Getting Canceled: Disneyland, Broadway, Sports, Cruises, Courts, Schools And More

A look at the wide-ranging list of closures, cancellations and postponements as cities and states try to contain the coronavirus.

The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court To Close To Public Indefinitely
The Supreme Court and other federal courts in the nation's capital said they would close to the public indefinitely, allowing access only to those with official business, as authorities tried to stanch the coronavirus pandemic. "Out of concern for the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees, the Supreme Court Building will be closed to the public from 4:30 p.m. on March 12, 2020, until further notice," the Supreme Court said Thursday. (Bravin, 3/12)

The Hill: Supreme Court Will Close To Public Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
The Supreme Court will close to the public indefinitely starting on Thursday afternoon amid concerns over coronavirus, but the building remains open for "official business," a spokeswoman said. The new restriction on public access comes after the pandemic infected more than 1,300 in the U.S., including 10 cases in Washington, D.C., where local officials have declared a state of emergency and discouraged large gatherings as social and economic disruption widens across the country. "Out of concern for the health and safety of the public and Supreme Court employees, the Supreme Court building will be closed to the public … until further notice," said court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe. (Kruzel, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Disneyland And Universal Studios To Close For The Rest Of The Month Because Of Coronavirus
At first, Thursday seemed like it was shaping up to be a typical — and typically busy — day at the "Happiest Place on Earth." Just before 10 a.m., the wait times for Disneyland's popular attractions at its Anaheim theme park were significant — 55 minutes for the Matterhorn Bobsleds and 45 minutes for Space Mountain, according to the park's mobile app. Guests were posting happy pictures of their visits, although some acknowledged that there was more than the threat of weather that could rain on their parade. (Money, Martin and Cosgrove, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Disneyland To Close Temporarily As Coronavirus Spurs Cancellations
Walt Disney Co. announced Thursday it is closing its Disneyland Resort as the coronavirus pandemic caused widespread cancellations of sporting events and other public gatherings. As of Thursday afternoon, Disney's larger U.S. park, Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Fla., remained open with no closure plans. The company said that there have been no reported cases of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus at the Disneyland Resort but added that the closure was "in the best interest of our guests and employees." (Watson, 3/12)

CNN: Disney World Closes Because Of The Coronavirus Outbreak
Disney (DIS) is closing Walt Disney World, its flagship theme park resort in Orlando, Florida, because of the global pandemic. The company also announced the closure of Disneyland Paris and the suspension of all new departures with the Disney Cruise Line. Earlier on Thursday the company said it was closing it's iconic Disneyland resort in Anaheim, California. The virus, which has spread worldwide, has now shuttered the gates of all eleven Disney theme parks across North America, Europe and Asia. (Pallotta, 3/12)

The New York Times: Broadway, Symbol Of New York Resilience, Shuts Down Amid Virus Threat
The adage is synonymous with Broadway itself: the show must go on. And for decades, through wars and recessions and all forms of darkness, Broadway, the heart of America's theater industry and an economic lifeblood for many artists, has kept its curtains up and its footlights on. But on Thursday, facing a widening coronavirus pandemic and new limitations on large gatherings, the industry said it was suspending all plays and musicals for 32 days, effective immediately. (Paulson, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Broadway Going Dark Could Mean Losses Above $100 Million
With Broadway and New York City's broader cultural scene coming to a coronavirus-prompted close on Thursday, industry professionals are tallying the potential financial impact. Their quick assessment is the hit—estimated at $100 million for Broadway ticket revenue alone—could be substantial when factoring in the cost to the theaters, shows and institutions involved, along with the effect on the wider New York economy. (Passy, 3/12)

The Hill: MLB Suspending Spring Training And Pushing Back The Season: Report
MLB is expected to cease all spring training activities sometime Thursday afternoon, following the lead of other American sports leagues amid the growing coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., ESPN reported. "After a conference call among owners this afternoon, Major League Baseball is expected to suspend spring training," ESPN's Jeff Passan tweeted early Thursday afternoon. "The league likely will delay the beginning of the regular season as well. At this point, it's a formality that ownership-level sources expect to happen," he added. (Johnson, 3/12)

Politico: 'This Town' Faces A Lockdown
Book parties and air kisses, furrowed brows and panel discussions: Many of the rhythms of daily life in the nation's capital are about creating, if not the reality, then at least the illusion of social intimacy. How is Washington dealing with a moment—perhaps a very long time—when the new catchphrase is social distancing? So far, the city's biggest patterns haven't been disrupted: Congress is still in session. The federal government has not, as of yet, told most of its employees to stop coming to the office. The White House is still conducting business as usual, despite Trump's dramatic decision Wednesday night to block travelers from Europe. (Lippman, 3/13)

The Associated Press: Some US Colleges Cancel, Postpone Graduation Over Virus
Colleges across the U.S. have begun canceling and curtailing graduation amid fears that the coronavirus pandemic will stretch into spring. Some are exploring "virtual"alternatives, while others are considering inviting seniors back for commencement at a later date or just mailing out diplomas. Schools including Brigham Young University, the Savannah College of Art and Design and Berea College are among those telling students that current commencement ceremonies have been canceled. (3/13)

The Washington Post: Cancellations Hit Trump's Hotels And Clubs Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
President Trump's family business, which owns and operates hotels and golf courses, faced a rapidly deteriorating commercial outlook Thursday as it became caught up in the wave of cancellations across the tourism industry as a result of the coronavirus. The company also learned it had hosted its first confirmed coronavirus case: a Brazilian official who spent time with President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida last week. (Partlow, Fahrenthold and O'Connell, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Princess Cruises Cancels All Voyages For Two Months
Princess Cruises canceled all its voyages for the next two months and will cut short some current trips, after two of its ships suffered coronavirus outbreaks. It is the first ocean carrier to suspend sailings as a result of coronavirus. The suspension applies to voyages departing March 12 to May 10, Princess said Thursday. The cruise line is owned by Carnival Corp. Current trips with less than five days remaining will continue, but those extending beyond March 17 will be cut short. (Paris, Sebastian and Ailworth, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Pandemic: California Calls For Ban On Large Events
Coronavirus cases continue to mount across California as counties big and small reported new tallies on Thursday and Disneyland took unprecedented action to close the theme park for the rest of the month. Los Angeles County health officials confirmed three new cases, two of which had an unidentified source of exposure, suggesting that the virus is actively spreading in the community. (Wigglesworth, Winton, Smith, Branson-Potts and Mozingo, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: College Students' Dispersal Over Virus Concern Is Expected To Snarl Census
The sudden dispersal of college students across the U.S. as schools seek to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus could complicate the Census Bureau's plan to count students at their school addresses. The 2020 census got under way Thursday. Millions of Americans have received invitations encouraging them to fill out the decennial questionnaire online, by phone or on paper. The Census Bureau was assessing how the coronavirus epidemic could interfere with its plans to count more than 3 million college students who live on or near campuses. (Overberg, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Movie Theaters See Temporary Closures As Strong Possibility
U.S. movie theaters are increasingly likely to shut down temporarily, according to a person familiar with the matter, amid growing concerns related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. "The chances are high" that theaters will shut, the person said, with the caveat that the situation is "really fluid and depending on local health officials and conditions." AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Cineworld Group PLC's Regal Entertainment Group didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. Cinemark Holdings Inc. declined to comment. (Watson, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Religious Leaders Debate Whether To Close Churches, Mosques Amid Coronavirus
Religious leaders across the nation took dramatic measures this week to cancel weekend gatherings while others told their members they will still hold services. Ahead of Friday prayers where Muslims usually prostrate shoulder-to-shoulder on carpets, disagreements emerged among Muslim leaders over whether to hold religious services and how to handle mass gatherings. Outside Washington, leaders of two major Virginia-based mosques took the opposite approach from each other for Friday prayers, which are mandatory for Muslim men. (Bailey, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Starbucks Baristas Confront Coronavirus Pandemic
The 200,000 workers at Starbucks Corp.'s U.S. cafes are on the rapidly shifting front lines of the service industry's confrontation with the coronavirus pandemic. Workers who pour coffee for millions of Americans risk exposure to the virus if infected customers visit their stores. They are also under pressure to keep cafes cleaner than ever to reassure customers as confirmed cases multiply across the country. (Haddon, 3/12)

17. Life Takes Drastic Turns From Shop Owners In Small Kentucky Town To Commuters In New York City

From social distancing to disinfecting, media outlets report on efforts under way across the nation to deal with slowing the spread of the virus in communities small and large.

