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Millions of Americans, tired of being pinned down by the pandemic, are expected to hit the road this Labor Day weekend despite a coronavirus crisis that continues to generate more than 30,000 new cases per day and shows little sign of slowing down. And the destination of choice, according to the travel site TripIt, is a state where the coronavirus crisis continues unabated — Florida. (Siemaszko, 9/3)

When New York announced last month that Washington state residents could visit without quarantining for two weeks, Seattle-based labor lawyer Michael Subit sprang into action. He started planning a six-day cross-country driving trip with his wife and Bernese Mountain dog to visit his elderly parents. His 91-year-old father was just discharged after four months without visitors at a Veterans Administration hospital, where he was treated for a bone infection. His mother, 83, has diabetes, survived several strokes and heart attacks and is at high risk of COVID-19. (O'Donnell and Rodriguez, 9/4)

Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that coronavirus cases remain “unacceptably high” as the nation heads into the Labor Day weekend. During an interview this week, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force, urged Americans to follow health and safety measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, as this weekend will affect how the virus spreads in the upcoming fall and winter seasons. (McGorry, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News and Nashville Public Radio: Will Labor Day Weekend Bring Another Holiday COVID Surge? Jury’s Out.

Hopefully, summer won’t end the way it began. Memorial Day celebrations helped set off a wave of coronavirus infections across much of the South and West. Gatherings around the Fourth of July seemed to keep those hot spots aflame. And now Labor Day arrives as those regions are cooling off from COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Wednesday that Americans should be cautious to avoid another surge in infection rates. But travelers are also weary of staying home — and tourist destinations are starved for cash. (Farmer, 9/4)

Red states in the U.S. are officially at the forefront of COVID-19 outbreaks, with 70 percent of new cases stemming from the nation's Republican-led areas. Still, many new COVID-19 cases are emerging in blue counties, while the majority of cases are concentrated in states that voted for President Trump in the 2016 election, The Washington Post reported. (Deese, 9/3)

States led by Republican governors have been slower than those led by Democrats to require residents to wear masks to protect against the novel coronavirus — if they have adopted such rules at all. New research finds that the governor’s political party was the biggest determinant of whether a state imposed a mask mandate between early April and mid-August, a factor outweighing others including a state’s number of coronavirus infections or deaths linked to the disease caused by the virus. (Goldstein, 9/3)

An independent panel appointed by the World Health Organization to review its coordination of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic will have full access to any internal U.N. agency documents, materials and emails necessary, the panel said Thursday as it begins the probe. The panel’s co-chairs, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, announced the 11 other members during a media briefing. They include Dr. Joanne Liu, who was an outspoken WHO critic while leading Medecins Sans Frontieres during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. (Cheng, 9/3)

“We intend to learn all that we can about (the pandemic’s) early emergence, global spread, health, economic and social impacts, and how it has been controlled and mitigated,” Clark said in a statement. ... The panel is to meet about every six weeks starting this month through to April and will make a presentation to the WHO’s executive board in October, it said. (9/3)

The global COVID-19 total today topped 26 million, as the leaders of independent group reviewing the world's response announced the members of an 11-person panel and Sanofi and GSK announced the launch of the first human trial of its recombinant vaccine against the virus. In recent weeks, India has led the world with the most daily cases, and over the past day it reported a new daily high of 83,883 new cases. The country will soon pass Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of cases. The global total today reached 26,128,340 new cases and 865,132 people have died from their infections, according to the Johns Hopkins online dashboard. (Schnirring, 9/3)

America’s top athletes could be banned from the Olympics and other major international sporting events if the United States follows through on its threat to withdraw funding from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), anti-doping leaders told Reuters. The U.S. threat has sent shockwaves through the anti-doping community and prompted several governments to urge WADA to introduce legislation that would find the U.S. non-compliant with the WADA Code, effectively barring American athletes from international competition. (Keating, 9/3)

Testing levels around the world have fallen because of the restrictions in place to combat the spread of Covid-19. Anti-doping bodies said they "understand clean athletes' concerns" on the issue. "The reduced level of testing worldwide is immensely frustrating," a group of 17 anti-doping agencies said. (9/3)

A divided federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision blocking the enforcement in Maryland of Trump administration rules that prohibit taxpayer-funded family planning clinics in the Title X program from making abortion referrals. The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed an existing permanent injunction. It wrote that the administration’s rules “failed to recognize and address the ethical concerns of literally every major medical organization in the country” and “arbitrarily estimated the cost” of implementing part of the rules. (Rankin, 9/3)

At issue in the case is the federal family planning program known as Title X. Baltimore’s mayor and City Council challenged the restrictions in April 2019, saying the provisions jeopardized the relationship between physicians and their patients by limiting the information doctors could provide even when a patient had stated her intention to terminate a pregnancy. Under the rule issued last year, the Department of Health and Human Services banned health centers that provide abortions — or refer patients for abortions — from receiving any money from the 50-year-old program, which primarily serves low-income women. (Marimow, 9/3)

The ruling applies just to Maryland, but it creates a split in the judiciary — the 9th Circuit previously allowed the funding restrictions to move forward. That makes it more likely the Supreme Court will take up challenges to the Trump rules. (Miranda Ollstein, 9/3)

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is facing criticism for a letter he and a group of 20 Republican senators sent to the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Tuesday that said pregnancy is “not a life-threatening illness” as they push to remove the abortion pill Mifeprex from the market. “The abortion pill does not cure or prevent any disease. Make no mistake, Mifeprex is a dangerous pill,” Cruz said in a tweet Wednesday. (Thompson, 9/3)