The Washington Post: A Small Town Takes A Big Hit After Coronavirus Is Confirmed In Its Midst
On a typical weekday, the restaurants that are just a quick walk from the white-columned county courthouse at the center of town would be serving a lively lunch crowd. But the booths are empty this week, the bar stools vacant. The culprit is the novel coronavirus — a single case on Friday, followed quickly by four more. Almost overnight, they wiped out business here and made Harrison County an unlikely epicenter for the outbreak in Kentucky. "This virus came to town and scared everyone," lamented Josh Jenkins, who owns JJ's on Main Street. On Sunday, he told most of his 20-person staff to stay home for lack of customers. He has no idea when he'll call them back to work. (Williams, 3/12)

WBUR: What Governors Are Doing To Tackle Spreading Coronavirus
Governors around the U.S. are taking a variety of steps to try to contain the spread of coronavirus and protect the public. More than 30 state leaders, as well as officials from Washington, D.C., have declared states of emergency, clearing the path to respond to the dangers posed by the COVID-19 pandemic as experts warn the number of cases will increase in future weeks. (Romo, 3/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: Gov. Gavin Newsom Ramps Up California's Response To The Coronavirus
California ramped up its efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus this week, urging the cancellation of large gatherings, suspending most prison visits and waiving requirements that government meetings be held in public. It was a significant escalation of the state response to a crisis in which Gov. Gavin Newsom had been largely deferential to local public health officials. But the state stopped short of taking more extreme measures, including closing schools or shutting the Capitol to visitors. (Koseff, 3/12)

The Hill: Ohio Health Official Estimates 100,000 People In State Have Coronavirus
A top health official in Ohio estimated on Thursday that more than 100,000 people in the state have coronavirus, a shockingly high number that underscores the limited testing so far. Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton said at a press conference alongside Gov. Mike DeWine (R) that given that the virus is spreading in the community in Ohio, she estimates at least 1 percent of the population in the state has the virus. (Sullivan, 3/12)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Public And Private Schools Closed 3 Weeks Beginning Tuesday
Ohio's schools will close for at least three weeks, starting at the end of classes Monday, as state health officials work to limit the spread of coronavirus. Gov. Mike DeWine announced Thursday that public and private, kindergarten through 12th-grade schools will close from Tuesday through April 3. It's not yet clear how the closure will affect state testing. DeWine said the closures do not include preschools and child care centers. (Borchardt and Balmert, 3/12)

The Hill: Alaska Confirms First Presumptive Case Of Coronavirus
Alaska has confirmed its first presumptive case of the the novel coronavirus, Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) announced Thursday. The case is presumptive, meaning the patient has tested positive in state-administered tests but has yet to be confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The patient is a foreign national who was traveling through the state, Dunleavy said. He is not known to have had significant contact with others in the state. (Moreno, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Newsom Order Allows California To Take Over Hotels For Coronavirus Patients
California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a sweeping executive order on Thursday that allows the state to commandeer hotels and medical facilities to treat coronavirus patients and permits government officials to hold teleconferences in private without violating open meeting laws. Newsom issued the order hours after he called for the cancellation of gatherings of 250 or more people through the end of March, marking the first time he has applied so-called social distancing practices to the entire state of California. (Luna, 3/12)

San Francisco Chronicle: New State Bill Aims To Soften Closures Of Homes For Mentally Ill, Homeless And Drug Addicted
As San Francisco and the rest of California rapidly lose their board-and-care homes, a new state bill aims to lessen the blow of closing these long-term facilities for the homeless, mentally ill and drug-addicted. The bill, written by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and sponsored by Mayor London Breed, outlines a protocol that adult residential facilities must follow when they decide to shut their doors. The hope is that the new requirements will increase transparency and give residents ample notice that they are going to have to move. (Thadani, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Los Angeles Restaurants And Chefs Scramble To Adjust
No drink refills or cash payment, more spacing between diners, thermometers at the front door: To contend with the rapid spread of novel coronavirus, restaurant owners and chefs in Los Angeles are adopting strict measures to prevent the spread of germs — and to keep business running as normally as possible. "We are taking things seriously" at Alimento in Silver Lake and Cosa Buona in Echo Park, owner Zach Pollack said in an Instagram post. (Snyder and Peterson, 3/12)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In N.Y.: Riders Ditch The Subway As Fear Spreads
Cyclists have flooded bike lanes and bridges to avoid taking the New York City subway. One man in his 50s has started walking two hours from Brooklyn to Manhattan for work each day to avoid taking the train. A recent college graduate who lives in Manhattan is considering moving in with her parents so she can use their car to drive to work in the Bronx. (Goldbaum, 3/13)

Politico: City In State Of Emergency As Coronavirus Outlook Becomes More Dire
Mayor Bill de Blasio officially declared a state of emergency in New York City Thursday in response to the coronavirus pandemic, adopting a more ominous tone than usual as he warned it would be months before life would return to normal. "We are getting into a situation where the only analogy is war," de Blasio told reporters during Thursday's news briefing. (Durkin and Eisenberg, 3/12)

WBUR: State: Massachusetts Has Tested More Than 200 People For Coronavirus
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health says more than 200 people have been tested for coronavirus so far, and currently has the capacity to test up to 5,000. Despite the state of emergency in Massachusetts because of the coronavirus, testing for the virus is not widespread. Some experts say this could worsen the spread of the virus. (Becker, 3/12)

The New York Times: No Virus Cases, But Austin Is Reeling 'As If A Tornado Came Through'
This city, the state capital of Texas, has been pummeled by the coronavirus outbreak, though it has yet to see a single confirmed case. Financial losses from the sudden cancellation of South by Southwest, the pop culture mega event that helped establish Austin's funky hipster identity, are anticipated to be enormous. "Just to put it in perspective — if I was a big-box store, this is shutting down Christmas," said Chris Warndahl, the general manager of Miller Pro AVL, an event lighting, sound and video company in Austin that may have to let go some employees after losing about 35 percent of its annual income. (Montgomery and Ferndandez, 3/13)

Houston Chronicle: In Rural Texas, Precautions Are Their Best Protection From Coronavirus
For the Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital in West Texas, the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup means an emergency room filled with people seeking treatment for snakebites, cuts and bruises. This year, however, the 86-bed hospital has to contend with the possibility that someone among the more than 20,000 people who attend the annual event to catch rattlesnakes and enjoy the carnival could carry the coronavirus. (Wu, 3/11)

The Washington Post: Anxiety Over Coronavirus In D.C., Maryland, Virginia
Becky Reina, a mother of two children who lives in Northwest Washington, was not about to wait for any more anxiety-inducing announcements about the novel coronavirus. When they came into her bedroom early Thursday, as they do every morning, Reina told Abigail, 6, and Thomas, 8, they would not be going to Cleveland Elementary School that day — or any day in the near future. Instead, her kids spent the morning eating chocolate chip pancakes, gardening, working on homework packets and "trying to hang out without killing each other," said Reina, who lives in the LeDroit Park neighborhood. (Schwartzman, 3/12)

The Baltimore Sun: Before Coronavirus Gets To Campus, Maryland Colleges Restrict Access To Slow Disease's Spread
In a cascade of announcements Tuesday evening and into Wednesday, Maryland colleges and universities said they would be sending students home and turning to online learning for at least two weeks in the face of a coronavirus pandemic. There's been no confirmed cases on a college campus in the state. Young people who get COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, aren't usually horribly sick. So why is nearly every public and private institution temporarily canceling face-to-face classes after spring break? (Bowie and Cohn, 3/12)

The New York Times: Everybody Ready For The Big Migration To Online College? Actually, No
Nobody planned for an abrupt mass migration of traditional college courses to the internet.But because of coronavirus, that's where we are. Hundreds of thousands of students have been told to clear out their belongings and head home, many through the end of the semester. In nearly every case, colleges have said that instruction will continue online. (Carey, 3/13)

The Baltimore Sun: 'It Is Uncharted Territory': Two-Week Closure Forces Schools To Find Ways To Maintain Instruction And Services
Maryland's top education official has ordered all public schools to close for two weeks beginning Monday in an unprecedented move that leaves administrators rushing to prepare plans to feed students, rethink testing and worry about hourly workers who might not be paid. The action, announced at Gov. Larry Hogan's press conference on Thursday evening, drew praise from teachers and parents who said there is broad anxiety in the community about the spread of COVID-19. (Bowie, 3/13)