According to a copy of the letter provided exclusively to National Review, the senators applaud the FDA for instituting and attempting to enforce safety protocols around the chemical-abortion pill, also known as RU-486 or Mifeprex. During the COVID-19 pandemic, abortion advocates and providers have undertaken a legal campaign to alter the FDA’s Risk Evaluation Mitigation Strategy for the abortion pill, which requires that a health-care professional prescribe the drug to women in person rather than via telemedicine. The pandemic, they argue, has made it more difficult for women to obtain chemical-abortion drugs and therefore that the FDA safety protocols are a violation of the supposed right to abortion. (DeSanctis, 9/1)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is asking states to have a plan in place to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as late October — but that doesn't mean an effective treatment will be ready quite so soon. In separate interviews Thursday with NPR, the chief scientific adviser to the Trump administration's vaccine development effort and the former director of the CDC's office of public health preparedness cautioned that an effective vaccine is likely still months away. (Silva, 9/3)

Dr. Slaoui confirmed that the two main candidates, referred to as Vaccine A and Vaccine B, were being developed by Pfizer and Moderna. He said that there was “no intent” to introduce a vaccine before clinical trials were completed, and that trials would only be completed when an independent safety monitoring board, separate from the government, affirmed the effectiveness of the vaccine. (9/3)

Talking to ScienceInsider today, Slaoui insisted he won’t be swayed by political pressures to rush an unsafe or ineffective vaccine, and that science will carry the day—or he’ll quit. Slaoui has given few interviews since taking the Warp Speed job and he has taken something of a beating in the media for his financial holdings in companies working on COVID-19 vaccines—he was on the board of Moderna and has since stepped down, but he retains his GlaxoSmithKline stock. And Warp Speed has been slammed for a lack of transparency on its decisions. (Cohen, 9/3)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that he believes federal regulators will allow a coronavirus vaccine to be distributed this fall only if it’s based on science and “hard data.” Fauci made the assessment after the disclosure of an Aug. 27 letter from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that told states to prepare for the “large-scale” distribution of a vaccine by Nov. 1, two days before the presidential election. (Stelloh and Allen, 9/3)

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, said he would feel comfortable taking a coronavirus vaccine if one is approved by the government. “I mean I will look at the data and I would assume and I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the case that a vaccine would not be approved for the American public unless it was indeed both safe and effective. And I keep emphasizing both safe and effective. If that’s the case, Jim, I would not hesitate for a moment to take the vaccine myself and recommend it for my family,” he told CNN anchor Jim Sciutto on Thursday. (Axelrod, 9/3)

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar joined "CBS This Morning" for an exclusive interview Thursday, saying politics will not be the determining factor in the distribution of a vaccine. "President Trump has made it clear and I've made it clear these decisions will be driven by-- by the standards of science and evidence and FDA's gold standards," Azar told co-host Tony Dokoupil. (9/3)

“I think it’s very irresponsible how people are trying to politicize notions of delivering a vaccine to the American people,” Azar told “CBS This Morning” in an interview. ... Although Azar said it was unclear when the data from those studies would be reported, he argued that “if we get a vaccine, we need to be ready to distribute that.” (Forgey, 9/3)

Could the U.S. really see a coronavirus vaccine before Election Day?A letter from federal health officials instructing states to be ready to begin distributing a vaccine by Nov. 1 — two days before the election — has been met, not with exhilaration, but with suspicion among some public health experts, who wonder whether the Trump administration is hyping the possibility or intends to rush approval for political gain. (Johnson and Smith, 9/3)

Pfizer could have results from its late-stage coronavirus vaccine trial as early as October, CEO Albert Bourla said Thursday. ... “We expect by the end of October, we should have enough ... to say whether the product works or not,” he said. (Lovelace Jr., 9/3)

The head of US drug maker Pfizer said today that his company would not submit a COVID-19 vaccine for approval or emergency use authorization (EUA) if its scientists don't have data from large phase 3 trials showing safety and efficacy. "We will never submit for authorization or approval any vaccine before we feel that it is safe and effective," Albert Bourla, DVM, PhD, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said in a press briefing organized by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. "We will not cut corners." (Dall, 9/3)

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline said they are starting a human trial of their COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. The trial will involve 440 healthy adults, with the drugmakers expecting preliminary results in early December. (Picchi, 9/3)

Successfully rolling out a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1 will rely on clinical trials conducted at unprecedented speed, coupled with public release of research that shows it is both safe and effective, experts say. Reaction to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's letter to states to prepare for "large-scale" distribution of the vaccine in November — specifically, two days before the presidential election — triggered swift concern that political pressure could override commitments to safety. (Edwards, 9/3)

Five Department of Defense facilities will participate in the Phase 3 trial of a COVID-19 vaccine, the Pentagon announced Thursday. ... The upcoming trial will take place at Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Joint Base San Antonio, Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center in San Diego, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. "The Department of Defense continues to play a key role in the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine," Tom McCaffery, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in a statement. (McCurdy, 9/3)

The military medical facilities chosen in Texas, California and the Washington D.C. area were among dozens of locations across the country selected to participate in Phase III testing of drug maker AstraZeneca’s AZD1222, one of four vaccine candidates undergoing testing. In Phase III, thousands of volunteers are given the potential vaccines to study its effectiveness and safety, according to the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Dickstein, 9/3)

“The Department of Defense continues to play a key role in the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine,” Tom McCaffery, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said in the release. “Now that vaccines have passed the first phases of testing for safety, dosing and response, we are ready to move into the next phase where volunteers are needed to join large clinical studies. We are excited to have several sites identified to support the next steps in the vaccine development process,” McCaffery, said in the press release. (McGorry and Tomlinson, 9/3)

Service members might not be at the front of the line to receive the coronavirus vaccine when it is ready, unless they are health care workers or at high risk of contracting the disease, according to a document outlining the possible order of distribution. A four-phased approach for distributing a coronavirus vaccine in the United States has been recommended by the Committee on Equitable Allocation of Vaccine for the Novel Coronavirus and the approach was laid out in “Discussion Draft of the Preliminary Framework for Equitable Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccine,” which was published Tuesday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine. (Kenney, 9/2)

A 58-year-old Army reservist from Florida is the seventh service member, and fourth reservist, to die from the coronavirus, according to an Army Reserve official. Sgt. 1st Class Clifford R. Gooding from Gulfport, Fla., died Aug. 28 in Largo from complications related to the coronavirus, Lt. Col. Simon Flake, a spokesman for the Army Reserve, said Thursday in a statement. (Kenney, 9/3)

The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced plans for randomized testing of 700 veterans on the effectiveness of convalescent plasma in treating COVID-19, amid an open feud between public health agencies on its therapeutic value. (Sisk, 9/3)

Patients and staff at the District’s main hospital for veterans were unable to drink the center’s water or use it for showering and hand-washing on Wednesday after a patient tested positive for legionella infection, the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement. (Fadulu, 9/3)

With talk of a vaccine in time for Election Day ramping up, both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and incumbent Donald Trump continue to confront the pandemic as a major talking point for the presidential election, now 2 months away. Yesterday, during a campaign speech, Biden called Trump’s failure to safely open schools, especially elementary schools, a "national emergency." (Soucheray, 9/3)

President Donald Trump dismissed questions about his own health and mocked his Democratic opponent for wearing a mask in a freewheeling rally Thursday in Pennsylvania that came as polls show a tightening race. For a second day, Trump dismissed questions about an unscheduled visit he made to Walter Reed Medical Center in November, brushing aside a report about the visit as a conspiracy concocted by critics. At the same time, Trump raised unfounded questions about Joe Biden's own health, and criticized his mask-wearing. (Fritze and Jackson, 9/3)

President Donald Trump on Thursday parlayed rumors over his health into another hit on Joe Biden, spinning a highly scrutinized visit to Walter Reed hospital last year into an attack on his Democratic presidential rival during a campaign event. Speaking at an airport hangar to a packed-in crowd in Latrobe, Pa., Trump claimed journalists had spread rumors of the president having "mini-strokes" because "they want to try and get me to be on Biden's physical level." (Choi, 9/3)

CMS launched a remodeled website Thursday that consolidates its eight online consumer tools to one platform. The redesigned site is an attempt by CMS to give users a more streamlined experience using its platform, called Compare tools. CMS has published information online about healthcare providers and care settings for Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers for more than 15 years. One of the elements for the hospital version to convey quality, the star ratings, has come under fire for producing inconsistent results and CMS recently proposed changes to the methodology as a result. (Castellucci, 9/3)

Nine months after initially floating the idea, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched Care Compare, a consumer-facing database of provider quality information.The agency announced the launch on Thursday. CMS originally announced its plan to merge Home Health Compare with the seven other Compare sites in January. Agency officials said the goal was to create one tool that would feature data about providers across the continuum, streamlining information for Medicare beneficiaries and their family members. (Famakinwa, 9/3)

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed another victim: Medicare’s trust fund. The Congressional Budget Office released a report Wednesday projecting that Medicare’s federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, which helps pay for Medicare beneficiaries’ hospital bills, will be insolvent by fiscal year 2024. That means there won’t be enough money in the trust fund to fully pay hospitals, doctors, and nursing homes for the care they provide to Medicare beneficiaries. (Jacobson, 9/3)

CMS released its annual Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule Sept. 2, which raises Medicare payment rates for acute care hospitals. The rule, which affects approximately 3,200 acute care hospitals, applies to discharges occurring on or after Oct. 1, 2020. Here are seven takeaways from the 2,160-page final rule. (Elllison, 9/3)  

An "alarming" percentage of student athletes with COVID-19 are also developing heart inflammation known as myocarditis, according to a Penn State doctor, though he later clarified that the percentage is not as high as he initially said. Wayne Sebastianelli, Penn State’s director of athletic medicine, said during a board meeting Monday night that around 30 percent of student athletes with COVID-19 who were given cardiac MRI's were found to have heart inflammation. (Sullivan, 9/3)

Penn State clarified a comment by an official who stated earlier this week that cardiac MRI scans revealed that roughly a third of Big Ten athletes who tested positive for the coronavirus and were scanned appeared to have myocarditis. The comment by Wayne Sebastianelli, the school’s director of athletic medicine, came Monday as he spoke to a local school board about high school preparations and precautions. According to a Penn State Health spokesman, Sebastianelli was speaking about “initial preliminary data that had been verbally shared by a colleague on a forthcoming study” and was not aware that it had been published, showing a rate of close to 15 percent among athletes, most of whom had experienced mild or no symptoms. Neither Sebastianelli nor Penn State conducted that study and he apologized for the confusion. (Boren, 9/3)

Maybe we should think of Covid-19 as a heart disease. When SARS-CoV-2 virus was added to human heart cells grown in lab dishes, the long muscle fibers that keep hearts beating were diced into short bits, alarming scientists at the San Francisco-based Gladstone Institutes, especially after they saw a similar phenomenon in heart tissue from Covid-19 patients’ autopsies. Their experiments could potentially explain why some people still feel short of breath after their Covid infections clear and add to worries that survivors may be at risk for future heart failure. (Cooney, 9/4)

Amarin failed to convince a federal appeals court to revive key patents covering its heart drug Vascepa. The decision, announced Thursday, exposes the company’s only drug to generic competition in the U.S. (Garde, 9/3)

It’s still too soon to try to make genetically edited babies because the science isn’t advanced enough to ensure safety, says an international panel of experts who also mapped a pathway for any countries that want to consider it. Thursday’s report comes nearly two years after a Chinese scientist shocked the world by revealing he’d helped make the first gene-edited babies using a tool called CRISPR, which enables DNA changes or “edits” that can pass to future generations. He Jianqui did this to three babies when they were embryos to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus and described it in exclusive interviews with The Associated Press. (Marchione, 9/3)

Nearly two years after the birth of the first “CRISPR babies” stunned the world, an international group of experts on Thursday warned such human experimentation — in which the DNA of embryos is edited before starting pregnancies — should not be conducted because of unresolved scientific and ethical issues. But the group’s eagerly awaited report detailed the steps that scientists should go through before attempting to create gene-edited babies should countries ever greenlight the procedure. (Joseph, 9/3)