The Baltimore Sun: Top Maryland Finance Official Warns Coronavirus Could Cause 'Prolonged, Full-Blown Recession'
Maryland's Board of Revenue Estimates declined Thursday to make updated projections about how much in taxes the state will collect due to economic uncertainty caused by the spread of coronavirus. The three-member panel of Comptroller Peter Franchot, State Treasurer Nancy Kopp and Maryland budget secretary David Brinkley voted unanimously to maintain the projections about the state's budget made in December. Franchot said the projections "are meant to serve as a placeholder as we await to learn the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our country and our state." (Broadwater, 3/12)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Kemp Orders Most State Staffers To Telework Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
Gov. Brian Kemp ordered thousands of state employees to work from home as officials scrambled to address the spread of coronavirus, which has sickened dozens in the state and claimed its first victim in Georgia. The governor also issued a "call to action" to schools and day care centers that he said gave them clearance to shut down if local administrators agree it's necessary, though he cautioned he was not mandating any closures. (Bluestein, 3/12)

CNN: Seattle Coronavirus Survivor Elizabeth Schneider On What It's Like To Have The Virus
A Seattle woman who says she had the coronavirus and is recovering has one "big takeaway" to share: Don't panic. Elizabeth Schneider, 37, believes she contracted the virus at a house party because a few days later, several friends who were at the party became ill at the same time she did. Three days after the February 22 party, Schneider says, she was at work when she started feeling unwell. She was "feeling tired, body aches, getting a headache, feeling a little bit feverish," so she decided to go home, Schneider told CNN's Erin Burnett. (Waldrop, 3/13)

WBUR: Boston Startup Rolls Out Online Tool To Screen For Coronavirus
If you're one of the many people wondering if that sniffle or cough could be the coronavirus, there's now a website for that. Boston startup Buoy Health hopes to help people screen themselves for coronavirus, amid growing concerns about the disease that has already upended daily life for many people. (Enwemeka, 3/13)

Boston Globe: Is It Time To Close R.I. Schools? One Principal Says Yes.
Colleges and universities in Rhode Island are already closing and sending their students home, but the state Department of Education, which oversees K-12 public schools, has not mandated any closures. However, on Thursday, Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green sent a letter to all school districts advising them to prepare for school closures. (Milkovits, 3/12)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: U.S. At 'inflection Point' For Coronavirus; Louisiana Registers 19 Cases
Louisiana joined the federal government and a host of other states Thursday in taking dramatic steps to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic and avoid overwhelming regional health care systems, with the state restricting visitors to health care facilities, prisons and nursing homes as the number of confirmed cases rose to 19. State officials discovered six new cases of coronavirus Thursday, all in the greater New Orleans area. Among the "presumptive positive" cases, 15 are residents of Orleans Parish, two live in Jefferson Parish, one is in Lafourche Parish and one is in Caddo Parish. (Karlin and Simerman, 3/12)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Coronavirus Outbreak: Case Count Rises. Testing A Problem
Lives were disrupted with closures and cancellations across the state Thursday as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 jumped to 12. Attention turned to testing, and why more people in Michigan and around the country haven't been tested for the novel coronavirus. There simply aren't enough tests yet, doctors say. And although the situation is likely to get better soon — commercial labs are ramping up production — there still aren't enough to test every person who wants to be tested. (Shamus and Lawrence, 3/13)

Indianapolis Star: Coronavirus In Indiana: Holcomb, Hogsett Announce Unprecedented Steps
State and local officials Thursday announced a series of unprecedented moves designed to staunch the spread of the coronavirus, from closing all Marion County schools for a minimum of three weeks to advising against gatherings larger than 250 people. Gov. Eric Holcomb issued a series of what his office termed strongly worded recommendations for steps the state and local municipalities should take. State employees also will be given guidance about remote work options, he said in a statement. (Rudavsky, 3/12)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Clark County Cancels Large Events As Coronavirus Fears Grow
Clark County announced Thursday it was canceling events of 250 people or more at its parks and recreation facilities over coronavirus outbreak concerns. The move affects the Tacos and Tamales at Desert Breeze Park on March 28 and Jazz in the Park at the county Government Center Amphitheater in May and June, officials said. The decision will remain in effect until further notice. (Apgar and Johnson, 3/12)

18. Coronavirus Gives 2020 Candidates A Real-Time Test To Demonstrate How They'd React In A Crisis

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) both addressed the nation the day after President Donald Trump gave a speech from the Oval Office. The three candidates' response to the outbreak is giving voters an insight into what they can expect in terms of leadership going forward. Meanwhile, the virus is fundamentally altering the race in other ways as well, from canceled rallies to missed fundraising opportunities. The full extent of the impact might not be visible until November. And states are working on ways to increase health protections for voters.

The New York Times: How The Coronavirus Changed The 2020 Political Campaign
For the past year, the Democratic presidential candidates debated the merits of sweeping liberal ideas, fretted over notions of electability and bias, and rose and fell in the polls as voters struggled to choose a front-runner. And through it all, President Trump sniped from the sidelines, demonizing the party and its 2020 contenders as socialists. Almost overnight, everything has changed. Amid deepening uncertainty over a spreading virus and growing anxiety about an economic meltdown, that kind of classic presidential campaign ended and something extraordinary has begun: a real-time, life-or-death test of competency and leadership for those seeking the White House this November. (Lerer and Epstein, 3/12)

ABC News: Coronavirus Altering 2020 Election In Fundamental Ways
The unprecedented nature of the rapid spread of the coronavirus has, in many ways, fundamentally altered the current phase of the 2020 election cycle... For some of the 2020 candidates, the pandemic has meant canceling events, hosting "virtual" versions of others, and a host of other changes. For other candidates, events continue as planned as they consult with public health officials. (Steakin, 3/12)

NBC News: Pandemic Politics: Coronavirus Forces Candidates To Shift To 'Virtual' Campaign
With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on stock markets, sports leagues and everyday life, it comes as no surprise that the presidential race isn't being spared. Enter: the virtual campaign. Say goodbye to big rallies with long lines, smaller meet-and-greets, volunteers knocking on your door. All you'll need now to "attend" your favorite candidate's event is an internet-connected device — please do so in your pajamas if you like. (Edelman, 3/13)

Politico: Coronavirus Consumes Trump's Reelection Bid
When Donald Trump's top campaign advisers met with the president in the White House Wednesday, they came prepared with reams of polling data on his standing with voters eight months out from the election. But Trump was focused on something else: The coronavirus. Before the group could begin their long-planned presentation on the 2020 race, the president launched into a commentary about how travel from Europe was "a mess" and needed to be shut down. (Isenstadt and Korecki, 3/13)

Modern Healthcare: Biden, Sanders Lay Out Coronavirus Response Plans
The two leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination laid out their plans to respond to COVID-19 on Thursday as markets reeled following an address from President Donald Trump. The plans from former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are the latest indication that response to the coronavirus outbreak will be an election issue.Both candidates called for affordable testing and treatment. Biden proposed waiving all out-of-pocket costs for testing, treatment, and an eventual vaccine and banning surprise medical bills. Sanders used the opportunity to highlight his single-payer healthcare proposal, which would not have deductibles or copays. (Cohrs, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden Offers His Own Plan For Coronavirus Response
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that the nation needs to harness a comprehensive public-health and economic response to the coronavirus, offering a look at how he would address a crisis in the White House. The former vice president, in a speech near his home in Wilmington, Del., said the nation must respond aggressively to combat the spread of the disease, with practices and staff he described as grounded in science. (Thomas, 3/12)

Politico: Biden Offers Coronavirus Plan, Rebuking Trump's 'America First' Approach
[Biden] also painted a broader vision to restore the U.S. as a world leader — one day after President Donald Trump announced a shutdown of foreign travel from most European countries during an Oval Office address filled with errors that shook already troubled financial markets and confused the public. "We'll never fully solve this problem if we're unwilling to look beyond our own borders and engage fully with the rest of the world," Biden said. "We have to confront the coronavirus everywhere." (Canccryn, 3/12)