Editing genes in human embryos could one day prevent some serious genetic disorders from being passed down — but for now the technique is too risky to be used in embryos destined for implantation, according to a high-profile international commission. And even when the technology is mature, it would initially apply only in a narrow set of circumstances, the panel says.The recommendations, released in a report on 3 September, were produced by experts from 10 countries convened by the US National Academy of Medicine, US National Academy of Sciences, and the UK Royal Society. They join a line of reports in recent years that have argued against deploying gene editing in the clinic until researchers are able to address safety worries, and the public has had a chance to comment on ethical and societal concerns. (Ledford, 9/3)

Drugmaker Roche (ROG.S) on Friday said it had received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a test to quickly detect whether a patient has SARS-CoV-2 or one of two forms of influenza. "With the approaching flu season, this new test is particularly important as SARS-CoV-2 and influenza infections can hardly be differentiated by symptoms alone. Now, with a single test, healthcare professionals can confidently provide the right diagnosis and most effective treatment plan for their patients,” Roche diagnostics head Thomas Schinecker said in a statement. (9/4)

Biofourmis, a Boston startup that makes technology to remotely monitor patients with chronic conditions and dangerous diagnoses, announced Thursday that it has taken in $100 million in new investment to help it advance products in the fields of cardiology, respiratory, oncology, and pain management. The company, which moved to downtown Boston from Singapore last year, uses wearable sensors to understand patients’ vital signs and help doctors make decisions about their care from afar. (Rosen, 9/3)

Most biotech startups are free to tell the world as little or as much as they want about their work or their investor’s expectations. Unlike major pharmaceutical companies, which are legally required to report regularly to tens of thousands of investors, a biotech company’s immediate goals are often hinted at only in intermittent press releases. Usually the emphasis is on announcing an influx of new cash from venture capitalists, not detailing their business plans. (Sheridan, 9/4)

The Trump administration plans to enforce federal standardized testing requirements for K-12 schools despite the pandemic, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced to state leaders on Thursday. DeVos told state school chiefs in a letter that they should not expect the Education Department to again waive federal testing requirements as it did this spring amid sudden school closures. (Stratford, 9/3)

Nevada lawmakers allocated $6.2 million in federal relief dollars to a program that will test thousands of teachers across the state as they return to classrooms for in-person instruction. The program will pay for personnel, test kits, test processing and surveillance for up to 62,500 teachers and support staff throughout Nevada. It will be administered by the Clark County Teacher’s Health Trust, the largest public school employee health plan in the state. (Metz, 9/4)

In late August, less than a week after classes started, the State University of New York at Oneonta suspended five students who, officials said, had organized parties in the upstate town that might have led to a coronavirus outbreak on campus. But it was already too late. Five days later, the outbreak was out of control, with nearly 400 virus cases among a campus student population that is usually around 6,000. As a result, officials announced on Thursday that they were canceling in-person classes for the fall semester and sending students home, making Oneonta the first SUNY campus to shut down because of the virus after trying to reopen for classes. (Rose, 9/3)

More than a dozen students gathered outside the University of Oklahoma’s administration building Thursday to protest what they say is an inadequate response to the coronavirus pandemic. Students are violating the university and the city of Norman’s mask mandates at bars, restaurants and at fraternity and sorority functions, OU student Kellie Dick, a senior from Shawnee, told The Associated Press. (Murphy and Miller, 9/3)

Sewage surveillance to detect coronavirus is being used on certain college campuses to determine if the novel coronavirus is present in dormitories and college communities. The University of North Carolina Charlotte and the University of Arizona have both confirmed to Fox News that they are using this surveillance system to help contain the spread of COVID-19. (McGorry, 9/3)

Democrats on Thursday urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue new guidance to encourage colleges and universities to go tobacco-free in the fall during the coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform’s Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) wrote a letter to CDC Director Robert Redfield urging him to revamp his agency’s guidelines for institutions of higher learning, citing studies linking tobacco use to COVID-19. (Axelrod, 9/3)

Tyson Foods is planning to open medical clinics at several of its U.S. plants to improve the health of its workers and better protect them from the coronavirus. The Springdale, Arkansas-based company, which processes about 20% of all beef, pork and chicken in the U.S., said its plan to open the clinics near its plants was in the works before the coronavirus struck this year, but that they will undoubtedly help the company respond to the pandemic. (Funk, 9/3)

With the annual flu season about to start, it's still unclear exactly how influenza virus will interact with the coronavirus if a person has both viruses. Doctors around the world have seen some patients who tested positive for both influenza virus and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. At least a couple of dozen cases have been reported — although that's not a lot, given that over 26 million people have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. (GreenfieldBoyce, 9/3)

Sara Tibebu tried bubble baths. She curated playlists of low-fi beats, followed guided meditation videos and paid for virtual therapy. In desperation, she even plucked and dried lavender to make sachets to place inside her pillowcase. But every night, she still found herself staring at the ceiling — wide-awake. For five months, all Tibebu has wanted is a decent night of shut-eye. (Brulliard and Wan, 9/3)

They are among the greatest victims of coronavirus, yet elderly people continue to be dismissed, despite growing evidence of the devastating effects the pandemic has had on them. Earlier this week, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he had heard people describing high Covid-19 death rates among older people as "fine." (Reynolds, 9/4)

In the months since salons and barbershops shut their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic, some people have caved, spontaneously snipping their hair until it looked passable for a Zoom call. Others thoughtfully watched YouTube tutorials, ordered professional-grade equipment off Amazon and tried to copy experts.And a few (including this writer) decided to just avoid mirrors. (Kornfield, 9/3)

Actor Robert Pattinson and the cast and crew of “The Batman” had been outside London filming the superhero film for almost three months when production suddenly halted in March as the novel coronavirus spread through parts of Europe. At the time, the studio said that filming would shut down for just two weeks. Instead, the film didn’t return to set until earlier this week. Now, days after restarting production, the film has shut down yet again, this time because its star reportedly tested positive for covid-19, Vanity Fair first reported, derailing the studio’s hopes for another global blockbuster. (Peiser, 9/4)

A Texas woman says she was severely burned earlier this week after the hand sanitizer on her skin reportedly caught fire and exploded while she was lighting a candle. "Everywhere I had hand sanitizer on my hand, it just lit my hand with fire,” Kate Wise told KHOU-TV in Houston. “It obviously went all over my face. And, in like a matter of five seconds, my whole body was just consumed in flames.” The nearby bottle also exploded when the flames spread, she said. (Stimson, 9/4)

The Kansas City Chiefs examined the layout of Arrowhead Stadium and did some math. They talked with state and local health officials, monitored the spread of COVID-19 over the summer, then did some more calculations. All that work spit out the most seemingly random number: 22. That’s the percentage of capacity that the Chiefs will allow through the gates at Arrowhead next week when they raise their Super Bowl championship banner before opening the NFL season with a Thursday night game against Houston. The number equates to roughly 17,000 fans — another seemingly random number — in the cavernous stadium. (Skretta, 9/3)

Back in June, the Miami Dolphins opened up Hard Rock Stadium as a drive-in movie theater—and as an experiment. The 500 or so people who paid $39 per car to watch movies like “Jurassic Park” on the stadium floor were also helping the team answer a question worth billions of dollars to the NFL: Is there a safe way to have fans at stadiums in 2020? (Beaton, 9/3)

Researchers at the University of Oxford found that fat concentrated around the belly and waist has been linked to an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. The study involved more than 200,000 men from the U.K., and is being presented this week at the European and International Conference on Obesity (ECOICO). The team of researchers followed the subjects, who were between the ages of 40-69, for a 10-year period, according to a media release. The volunteers for the study were cancer-free at the time. (McGorry, 9/3)

Three or more servings per day of what researches call “ultra-processed food” – mass-manufactured foods containing oils, sugars, fats, starch and little nutrients – may lead to changes in chromosomes linked to aging, scientists at the European and International Conference on Obesity reported at an online medical conference Tuesday. The research, from a study published earlier this year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that having multiple daily servings of junk food, like cookies, chips, fast-food burgers or other processed meals, doubles the chance that certain strands of DNA, called telomeres, would be shorter than those who ate healthier. (Settembre, 9/3)

Drinking more than two alcoholic beverages a day can increase risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome by more than 30% in some people, according to a recent report that was presented this week during the European and International Congress on Obesity. The study also found consuming as little as half a typical alcoholic drink each day, which is equivalent to 7g of pure alcohol, can increase the chances of metabolic syndrome and obesity in men and women, according to a study. (McGorry, 9/3)

Your social media timeline is likely filled with photos of friends and family showing off their gray tresses. During the coronavirus pandemic, many people have chosen to forgo trips to the salon and opted to return to their natural hair color. When the time comes to return to society, those who opt to once again color their locks can do so without fear, a new study finds. Home hair dyes do not cause most cancers, researchers say. (Clanton, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News: As Threat Of Valley Fever Grows Beyond The Southwest, Push Is On For Vaccine 

One New Year’s Day, Rob Purdie woke up with a headache that wouldn’t quit. Vision problems, body aches and a slight fever followed. At the emergency room, the Bakersfield, California, resident was given antibiotics, which didn’t touch his symptoms. His headache turned into cluster headaches and the fatigue became worse.“I was not really functional,” he said in a recent interview, recalling the beginning of his eight-year struggle with the mystery illness. (Robbins, 9/4)

Not five minutes after police slipped a “spit hood” over Daniel Prude’s head, the 41-year-old Black man went limp. A week later, he was taken off life support. Prude’s suffocation in Rochester, New York, in March has drawn new attention to the hoods — mesh bags that have been linked to other deaths — and the frequent reliance on police to respond to mental health emergencies. (Sisak and Balsamo, 9/4)

The mayor of Rochester, N.Y., has ordered the immediate suspension of seven police officers over the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died of asphyxiation after being restrained during his arrest in March. Police body camera footage of the encounter was released Wednesday, prompting protests and calls for transparency and justice. ... Rochester police arrested Prude in the early hours of March 23 after his brother, concerned about his sibling's safety, had called 911. Prude, 41, had left his brother's house in below-freezing temperatures wearing long johns and a tank top. He had been released from Rochester's Strong Memorial Hospital earlier that night after expressing suicidal thoughts. (Treisman, Fanelli and Moule, 9/3)

A trio of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation Thursday that would label racism as a nationwide public health crisis. The bill, titled the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act, was created by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). (Johnson, 9/3)

A Texas sheriff’s deputy who fatally shot a troubled Black veteran last week near San Antonio also shot and killed a man suffering from a mental health crisis 10 years ago. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office identified John A. Rodriguez, 52, a 14-year member of the force, as the deputy who fired the shot that killed a knife-wielding 30-year-old Damian Daniels on Aug. 22 as he and two other deputies struggled to detain Daniels for mental health treatment. (9/3)

Concerned about the accuracy and uniformity of COVID-19 data, a bipartisan coalition of fiscal watchdogs have banded together to try to help make sure states are compiling and tracking information the same way. The state auditors will take a close look at how health officials in their own states are collecting, reporting and monitoring data. The goals are to ensure that information presented to the public is consistent and accurate, to allow apples-to-apples comparisons among states and to help officials get a better handle on the issue if the pandemic gets worse in the coming months or there is another disaster in the future. (Bergal, 9/4)

The Houston medical supply company US Med-Equip said Thursday it has acquired a New Jersey competitor as the COVID-19 pandemic drives medical equipment sales and rentals. The privately held US Med-Equip said the acquisition of Martab Equipment Management Services will give it access to markets in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States, where Martab has seven regional branches stretching from Maryland to Massachusetts and west to Ohio. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. (Wu, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News: HHS Plan To Improve Rural Health Focuses On Better Broadband, Telehealth Services  