Bloomberg: Biden, Sanders Deliver Coronavirus Speeches To Contrast Trump
"Protecting the health and safety of the American people is the most important job of any president and unfortunately this virus laid bare the severe shortcomings of the current administration," Biden said, reading from a TelePrompter in Wilmington, Delaware.On Wednesday night, Trump gave a prime-time address from the Oval Office where he announced new travel restrictions and executive actions to help people and businesses affected by the rapidly spreading virus. But, after the speech, the administration was forced to correct a number of the president's assertions after he incorrectly described the administration's actions. (Pager and Epstein, 3/13)

Politico: Sanders Warns Of Coronavirus 'Meltdown' On Par With World War II
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Thursday offered a dark assessment of the coronavirus outbreak, warning that the nation is facing an unprecedented emergency on par with a world war. "The crisis we face from the coronavirus is on a scale of a major war, and we must act accordingly," he said. "The number of casualties may actually be even higher than what the armed forces experienced in World War II. In other words, we have a major, major crisis and we must act accordingly." (Cancryn, 3/12)

Politico: Coronavirus Crashes Biden Fundraising Plans
Coronavirus is throwing a huge wrench in Joe Biden's fundraising plans just as he's preparing to build up his campaign for a general election fight against President Donald Trump. The Biden campaign has postponed in-person fundraising events "indefinitely," according to a memo distributed Thursday to staff and reviewed by POLITICO, instead replacing them with "virtual fundraisers" like conference calls or video events — a largely untested method of large-dollar political fundraising. The memo followed the cancellation of events Biden's campaign had just scheduled in Miami, Chicago and the Tri-State area as state and local governments declared emergencies over the spread of coronavirus. (Severns and Kapos, 3/12)

The New York Times: Afraid Of Coronavirus? That Might Say Something About Your Politics
The coronavirus has been detected in more than 1,500 people across the United States. Public schools are closing and mass gatherings are being canceled. The National Collegiate Athletic Association called off its March Madness tournaments. The stock market took a historic plunge on Thursday. And yet polls show that many voters still don't see the virus as a serious threat. How much it worries you depends heavily on your personal politics — to a degree that's not typical for a national crisis. (Russonello, 3/13)

The New York Times: How 4 Big States Are Preparing To Vote As The Coronavirus Spreads
Elections officials in the next four Democratic primary states are taking extra precautions before voters head to the polls on Tuesday, as the coronavirus upends the 2020 race and people worry about gatherings and places where they might become infected. There are no plans to cancel primaries in the four states — Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Arizona — and officials are expressing confidence that ballots can be safely cast. (Corasaniti and Mazzei, 3/13)

19. How Much Will It Cost If You Get Coronavirus?

Federal and state officials are working to figure out the complexity of costs facing a patient who is exposed to or contracts COVID-19, from testing to treatment. Meanwhile, Lyft and Uber drivers sue over sick leave benefits.

The Washington Post: What Your Health Plan Will Cover If You Get Coronavirus
In his prime-time speech, President Trump announced Wednesday night that health insurers had pledged to eliminate "all co-payments for coronavirus treatments" and "extend insurance coverage to those treatments." That is not exactly correct. A broad swath of the nation's private health insurers has agreed to waive the charges for a coronavirus test for their members. But they have not committed to cover the cost of care for those sickened by the virus. And while there is no specific treatment for the rapidly spreading infections, insurers have not expanded coverage for anyone, including the more seriously ill who need hospitalization. (Goldstein, 3/12)

Modern Healthcare: Azar Extends Liability Immunity In The Fight Against COVID-19
HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Thursday extended liability protection to a wide range of healthcare providers, suppliers, drugmakers and other entities while they help address the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the declaration, they would be immune from any claim related to "the manufacture, distribution, administration, or use of medical countermeasures ... except for claims involving 'willful misconduct.'"The order went into effect on February 4, 2020. (Brady, 3/12)

Boston Globe: State Officials Offering Health Coverage To Uninsured People Worried About Coronavirus
As the novel coronavirus continues to spread, Massachusetts's health insurance exchange is allowing people without insurance to sign up for coverage. Officials at the state Health Connector said they're opening a special enrollment period, until April 25, for anyone who wants to make sure they're covered in case they're affected by coronavirus. Typically, the Connector only enrolls new members from November through January. (McCluskey, 3/12)

Kaiser Health News and Politifact HealthCheck: Trump Wrongly Said Health Insurers Will Pay For All Coronavirus Treatment
As coronavirus cases multiply in the United States, one concern Americans have is what they can expect to pay if they seek treatment. Speaking from the White House, President Donald Trump suggested that people with health insurance shouldn't have to worry about that."Earlier this week, I met with the leaders of the health insurance industry who have agreed to waive all copayments for coronavirus treatments, extend insurance coverage to these treatments, and to prevent surprise medical billing," Trump said March 11. (Luthra and Sherman, 3/13)

The Hill: Rideshare Drivers Sue Uber, Lyft To Classify Them As Employees, Citing Coronavirus
Rideshare drivers this week re-upped lawsuits against Uber and Lyft to gain employee classification and sick leave benefits, arguing that the spread of coronavirus means judges should act now. Labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan filed an emergency complaint in California against each company and added to existing cases against both companies in Massachusetts on behalf of rideshare drivers. The drivers are asking for judges to issue emergency injunctions forcing Uber and Lyft to comply with each state's employment classification laws and provide paid sick leave for the drivers. (Rodrigo, 3/12)

20. Doubly Vulnerable: Older People Are Already Prone To Chronic Loneliness, What Happens To That Population In Midst Of Social Isolation?

The elderly are getting hit hardest by the coronavirus and public health experts are recommending they avoid large crowds and other social gatherings. But for a group that already struggles with loneliness -- which can lead to poor health outcomes -- social distancing due to coronavirus will likely exacerbate the issue. Meanwhile, health officials and medical providers are having a difficult time convincing older Americans to take the threat seriously.

Vox: How Social Distancing For Coronavirus Could Cause A Loneliness Epidemic
Deborah Johnson Lanholm, 63, lives in Sicklerville, New Jersey. A retired nurse, she's the primary caretaker for her older sister, Helen Palese, who lives with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. "She's nonverbal," Deborah says. "I do her speaking for her. So every other day, we do something together. We go to the movies. I take her to my crocheting group. We go out to dinner or the mall. But she's with other people. All of that will have to stop because she's too compromised." And it won't just stop for Helen. It'll stop for Deborah, too. "I'll have to change my routine because I have to care for her," Deborah says. "I won't go out in crowds or be in places where I'll be exposed." (Klein, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Means Fear And Isolation For Many Asian American Seniors
On church days, Willy Chang, 72, is skipping service, including steering clear of his usual after-service lunch spot, and is definitely not stopping at his neighborhood market in Alhambra for Asian pear and hot pot ingredients. Larry Dinh, 68, is spending fewer and fewer weekends at the packed Buddhist temple in Santa Ana where he and his friends have worshiped for decades. And Susie Hong, 66, is starting to mind her kids' advice to avoid the pingpong tables at a popular senior center in Monterey Park. (Do, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Nursing Homes And Senior-Living Facilities Struggle To Control The Spread Of The Novel Coronavirus
Half a mile from the nursing home where the coronavirus first ran rampant here, the Gardens at Juanita Bay senior home received troubling news this week. A resident had tested positive for the virus. Managers urged residents on Monday to stay in their rooms. Meals would be delivered. On Tuesday morning a pipe-smoking resident rolled his motorized wheelchair down one of the compound's paved, tree-shaded paths. He said he did not believe covid-19 was there, and that restrictions were "overblown." (Greene and Sacchetti, 3/12)

ABC News: 'I'm Scared': How Coronavirus Is Delivering A Double Blow For Older Americans
As the novel coronavirus sickens thousands and clobbers financial markets, some older adults -- the most at-risk group -- feel they're taking a double hit amid the pandemic as they also watch their retirement savings plunge. Barb Winsor, 64, a lung cancer survivor from Bridgeport, Connecticut, said she'd planned a trip to London for her daughter's birthday this week, but canceled it last minute on the advice of her doctor. (Thorbecke, 3/13)