Knowing it may be met with some skepticism, the Trump administration Thursday announced a sweeping plan that officials say will transform health care in rural America. Even before the coronavirus pandemic reached into the nation’s less-populated regions, rural Americans were sicker, poorer and older than the rest of the country. Hospitals are shuttering at record rates, and health care experts have long called for changes. (Tribble, 9/4)

The U.S. has the world's most expensive health care system, but it leaves roughly 30 million people uninsured. As policymakers consider making changes, some are looking to Australia as a model. That nation has achieved universal health coverage at a lower cost, using a successful mix of public and private systems. (Brangham and Kane, 9/3)

The state’s workplace safety regulator has ordered San Quentin’s dental clinic to cease many of its operations, citing practices that have “contributed to the spread” of COVID-19 in the state prison. The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health order comes after a massive coronavirus outbreak at the Marin County facility, which has to date infected more than 2,200 incarcerated men and 277 employees and killed 26 prisoners and one correctional sergeant. (Cassidy, 9/3)

The prison in the San Francisco Bay Area is the California lockup hit hardest by the coronavirus. More than 2,200 inmates — about two-thirds of the prison population — have been infected, along with nearly 300 employees. Twenty-six inmates — including several on death row — have died from confirmed or suspected infections. (9/4)

Federal and state investigators raided a Pennsylvania nursing home Thursday where hundreds of residents and staff members tested positive for coronavirus and dozens have died, authorities said. Investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the state attorney general’s office and other agencies executed the search warrant at Brighton Rehabilitation and Wellness Center northeast of Pittsburgh, said Scott Brady, U.S. Attorney for Pennsylvania’s Western District. (Stelloh, 9/3)

South Dakota is one of the nation's hot spots for COVID-19 infections. That didn't stop another large-scale event from kicking off Thursday.The rural South Dakota State Fair, which reported an attendance of 205,000 people last year, is set to run through Labor Day with more hand-washing stations, social distancing reminders and an encouragement — but not a requirement — for attendees to wear masks. It comes on the heels of the state's two largest events: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and the The Sioux Empire Fair. (Shannon, 9/3)

Nursing homes in almost half of all Texas counties, including Dallas and Tarrant, must start testing their staff twice a week for COVID-19 or face potential fines. The sweeping new rules from the federal government are aimed at reducing spread in nursing homes, where the virus has cut a deadly path. Families and advocates hope the rules will open the door to more visitation, which has been restricted for months. (Morris, 9/3)

A group of Republican lawmakers in Arkansas filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging the state’s mask mandate and other coronavirus restrictions, even as the state reported one of its highest one-day increases in virus cases and deaths. The 18 lawmakers asked a judge to rule that the Health Department’s directives issued since the pandemic began are invalid. They argue the orders require legislative approval. (DeMillo, 9/3)

Though the number of inmates testing positive has dropped in recent weeks, officials have extended the two-week lockdown at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center that began after an outbreak of coronavirus infections began spreading at the Gretna jail. (Hunter, 9/3)

The COVID-19 case-fatality rate (CFR) in community-dwelling Indiana residents was three times higher in non-whites and 2.5 times higher than that of flu in people 65 years and older, a study published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine found. Indiana University researchers analyzed coronavirus prevalence estimates of people 12 years and older from a random sample taken across their state and COVID-19 tests from Apr 25 to 29. Nursing home residents, which made up 54.9% of the state's deaths at that time, weren't counted because they would have been unable to leave their facilities for testing. (9/3)

Researchers and community organizations are launching a two-day mass testing campaign in Oakland’s Fruitvale district to better understanding how COVID-19 has spread through the heavily Latinx neighborhood, which is one of the hardest hit in the Bay Area. For one weekend on Sept. 12 and 13, people will be able to get a free coronavirus nose-swab test as well as an antibody test that will detect past exposure to the virus. Community organizations will also interview at least 100 essential workers, provide meals to families, and give away school supplies donated by the Golden State Warriors in hopes of making the testing experience less intimidating. (Castaneda, 9/3)

Kaiser Health News: In Legislative Shuffle, California Prioritizes Safety Gear And Sick Leave During Crisis 

California lawmakers convened this year with big plans to tackle soaring health care costs, expand health insurance coverage and improve treatment for mental health and addiction.But the pandemic abruptly reoriented their priorities, forcing them to grasp for legislative solutions to the virus ripping through the state. (Bluth, Hart and Young, 9/4)

Every step for Jenny Ruelas is a challenge. The 31-year-old has to pause to catch her breath, carries a can of oxygen with her wherever she goes, and walks with a cane -- all of this since she contracted Covid-19 in May. Her doctors told her that one side of her heart is now larger than the other, she says, but her heart is also broken after losing her father to the virus. His girlfriend also died, leaving their five young children without parents. (Elam, 9/3)

Nearly 20% of Californians know someone who has died of COVID-19, a rate that’s significantly higher for people of color and low-income residents, according to a new poll from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF).Among respondents, 10% of white people reported knowing someone who had died of the virus, while that rate rose to 29% for Latinx people, 28% for African Americans and 19% for Asian Americans. (Sparling, 9/3)

Ms. Wicks, a veteran of the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns, said she had never expected to become a symbol when she took her month-old child with her to vote on several crucial bills on Monday, the last day of the legislative session. Ms. Wicks lives in Oakland, just over an hour southwest of the capital, Sacramento. Since she was elected to the State Assembly in 2018, she has managed to make it home nearly every night before her older daughter’s bedtime. In other words: Juggling isn’t new. (Medina, 9/3)

It was a revolution with a baby and a blanket. California Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks became an international symbol for working moms this week when she made a state Capitol floor speech just before midnight while holding her swaddled 1-month-old, Elly, and wearing a mask in the midst of the pandemic. After a whirlwind of interviews, spurred by a Hillary Clinton tweet, Wicks wants to use the moment to force changes in Washington and Sacramento that will help working parents. It comes as families are already overburdened with trying to balance parenting demands and work as school campuses remain closed and many child care centers have shut down. (Marinucci and Murphy, 9/3)