The Washington Post: Many Older Americans Are Playing Down The Coronavirus Threat While Others Opt For Safety
At her home in The Villages, a sprawling central Florida retirement community that overlaps three counties, Alicia Przybylowicz still greets neighbors with a big smile and an outstretched hand. "I'm a hand-shaker. I think I will always be a hand-shaker and a hugger," the 64-year-old said. Worries about the coronavirus aren't going to stop that. "It seems that it's been blown out of proportion." Not far away, at a house in the same community, Judy Nieman, 66, said that attitude is alarming. "We don't know how this is going to spread in this community," she said. "We're all older here. This place is full of people who go on cruises all the time. They go on safaris. And I don't see them curtailing their activities as much as I would." (Fears and Dennis, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus: Questions Linger At Senior Facility Where Woman Died
Two days after the new coronavirus killed a patient at a Northern California assisted living home, some families of residents there are alarmed about the welfare of their loved ones and angry about a lack of information from the facility and local officials. Several relatives of the 143 residents at the facility told The Times on Thursday they still hadn't been informed of the death, were receiving scant details and feared the assisted living center was not taking simple precautions to prevent their relatives from becoming seriously ill. (Chabria, 3/12)

21. 'Wrong, Inappropriate': Experts Warn That Politicians Using Wuhan Virus As Label For Illness Is Dangerously Irresponsible

"Ultimately, diseases are about biology, not geography," said Jeremy Konyndyk, who help lead the U.S. response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa. Descriptions of coronavirus that are winning praise in some GOP circles are racist, potentially undermine efforts to prevent spread of the disease and and threaten to harm relationships with China, health advocates say.

Politico: Trump Aides Pound On China. Health Experts Say: Please Stop.
They call it the "Wuhan virus." As a lethal pandemic races across the world, overwhelming health systems and upending entire societies, President Donald Trump's top aides and allies see an opening to weaken a vulnerable adversary. The Trump team's escalating drumbeat against China is worrying some public health experts, who say the attempts to blame Beijing for the coronavirus outbreak could harm efforts to combat the spreading contagion, while winning praise from others. (Toosi, 3/13)

NBC News: GOP Lawmakers Continue To Use 'Wuhan Virus' Or 'Chinese Coronavirus'
Republican lawmakers have persisted in using "Wuhan virus" or "Chinese coronavirus," despite remarks by Democrats and the director of the CDC that such phrases are inaccurate and even racist. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., used the term "Wuhan virus" on Thursday in announcing that his Washington office was closing because of the illness. His comments came two days after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, agreed when questioned at a House hearing that it was "absolutely wrong and inappropriate" to use such labels. (Yam, 3/12)

CNN: What Historians Hear As Trump Describes 'Foreign Virus'
For immigration historians and other scholars, the way US President Donald Trump is describing the coronavirus pandemic has a familiar ring. "This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history," Trump said in an Oval Office address Wednesday night. "I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus. "As soon as Trump's words describing a "foreign virus" hit the airwaves, Nükhet Varlik knew she'd heard them before. (Shoichet, 3/12)

22. Will Warmer Weather Prove To Be Coronavirus' Kryptonite? Scientists Hope Summer Months Will Help Curb Crisis Just Like The Flu

There is some evidence that temperature and humidity are playing a role in where the virus is thriving. In other news: a look at how long the virus can live in a patient's body, questions about quarantines, why soap is so effective, tips on cleaning your phone, and more.

CNN: Will Warmer Weather Help Fight The Coronavirus? Singapore And Australia Suggest Maybe Not
As the novel coronavirus began spreading around the world this year, one common refrain from skeptics of the emergency measures being put in place to stop the outbreak was that it was just like the flu -- dangerous to sensitive groups but routine and not something to get into lockdown over. We now know that assessment is wrong. At its lowest estimated fatality rate based on current data, Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is thought to kill some 1-2% of known patients, compared to around 0.1% for winter influenza. The coronavirus also appears to be about as infectious as the flu, and potentially more so, especially as there are no specific treatment, cure or seasonal vaccine. (Griffiths, 3/12)

ProPublica: Should I Quarantine Because Of Coronavirus? It Depends On Who You Ask.
People who have been exposed to the coronavirus are being given incomplete or misleading information about whether they should quarantine themselves, exposing major gaps in the public health response to the pandemic and illuminating disagreement among officials about how useful the tactic even is at this point in the disease's spread. Travelers disembarking a plane from Rome to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City on Tuesday said they were not told that they needed to stay home for two weeks, despite a clear policy by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying they should. (Miller, Chen and Kaplan, 3/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The Do's And Don'ts Of Handwashing
Public-health officials across the globe are urging people to wash their hands, calling it one of the best methods to prevent further spread of the new coronavirus. But decades of research tell a sobering truth: People need to learn a thing or two about personal hygiene. Many don't know proper handwashing technique. They do it for too little time, or they don't do it at all. (Camero, 3/12)

The New York Times: Why Soap Works
It probably began with an accident thousands of years ago. According to one legend, rain washed the fat and ash from frequent animal sacrifices into a nearby river, where they formed a lather with a remarkable ability to clean skin and clothes. Perhaps the inspiration had a vegetal origin in the frothy solutions produced by boiling or mashing certain plants. However it happened, the ancient discovery of soap altered human history. Although our ancestors could not have foreseen it, soap would ultimately become one of our most effective defenses against invisible pathogens. (Jabr, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Prepare For The Coronavirus
Face masks? Zinc? Gloves? Americans are grasping for ways to cope with an outbreak of the new coronavirus. Public health experts advise staying calm and following the same precautions recommended for preventing flu or any other respiratory virus. Stick with the basics: Wash your hands, cover your coughs and sneezes, and stay at home from work or school when you're sick. (Reddy, 3/12)

NBC News: Staying Home Due To The Coronavirus? Here's What To Stock In Your Fridge And Pantry
The latest CDC recommendations call for people at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) to take action, including stocking up on groceries and any medications they may need. If you're preparing to stay home more than usual, it's important to have healthful foods on hand. That means selecting foods that pack a nutritional punch in order to ensure you're getting the fiber, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other health- and immune-supporting compounds you need. (Cassetty, 3/12)

The New York Times: Why Women May Face A Greater Risk Of Catching Coronavirus
As the coronavirus snakes its way around the world — canceling events, shuttering offices and suspending classes — some health experts worry that the crisis could put women at a disproportionate risk, exacerbating gender, social and economic fault lines. Typical gender roles can "influence where men and women spend their time, and the infectious agents they come into contact with, as well as the nature of exposure, its frequency and its intensity," declared the World Health Organization in a 2007 report. In other words: The roles that women have in society could place them squarely in the virus's path (although some early studies of coronavirus cases in China suggest men have a higher death rate). (Gupta, 3/12)

The New York Times: Your Phone Is Filthy. Here's How To Clean It
The coronavirus is here, and it's showing no signs of letting up. One of the best ways to protect yourself is to keep your hands clean and off your face, but it's hard to maintain constant vigilance. Keeping your phone sanitized is another smart way to keep germs off your fingertips. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers your phone a "high-touch surface," which could make it a carrier of the virus. (Nierenberg, 3/12)

Los Angeles Times: In This Wine-Making Town In Spain, The Disinformation Was Almost As Bad As The Coronavirus Itself
As in many communities worldwide, a coronavirus outbreak has hit Haro, a town of 12,000 that is the de facto capital of La Rioja, Spain's prized wine region. But the town — famed for its production of Tempranillo and for an annual Wine Battle festival in which participants spray, pour and toss red wine at one another — has come under another plague: misinformation. (Bernhard, 3/12)

The New York Times: What Climate Change Can Teach Us About Fighting The Coronavirus
"Alarming levels of inaction." That is what the World Health Organization said Wednesday about the global response to coronavirus. It is a familiar refrain to anyone who works on climate change, and it is why global efforts to slow down warming offer a cautionary tale for the effort to slow down the pandemic. "Both demand early aggressive action to minimize loss," said Kim Cobb, a climate scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who was teaching classes remotely this week. "Only in hindsight will we really understand what we gambled on and what we lost by not acting early enough." (Sengupta, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: 'Panic': That Wave Of Anxiety Is Named After A Partying Greek God
"Unfortunately, you're going to see more deaths," Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said on CNN last Sunday, speaking about the spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. "But that doesn't mean we should panic." Easier said than done. "Panic" has increasingly fit the mood of many Americans, both in terms of the developing public health crisis and the financial jitters that have followed. Just look at recent Wall Street Journal headlines: "Amazon Battles Counterfeit Masks, $400 Hand Sanitizer Amid Virus Panic." "How to Keep Calm as Coronavirus Fears Turn Into Market Panic." (Zimmer, 3/12)

The New York Times: Can I Boost My Immune System?
As worries grow about the new coronavirus, online searches for ways to bolster the immune system have surged. Are there foods to boost your immune system? Will vitamins help? The immune system is a complex network of cells, organs and tissues that work in tandem to protect the body from infection. While genetics play a role, we know from studies of twins that the strength of our immune system is largely determined by nonheritable factors. (Parker-Pope, 3/10)

23. Canadian Prime Minister's Wife Just Latest High-Profile Person To Test Positive For Virus Driving Home Outbreak's Wide-Spread Threat

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will isolate himself for 14 days after his wife tested positive for the virus. Other high-profile people and politicians, including President Donald Trump, have been either exposed or infected with the coronavirus.