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced yesterday the state's first case of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) virus this year, in a girl from Eau Claire County. Last week the state announced that horses in three northwestern counties had also been diagnosed as having EEE, a mosquito-borne virus. The last human case in Wisconsin was in 2017. (9/3)

The Trump administration has been celebrating an initiative that buys food from farmers and distributes it through charitable organizations such as food banks. "I'm proud to announce that we will provide an additional $1 billion to fund the Farmers to Families Food Box program. It's worked out so well," President Trump told a cheering crowd on Aug. 24 in North Carolina. Yet food banks, which play a key role in the program, are ambivalent about it. On the one hand, they're grateful for the food. "Any family that's receiving one of these food boxes is blessed and nourished, and I think it's a good thing," said Eric Cooper, president and CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank. (Charles, 9/3)

A prison inmate in Thailand has tested positive for the coronavirus in the country’s first confirmed locally transmitted case in 100 days, health officials said Thursday. They identified the inmate as a 37-year-old man arrested for drug abuse who was brought to prison in Bangkok on Aug. 26 and tested positive Wednesday at the prison’s health center. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha on Wednesday had congratulated the nation for having achieved 100 days without any confirmed local cases of the coronavirus. The last person to test positive was on May 24. (Sivasomboom, 9/3)

South African healthcare workers have protested against poor working conditions and urged the government to end corruption in the purchase of COVID-19 personal protective equipment. The protesters gathered Thursday in Pretoria and Cape Town, charging that the lives of healthcare workers are endangered as some health facilities have inadequate supplies of protective equipment like surgical masks. (Magome, 9/3)

Mexican officials on Thursday downplayed the country’s rate of coronavirus infections and deaths among medical personnel, appearing to dispute reports this week that Mexico had the highest rate in the world. The Health Department said 1,410 doctors, nurses and other hospital employees had died from COVIED-19, while a total of 104,590 medical workers had tested positive for the coronavirus. (9/4)

An American oil executive jailed in Venezuela has been out of contact with relatives and attorneys for nearly a week and his family fears he could be suffering from the coronavirus. José Pereira, the former president of Houston-based Citgo, was transferred on Aug. 28 to an unknown hospital after complaining in an earlier phone call of a dry cough, his son told The Associated Press on Thursday. (Goodman, 9/3)

Red and yellow were bad. Blue and green were good. The rest, Sam Gandy explained, remains unclear. It was December 2015, and Gandy, a neurologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, was showing a former National Football League player named Sean Morey scans of his brain. A professional athlete for 10 seasons, Morey retired from the NFL in 2010 after doctors told him he had suffered too many concussions. Morey subsequently became a behind-the-scenes health and safety advocate, co-chairing an NFL Players Association committee devoted to brain injuries and leading a mid-2010s effort to improve the settlement terms of a class action concussion lawsuit brought by retirees against the league. Just 39 years old, he also was suffering debilitating headaches, memory lapses, angry outbursts and other symptoms associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease linked to repeated blows to the head. (Hruby, 9/2)

Alex Hershaft remembers the special comb.He and his family were living in the Warsaw ghetto. It was 1940. He was a little boy, about 6 years old.A disease known as epidemic typhus was spreading among the close to half a million Jews confined in 1.3 square miles of Warsaw, Poland, in what became known as the Warsaw ghetto. Records kept by ghetto leaders and unearthed after World War II show six or more people lived in a single room in some apartments. Many homes had no running water, and there were few public baths, according to records from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem. (Kritz, 9/2)

On Sept. 28, 1918, Riley Shue played in his first college football game. Eleven days later, the Miami (Ohio) guard died of the flu.A starter at Texas also died of influenza that fall. So did a player at West Virginia, and Ohio State’s team captain from the year before. That’s just a few we know about. It isn’t clear how many college football players died of the flu in fall 1918.The 1918-19 flu scourge was more lethal than the current coronavirus pandemic, killing 675,000 in the U.S., and was especially fatal in 20- to 40-year-olds. Covid-19 infections have killed more than 180,000 this year, and the U.S. has more than three times the population it did a century ago. (Bachman, 9/2)

The coronavirus pandemic is snarling municipal trash pickup in several U.S. cities, sparking complaints from frustrated residents as uncollected garbage bakes in the summer sun. The problem stems in part from the sheer volume of residential trash and recycling, which is far higher than usual with so many people at home. Some cities are struggling because many sanitation workers have contracted the virus, have had to quarantine due to possible exposure or have been afraid to go to work. (Calvert, 8/30)

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implemented a strict lockdown in Israel in February, by early May, roughly a dozen daily new cases of coronavirus down from more than 750 per day were being reported among the country’s population of roughly 9 million people. By last month, Israel had hit 2,300 new cases in one day.But three months ago, the cost of reopening schools with so few cases of coronavirus did not seem to come close to the benefits that were believed to be gained from holding in-person classes — or so the Israeli government thought. (Buchwald, 9/3)

All my life, I’ve been assigned to cover the past. That’s what reporters do, whether it’s a news conference that has just ended, or a killing hushed up decades ago. Now, for the first time, I’m being asked to cover the future. I’ve been at The Times since 1976 and have covered global health since the 1990s, when I was a correspondent in South Africa and it was becoming the world’s biggest H.I.V. hot spot. (McNeil Jr., 8/27)

Somewhere in rural Pennsylvania, my husband and I whisper-argue on a mattress strewn across the floor. His hand gestures say, “Lower your voice.” Mine say, “I’m a big-haired Spanish woman from Jersey. Fat chance.” But his Anglo-Southern penchant for quiet subtlety is probably the best approach right now. We don’t want to wake the 13-month-old who co-sleeps between us, but our real concern is my parents. They might overhear our debate: to stay or go back. (Madrazo, 8/27)