CNN: Justin Trudeau Latest To Self-Isolate As Coronavirus Has Officials Running The World From Home
More and more of the world is working from home as the novel coronavirus spreads -- and so is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Canada's leader is currently trying to run his country in self-isolation after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, tested positive for coronavirus. The indiscriminate virus has caused dozens of government officials around the world -- from administrators to heads of state -- to take precautionary measures after finding that they have been infected or have been in contact with infected people. (Dewan, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Wife Tests Positive For Coronavirus
"The Prime Minister will continue to fully assume his duties and will address Canadians tomorrow," the statement said. Ms. Grégoire Trudeau was tested for the new coronavirus after she began having mild flulike symptoms including a low fever late Wednesday night. Ms. Grégoire Trudeau's symptoms remain mild and she is feeling well, the prime minister's office said. She had recently returned from a speaking engagement in London. (Mackrael, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Evaluates Trump Exposure To Coronavirus
Concerns about the possibility that President Trump has been exposed to coronavirus mounted on Thursday after a Brazilian official who met with the president last weekend tested positive for the virus. The White House is assessing who might have been exposed to the virus and hasn't determined the next steps, press secretary Stephanie Grisham said Thursday. She said Mr. Trump, 73 years old, and Vice President Mike Pence, 60, had "almost no interactions" with the Brazilian official and didn't need to be tested for the virus. (Ballhaus, Hughes and Magalhaes, 3/12)

The Washington Post: Outbreak Halts More Events; Australian Official Tests Positive After Meeting With Ivanka Trump
Concerns about the coronavirus pandemic rippled across the globe Friday, as more events were canceled and an Australian government minister tested positive for the virus just days after meeting with Ivanka Trump and other U.S. officials. Peter Dutton, the home affairs minister, said he woke up with a fever and sore throat Friday and would be checking into a hospital. Last week, Dutton was photographed standing directly next to the president's daughter and a few feet away from U.S. Attorney General William Barr. (Armus and Noack, 3/13)

The New York Times: When Tom Hanks, Hollywood's Everyman, Gets Coronavirus
Tom Hanks has never been like other Hollywood celebrities. Though he first made his mark donning a dress in the 1980s sitcom "Bosom Buddies," Mr. Hanks became America's everyman thanks to a goofy, relatable on-screen persona that never seemed all that different from his off-screen personality. And even as he rose from TV actor to movie star to two-time Academy Award winner, his humble attitude seemed to remain the same. (Sperling, 3/12)

CNN: Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson Share Coronavirus Update After Diagnosis
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson shared an update from Australia, where they are both in isolation after testing positive for coronavirus. Hanks tweeted a picture with his wife Thursday night, thanking those who've cared for them as they battle the virus. "Hello folks. Rita Wilson and I want to thank everyone here Down Under who are taking such good care of us. We have Covid-19 and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else," he said. (Karimi, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Strikes Key Figures In Politics, Sports As Infections Spread Globally
Some of the hardest-hit parts of Asia are seeing signs of improvement after earlier surges in new infections. South Korea, which had the most infections outside of China two weeks ago, said Friday that 177 coronavirus patients were discharged the previous day, surpassing new case reports of 110 for the first time. More than 90% of the 7,979 people in South Korea who were infected with coronavirus are still sick, 510 people have recovered and 67 have died. (Yang, 3/13)

24. Pandemic Highlights WHO's Underlying Weakness: It Doesn't Have Authority To Implement Global Response

The basic premise of the organization is that it serves as a global coordinator. But even as the organization attempts to fulfill that role in the current pandemic, its efforts have fallen largely flat and there's been a lack of a unified global response to the crisis. Meanwhile, China continues to grapple with the fallout from the outbreak, both politically and socially.

The New York Times: The World Has A Plan To Fight Coronavirus. Most Countries Are Not Using It.
For weeks, the World Health Organization resisted declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, fearing that doing so would incite panic across the globe. But facing the cameras on Wednesday, the agency's director general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, did just that, asking for global unity to "change the course of this pandemic." It was a symbolic moment that underscored the standing of the W.H.O. as the world's leading public health agency. But it also reflected the W.H.O.'s underlying weakness as an organization that by international treaty is supposed to lead and coordinate the global fight against coronavirus — yet that has, in many ways, been marginalized. (Gebrekidan, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: China's Coronavirus War Targets A New Threat: Foreigners
As China grows more optimistic about containing the spread of coronavirus within the country, it is confronting a potential threat to its recovery: the rest of the world. Epidemic-control efforts have turned to foreigners in China in recent days as confirmed cases within the country have slowed. Police officers and local government workers have made house calls specifically to check whether expatriates recently traveled to another country where they could have contracted the virus. (Yang and Woo, 3/12)

Reuters: In 'People's War' On Coronavirus, Chinese Propaganda Faces Pushback
As Xi Jinping toured the coronavirus-stricken city of Wuhan this week, setting the tone for an official narrative that China will win a "People's War", numerous social media users went to extraordinary lengths to make an alternative voice heard. The effort to get around China's censors and publish the words of Wuhan doctor Ai Fen, the first to sound the alarm over the virus, was among the most elaborate in an outpouring of dissent against the government narrative as the outbreak exacts a devastating human and economic toll. (3/13)

The Associated Press: In Role Reversal, Asia Seeks To Stop Virus From Coming In
From quarantining arriving travelers from overseas to nabbing those sneaking in with fevers, China and other parts of Asia are scrambling to prevent the new coronavirus from coming back to where it first broke out. Just as the spread of the disease is stabilizing in much of Asia, following a major outbreak in China and sizable ones in South Korea and Japan, it is popping up in new hot spots around the world. (3/13)

CNN: US Military Brought Coronavirus To Wuhan, Chinese Diplomat Claims
A prominent Chinese official claims the United States military could have brought the novel coronavirus to China -- and it did not originate in the city of Wuhan, as thought. Posting to his more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian republished a video of Robert Redfield, the director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, addressing a US Congressional committee on March 11. In the clip, Redfield said some influenza deaths in the US were later identified as cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. (Westcott and Jiang, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Check Out How China Kept Its Supermarkets Stocked As Virus Raged
Two months into the coronavirus epidemic in China, tens of millions of people are still under quarantine and much of the economy remains in a deep freeze. Yet China has largely succeeded in keeping its stores filled with food and other essentials—even in hard-hit places like the city of Wuhan—a crucial factor in maintaining public order throughout the crisis. (Wernau, 3/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Tightened Borders Re-Emerge In Fight Against Coronavirus Pandemic
As the new coronavirus jumped from country to country in recent weeks, the responses of their governments to the pandemic have highlighted how much national borders still matter in what seemed to be an increasingly borderless world. New travel and trade restrictions are popping up daily, policies that seemed unthinkable until recently and that disrupt economies used to global supply chains. A shortage of pharmaceutical components produced in China and other export curbs are already making the fight against the virus and other diseases more difficult. (Trofimov, 3/12)

The New York Times: Two Women Fell Sick From The Coronavirus. One Survived.
The youn mothers didn't tell their children they had the coronavirus. Mama was working hard, they said, to save sick people. Instead, Deng Danjing and Xia Sisi were fighting for their lives in the same hospitals where they worked, weak from fever and gasping for breath. Within a matter of weeks, they had gone from healthy medical professionals on the front lines of the epidemic in Wuhan, China, to coronavirus patients in critical condition. (Wee and Wang, 3/13)

And elsewhere —

CNN: Ireland To Halt Coronavirus Spread By Closing Schools And Colleges
Schools, colleges and childcare facilities will be closed in the Republic of Ireland from Friday as part of a nationwide effort to halt the spread of coronavirus, the country's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Thursday. The closures will also apply to cultural institutions and will remain in place until March 29. Indoor gatherings of more than 100 people and outdoor gatherings of more than 500 people will also be canceled, he said at a press conference in Washington. (Spary and Alberti, 3/12)

The Hill: Belgium Suspends All Classes Due To Coronavirus Outbreak
Belgium's Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès said on Thursday that all schools in the country would suspend classes starting Monday in attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the small European nation. While classes would be canceled, schools will still be responsible for their pupils if their parents are unable to take off work or if they work in healthcare, according to Politico. (Johnson, 3/12)

Pharmaceuticals

25. New Plan Claiming To Cap Insulin Costs For Seniors Is More Complicated Than It Looks

Stat examines the limited role the policy, hailed by many political leaders this week, would play for seniors requiring insulin. Industry news also looks at Kymera's fund-raising efforts for blood cancer treatments and Danish efforts to enforce transparency on trials.