We’re all getting used to face masks, either wearing them or figuring out who we’re looking at. They can even trip up those of us who are experts in faces. “Actually, I just had an experience today,” said Marlene Behrmann, a cognitive neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University who has spent decades studying the science of facial recognition. She went to meet a colleague outside the hospital where they collaborate, and didn’t realize the person was sitting right in front of her, wearing a mask. In fairness, “She’s cut her hair very short,” Dr. Behrmann said. (Preston, 8/31)

Another day, another horrifying COVID-19 milestone: This week the number of US cases topped 6 million. The death toll now exceeds 180,000. An equally undeniable truth is that life as we know it, as we once lived it — complete with in-person sporting events and theater and concerts — will not return until there is a safe and effective vaccine, widely trusted and administered. And there’s certainly no shortage of effort. At least a dozen US firms are working on a COVID-19 vaccine. Two are in Phase 3 clinical trials already (one made by Moderna and the other by Pfizer/BioNTech). The so-called Oxford vaccine by AstraZeneca begins trials in the US this week, and Johnson & Johnson’s entry into the Phase 3 field is expected later this month. It is widely anticipated that a vaccine could be available by the end of this year or early 2021. (9/3)

Finding a vaccine against Covid-19 that works and can be distributed widely enough to help stop the pandemic is a global priority. Given the urgency, governments are doing all they can to fund research and incentivize firms to ramp up trials — pre-ordering doses, lowering regulatory barriers to market and granting manufacturers immunity from costly future injury-related lawsuits. But when does the scramble for supply start to look like corner-cutting? (Lionel Laurent, 9/4)

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to spend more than $250 million on its latest pandemic-related effort — not to combat the coronavirus itself, but to “defeat despair and inspire hope” on the issue. The agency is seeking bids from communications firms for what amounts to a public-relations campaign aimed at coaxing people back out into the workplace and society. This is classic Donald Trump: focusing on public perception rather than the actual problem. If the administration really wants to “defeat despair,” how about finally providing some national leadership on testing and tracing, consistent messaging about masks and all the other things it has so far failed to do? (9/2)

It’s Friday, the cusp of a Labor Day weekend that’s going to be a scorcher in much of the state, and we know what you’re thinking. Because we’re thinking it too. It’s been a scary, frustrating and exhausting six months since the novel coronavirus showed up and turned daily life into a sort of dystopian hellscape. As if that weren’t bad enough, the last few months piled on the unpleasantness with massive civil unrest, abnormal and dangerous weather, wildfires and blackouts, presidential campaign nastiness and a sad and painful reckoning over the nation’s entrenched racism. Oh, and more than 185,000 people dead in the U.S. from COVID-19. (9/4)

President Trump touted his “America First” philosophy in his inaugural address as making the United States “unstoppable.” But the reality is that under Mr. Trump, the United States is in retreat. His refusal to join a global vaccine effort organized in part by the World Health Organization is yet another example of America isolated and weak.The United States has decided not to participate in a global drive to develop, manufacture and equitably distribute a coronavirus vaccine known as the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) Facility. The project is led by the WHO; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a public-private global vaccine development project. The Covax effort now has 172 nations signed up — Japan, Germany and the European Commission have joined — with nine candidate vaccines in its portfolio, four more under discussion and nine others being evaluated for the longer term. (9/2)

San Quentin State Prison has been no match for the coronavirus. Of the nearly 3,200 incarcerated individuals, 2,237 have been infected, more than 100 have been hospitalized, and 26 have died. As we stand over the rubble of this public health disaster, still stunned by the events of the past three months, we are compelled to give our account as front-line physicians and offer some hard-earned lessons for preventing similar outbreaks in correctional facilities. (Haiyan Ramirez Battle and John Grant, 9/4)

Opioid overdoses in the United States have spiked by about 18% during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program at the University of Baltimore. This, after the CDC reported 2019 opioid overdose deaths topped over 71,000, a record high at the time. (Donald J. Mihalek, 9/3)

Should people who aren’t sick be tested for Covid-19? In August the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention revised its guidance to suggest focusing on the elderly and patients with symptoms. One may be excused for thinking that more testing is always better, but that isn’t true. Anyone can be infected with the virus, but there is a thousandfold difference in the risk of death between the young and the old. Testing strategy should reflect that.There is little purpose in using tests to check asymptomatic children to see if it is safe for them to come to school. When children are infected, most are asymptomatic, and the mortality risk is lower than for the flu. (Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, 9/3)

This fall, many students lucky enough to have in-person schools are returning with required all-day face masks. In one sense, if children have face-to-face school, we should count our blessings, not complain about details. However, decisions about how to reopen often drive whether and when we open, and our nationwide expectation of continuous masking for all students, especially young ones, merits scrutiny. (Patricia Rice Doran, 9/2)

When the movie “Black Panther” was released two years ago with the African American actor Chadwick Boseman as its superhero, I shared in the pride felt by millions of people of color, especially children, who could for the first time see themselves save the world. Boseman’s death last week from colon cancer, a disease that I diagnose and treat, has stirred me to ponder racism, health-care disparities and the mortality of superheroes. (Akash Goel, 9/3)

Nurses need our support now more than ever as they manage the frontlines in the fight against Covid-19, working long hours and risking their own well-being to care for those who are sick. With nurses’ crucial work in the national spotlight, it is time for policymakers to address the long-anticipated nursing shortage that could leave the U.S. unable to combat the next health crisis. (Jan Jones-Schenk and Michael O. Leavitt, 9/4)

California’s wildfire season is off to a brutal start. Through August, this year already ranks as the second most destructive in the state’s history, with more than 1.6 million acres burned. Sparked by lightning strikes and record heat, fires in northern California have destroyed thousands of structures, wrecked air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area and carried smoke plumes as far away as Nebraska. With hot, dry weather likely to persist until November, the worst may be yet to come.   Looking farther ahead, the picture does not improve. As climate change worsens, wildfires are growing in number, scale and duration across the American West, overwhelming local firefighting capacities and putting property and lives in peril. Since 2017, fires have consumed more than 20 million acres of land and caused at least $50 billion in economic losses. The U.S. needs a coherent national strategy to address the threat. (9/3)