Stat: Will Trump Plan To Cap Insulin Costs Help Seniors? It's Complicated
The Trump administration claims its newest plan to cap insulin copays could solve seniors' woes with the high cost of insulin. But the reality is more complicated. The plan, which was released Wednesday, would allow certain private Medicare plans to cap how much seniors can spend for insulin at $35 a month. It's a politically popular policy being rolled out just as high insulin costs are dominating the conversation over high health care costs more generally. But there are open questions about the true impact of Trump's plan. (Florko, 3/13)

Boston Globe: Kymera Announces $102 Million In New Funding
Four years after it was founded, Kymera Therapeutics said Thursday that it has now raised more than a quarter-billion dollars from investors keen on its potential approach to treat a range of diseases, including blood cancers. The Cambridge, Mass., biotech shared the total after announcing that it had closed a third round of venture capital fundraising that totaled $102 million. The privately held startup plans to begin clinical trials of at least three drugs by next year. (Gardizy, 3/12)

Stat: Danish Agency Eyes Sanctions — As In Prison — For Not Posting Trial Results
In the latest effort toward greater clinical trial transparency, the Danish Medicines Agency is threatening to pursue sanctions — including fines and prison sentences —against drug companies and universities that fail to publish their study results in a European database, as required. Under the current legal framework in Denmark, clinical trial sponsors that do not report results on time can be fined or given a prison sentence of up to four months. Although some drug makers and universities responded to a reminder warning issued last fall, most trial results have still not been posted as required and so the agency will approach the public prosecutor about penalties. (Silverman, 3/11)

Marketplace

26. Co-Founder Of Juul Leaves Board As It Comes Under Increasing Scrutiny For Role In Teen Vaping

James Monsees helped launch the company in 2007 and expressed pride in the role the company played for helping adults switch from smoking cigarettes. He said he looks forward to spending time with his family. Altria Group Inc., which owns a 35% stake in Juul, said in January it would be expanding and diversifying its board.

The Wall Street Journal: Juul Co-Founder James Monsees Steps Down From Board, Company Says
A co-founder of controversial e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc. is stepping down from its board, the company said Thursday. James Monsees launched the startup, then known as Ploom Inc., in 2007 with Adam Bowen. It catapulted to the top of the e-cigarette market but was blamed for a surge in teen vaping. It has been buffeted by regulatory crackdowns, lawsuits and investigations into whether its marketing targeted underage users. (Maloney, 3/12)

Bloomberg: Juul Co-Founder Monsees Steps Down As Adviser, Board Member
Monsees was a vocal proponent of products like Juul that promised to give cigarette smokers their nicotine fix with potentially less harm. He gave a TEDx Talk in 2013 about how new products could transform the tobacco industry. He testified before a House subcommittee last summer. "Building this company alongside all of you has been the single most rewarding experience of my career and perhaps my life," Monsees said in an email to Juul employees, adding that he was recently married and is looking forward to spending more time with his family and pursuing other interests. (LaVito, 3/12)

Reuters: Juul Co-Founder James Monsees Plans To Leave
The company, in which Altria Group Inc (MO.N) has a 35% stake, has come under intense media and regulatory scrutiny in recent times for its marketing practices and has also seen its valuation plummet. Altria valued its stake in Juul at $4.2 billion as of end-2019, down from $12.8 billion in December 2018, as a string of vaping-related deaths coupled with increased bans following a surge in teenage vaping cloud the prospects of e-cigarette makers. (3/12)

Public Health And Education

27. Anti-Transgender Bills In Dozens Of States Fuel Debate Over Parental Rights, Government Interference

Laws criminalizing medical professionals who prescribe hormone treatments to minors and preventing people from changing their birth certificates make it more difficult to protect LGBTQ people, said Chase Strangio, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. Public health news is on baby formula, suicide, food insecurity, transplants, high blood pressure and supplements, as well.

The New York Times: 'It's Degrading.' Transgender Youth Targeted In Dozens Of Bills Across America
By the time Peyton Badalucco came out to his mother as transgender, he had been secretly binding his chest in a desperate attempt to hide his body. He was 14 years old and so miserable that he could barely muster the emotional strength to leave the house. Coming out led to months of counseling, a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and, finally, hormone therapy when he was 15. He lost several friends while transitioning, he said, but as his body changed, his depression and anxiety faded, and he stopped worrying about what people thought. (Levin, 3/12)

The New York Times: This Trendy Baby Formula Maker May Pose Health Risks To Infants
Like many first-time parents, Jon Borgese, a tech executive in Manhattan, had heard the buzz around the Baby Brezza formula maker, a countertop device that automatically dispenses warm bottles of formula at the touch of a button.The $200 machine, widely available at retailers like Amazon, Target and Buy Buy Baby, markets itself as the "most advanced way" to mix powdered baby formula and water "to perfect consistency." (Singer, 3/13)

ABC News: 8% Of Children Have Suicidal Thoughts, New Study Says
Eight percent of 9- and 10-year-olds reported suicidal thoughts and 2% reported a suicide attempt, according to a new study of 8,000 children in the U.S., published in Lancet Psychiatry. Suicide is a major public health concern and the second-leading cause of death in youth after unintentional injury. (Safai, 3/12)

The New York Times: Hunger Is On The Rise. Food Donors Are Getting Creative.
When Diego Gerena-Quiñones zips through the afternoon traffic in Midtown Manhattan on his cargo bike, it looks like he could be delivering shoes or office supplies. But his load is much more indispensable. Everyday, Mr. Gerena-Quiñones and others at his cargo bike company make numerous pickups for Transfernation, a nonprofit that arranges for corporate cafeterias and restaurants to donate uneaten food to soup kitchens. (Laterman, 3/13)

The New York Times: High Blood Pressure In Young Adulthood May Be Bad For Your Brain
The cumulative effect of high blood pressure from young adulthood to middle age is associated with poorer mental function at age 50, a new study concludes. For their analysis, published in Circulation, researchers looked at 191 generally healthy men and women ages 18 to 30 who were participating in a larger health study. Over the next 30 years, they measured their blood pressure with nine periodic readings to create a cumulative blood pressure score. (Bakalar, 3/13)

Editorials And Opinions

28. Different Takes: If Care Has To Be Rationed During Coronavirus, Doctors Will Face Agonizing Decisions; Supply Chain For Medical Devices Will Suffer

Editorial pages focus on health and mental health care topics surrounding the coronavirus.

The New York Times: How The Coronavirus May Force Doctors To Decide Who Can Live And Who Dies
The coronavirus pandemic could soon force American physicians to face a tragic challenge — rationing medical care as the number of ill patients overwhelms the supplies, space and staff available in hospitals. Today, the United States has fewer than 800,000 hospital beds, about 68,000 adult intensive care unit beds of any kind, and, even with the strategic reserve, fewer than 100,000 ventilators. As disease spreads this will not be enough. (Ezekiel J. Emanuel, James Phillips and Govind Persad, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: It May Not Be The Virus That Kills Me
With each passing day, the coronavirus pandemic reveals that many of our lives hang by a thin fiber-optic thread that can snap at any time. As more people are quarantined and businesses grind to a halt, supply chains will break down. While this will have negative economic consequences for all, for many of us it will be a matter of life and death. My life depends on an artificial pancreas I wear on my belt. Without the insulin it delivers 24/7, I would die within a few days. I'm not sure where the insulin and components for my pump and the related sensors, transmitter and continuous glucose monitor are produced. The supply chain of the world's largest insulin producer, Novo Nordisk, runs through the U.S., Brazil, Denmark, France, China, Russia, Algeria and Japan. (Mark C. Taylor, 3/12)

The New York Times: Coronavirus And The Isolation Paradox
In December, a woman in Tulsa, Okla. used a Craigslist post to plea for holiday companionship. "Anybody need a grandma for Christmas?" she wrote. "I'll even bring food and gifts for the kids! I have nobody and it really hurts." More than three in five working Americans report feeling lonely. Now that the country is facing a disease outbreak that demands measures like "social distancing," working from home and quarantines, that epidemic of loneliness could get even worse. (Abdullah Shihipar, 3/13)

CNN: The Right Role Model For The Coronavirus Crisis Is Tom Hanks, Not Donald Trump
The coronavirus pandemic will challenge our country in ways we haven't seen in our lifetimes. And we are culturally unprepared. It's not that America hasn't faced public health crises before. A century ago, America confronted the far more deadly Spanish influenza epidemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people around the world, including members of my family. We confronted the polio epidemic, which crippled hundreds of thousands of people, including, many believe, an American president. And when a cure for polio was found, Dr. Jonas Salk gave away the patent for free to help as many people as fast as possible. (John Avalon, 3/12)

The New York Times: Pandemics Kill Compassion, Too
Some disasters, like hurricanes and earthquakes, can bring people together, but if history is any judge, pandemics generally drive them apart. These are crises in which social distancing is a virtue. Dread overwhelms the normal bonds of human affection. In "The Decameron," Giovanni Boccaccio writes about what happened during the plague that hit Florence in 1348: "Tedious were it to recount how citizen avoided citizen, how among neighbors was scarce found any that shewed fellow-feeling for another, how kinfolk held aloof, and never met … nay, what is more, and scarcely to be believed, fathers and mothers were found to abandon their own children, untended, unvisited, to their fate." (David Brooks, 3/12)

New England Journal of Medicine: Virtually Perfect? Telemedicine For Covid-19
Recognizing that patients prioritize convenient and inexpensive care, Duffy and Lee recently asked whether in-person visits should become the second, third, or even last option for meeting patient needs. Previous work has specifically described the potential for using telemedicine in disasters and public health emergencies. No telemedicine program can be created overnight, but U.S. health systems that have already implemented telemedical innovations can leverage them for the response to Covid-19. A central strategy for health care surge control is "forward triage" — the sorting of patients before they arrive in the emergency department (ED). Direct-to-consumer (or on-demand) telemedicine, a 21st-century approach to forward triage that allows patients to be efficiently screened, is both patient-centered and conducive to self-quarantine, and it protects patients, clinicians, and the community from exposure. It can allow physicians and patients to communicate 24/7, using smartphones or webcam-enabled computers. (Judd E. Hollander and Brendan G. Carr, 3/11)

Boston Globe: Puerto Rico Must Act Now To Stop The Coronavirus
The US commonwealth of Puerto Rico will face a major crisis if it cannot contain a Covid-19 outbreak when it arrives. And it will arrive soon, if it hasn't already. A cruise ship passenger diagnosed with pneumonia was admitted to a San Juan hospital and isolated while waiting the results of a coronavirus test. (Caroine Buckee, 3/13)

29. Viewpoints: Failure To Test For Coronavirus Leaves U.S. Incapable Of Understanding, Combating Spread; White House Needs To Stop Saying Don't Panic

Opinion writers weigh in on topics surrounding efforts under way to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Pandemic Demands Extreme Precaution From Us All
The reality is that that the nation is still unprepared for the spread of a microbe we don't fully understand. True, only 1,323 cases of COVID-19 and 38 deaths from the disease had been reported in the U.S. as of Thursday. But public health experts believe that the true infection rate is orders of magnitude greater than has been reported because of the shortage of diagnostic tests. Just to give one stark example of the testing inadequacy: California — a state with nearly 40 million people, 198 confirmed COVID-19 cases and documented community transmission — had conducted only 1,573 tests as of Thursday. It's staggering to imagine how far and wide the infection may have spread undetected. Public health officials believe the battle to contain the novel coronavirus has been lost and the strategy now must be to slow the rate of infections — to flatten out the curve, in public-health speak — so that a surge of cases doesn't overwhelm healthcare systems. Doing so could buy time until flu season has ended, which will free more capacity in the system to respond to COVID-19, and until new medicines to treat sick people become available.

The Wall Street Journal: 'Don't Panic' Is Rotten Advice
This coronavirus is new to our species—it is "novel." It spreads more easily than the flu—"exponentially," as we now say—and is estimated to be at least 10 times as lethal. Testing in the U.S. has been wholly inadequate; history may come to see this as the great scandal of the epidemic. "Anybody that needs a test gets a test; they're there, they have the tests, and the tests are beautiful," as the president said last weekend, is on a par with "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" as a great, clueless lie. (Peggy Noonan, 3/12)

The Wall Street Journal: America's Self-Shutdown
For all the foreboding about the novel coronavirus—foreboding that is justified—it is heartening to see the American people responding in ways reminiscent of the frontier spirit. Most people are doing what they have to do to survive a clear and immediate threat to their lives and communities.T he new watchword is "social distancing." That means minimizing the transmission of an infectious virus for which no personal immunity exists by minimizing the chance that any one carrier will pass the virus to others. The speed with which the American people and their institutions are executing that sound strategy is breathtaking. (3/12)

The Washington Post: Anthony Fauci Fights Outbreaks With The Sledgehammer Of Truth
A virus that is deadly and little understood. An administration in deep denial. Anthony S. Fauci has been here before. As the coronavirus epidemic escalates, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has become a familiar media presence. Fauci's expertise and credibility shine against the contradictory and false messages coming from President Trump. The administration has at times sounded more concerned with protecting the president politically than stopping the spread of a potentially lethal disease. (Karen Tumulty, 3/12)

The New York Times: It's A MAGA Microbe Meltdown
For three years Donald Trump led a charmed life. He faced only one major crisis that he didn't generate himself — Hurricane Maria — and although his botched response contributed to a tragedy that killed thousands of U.S. citizens, the deaths took place off camera, allowing him to deny that anything bad had happened. Now, however, we face a much bigger crisis with the coronavirus. And Trump's response has been worse than even his harshest critics could have imagined. He has treated a dire threat as a public relations problem, combining denial with frantic blame-shifting. (Paul Krugman, 3/12)

The Washington Post: There Are Reasons To Be Optimistic Regarding The Coronavirus
I sat down to watch Wednesday's prime-time Oval Office speech hoping that President Trump would rise to the occasion by sounding confident, well-briefed and very much in command in his country's hour of need. And then . . . well, you saw it. Or heard about it. Mistargeted initiatives, misstatements and plain old mistakes. And this was a prepared text, read from a teleprompter. I'm a little anxious, and I suspect you are, too. That makes this a good time to offer a few words of reassurance. (Megan McArdle, 3/12)

The New York Times: Trump Should Just Stop Talking About Coronavirus
For the good of the nation, for the health of the country, in the interest of doing something drastic to mitigate a national disgrace, President Trump should self-quarantine. I'm serious. Every time he opens his mouth or makes an appearance, he puts the American people more at risk. His three years of flagrant and unremitting lying have made him the last person who should be the source of life and death information for 330 million Americans. (Timothy Egan, 3/13)

Stat: Why Trump's Coronavirus Speech, Designed To Calm, Deepened Panic
President Donald Trump's televised address on Wednesday was clearly aimed at calming the U.S. public, as well as the stock market, about the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19. It had the opposite effect, as the impact from Covid-19 only seemed to get bigger. There are now more than 1,300 known cases in the U.S. (more on that in a minute) and 130,000 globally. (Matthew Herper, 3/12)

CNN: It's Time To Let The Experts Do Their Jobs, Mr. President
For just a moment Wednesday night you might have thought President Donald Trump was at long last grasping the gravity of the coronavirus situation and taking the necessary steps to confront what may be the most serious crisis the country has faced since he took office -- one that could lead to the deaths of vast numbers of people. Trump tried to give a serious address to the nation from the Oval Office, laying out a plan to tackle the pandemic. But it quickly became apparent that this was one more error-filled display in what has been a grotesque carnival of incompetence. (Frida Ghitis, 3/12)