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Senate Republicans predicted clear sailing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett as she concluded her confirmation testimony Wednesday, and said she will forge a new and prominent path as a conservative, religious woman who opposes abortion. “There is nothing wrong with confirming to the Supreme Court of the United States a devout Catholic, pro-life Christian,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said as he pledged his support for Barrett. (Barnes, Min Kim and Marimow, 10/14)

Democrats warned Wednesday that Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's almost certain confirmation could launch a new chapter of conservative judicial activism, though the federal appeals court judge sought to portray herself as a mainstream jurist without any agenda. As the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing drew toward a close Wednesday, several Democrats acknowledged Barrett would be confirmed to succeed the late liberal Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, most likely by a party-line vote before Election Day. (Wolf, 10/14)

KHN: Outnumbered On High Court Nomination, Democrats Campaign For A Different Vote 
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee know that, barring something unexpected, they lack the votes to block President Donald Trump from installing his third justice in four years on the Supreme Court and creating a 6-3 conservative majority. They also know that, in a normal year, by mid-October Congress would be out of session and members home campaigning. But 2020 is obviously no normal year. So, while the rest of Congress is home, Democratic Judiciary members are trying something very different in the hearings for nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Rather than prosecuting their case against Barrett, currently a federal appeals court judge, they are refighting the war that helped them pick up seats in 2018 — banging on Republicans for trying to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. (Rovner, 10/15)

Wednesday was the final day of questioning in the confirmation hearing for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Republicans have the votes to approve her nomination out of the Judiciary Committee and onto the Senate floor, where it’s likely she could be confirmed by a Republican-only vote before the election — and be on the court in time to hear a case this November on the Affordable Care Act, as well as any election-related cases. (Phillips, 10/14)

Despite the political fireworks over Senate Republicans’ decision to proceed with Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation days before a presidential election, the second day of her questioning on Capitol Hill offered few flashes of light or heat. Democrats again sought to grill the former Notre Dame law professor about her views, but she remained tight-lipped on issues like abortion, Obamacare, climate change and the possibility of a contested election, offering scant new hints about how she would vote on hot-button matters that are already at the high court or may wind up there soon. (Gerstein, 10/14)

On the subject of abortion —

Judge Amy Coney Barrett declined to answer a question Wednesday from Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., about whether the Supreme Court ruling that protects the right to buy and use contraception was correctly decided. The 7-2 decision in Griswold v. Connecticut is viewed as the basis for Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized a woman's right to abortion nationwide. Instead of directly answering Coons' question about whether the Supreme Court made the appropriate ruling in Griswold, Barrett said she found it unlikely that decision would ever be overturned. (Raphelson, 10/14)

Amy Coney Barrett could no longer avoid the question that has defined her nomination to fill Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court: “Do you agree,” asked Senator Dianne Feinstein of California during confirmation hearings today, “that Roe was wrongly decided?” “I completely understand why you are asking the question,” Barrett responded, looking grave. But “I can’t pre-commit or say, ‘Yes, I’m going in with some agenda,’ because I’m not. I don’t have any agenda.” The question may be unavoidable, but that doesn’t mean she will answer it. (Green, 10/13)

On the subject of Obamacare —

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday signaled that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could survive a court challenge from the Trump administration. Top senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee quizzed President Trump's nominee on a looming case that could determine the fate of the ACA. (Carney, 10/14)

Judge Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday said judges should presume that a larger law can be saved even when part of it is ruled unconstitutional. Senators pushed Judge Amy Coney Barrett to clarify her perspective on severability, a legal doctrine that may be key to the Affordable Care Act's survival before the Supreme Court. The Senate is on schedule to confirm Barrett before the justices hear arguments on Nov. 10 in California v. Texas, a case in which Republican attorneys general and the Trump administration argue the entire ACA should be struck down because Congress zeroed out the individual mandate. (Cohrs, 10/14)

Senate Republicans are downplaying the chances that the Supreme Court will strike down ObamaCare as Democrats seek to hammer the GOP on the issue ahead of the elections. As Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett testifies this week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrats are drilling in on a Republican-backed lawsuit seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that the high court will hear one week after Election Day. (Sullivan, 10/14)

Also —

During Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week, Republican senators, one after another, marveled at a role that doesn’t appear on her résumé: mother of seven. They described her mothering as “tireless” and “remarkable,” clear evidence that she was a “superstar.” Senator Josh Hawley asked her for parenting advice. Judge Barrett has embraced the image. News cameras were there to watch her load her large family into her car before her official nomination. “While I am a judge, I’m better known back home as a room parent, car-pool driver and birthday party planner,” she said the day she was nominated. ... For American women in public office, being a mother has become a powerful but tricky credential. ... Little of this is required of men. Compare, for example, the confirmation hearings in 1986 of Justice Antonin Scalia, a mentor of Judge Barrett. Senators welcomed his children to the hearings and offered them breaks, but spent little, if any, time connecting his fatherhood to his professional life. (Cain Miller and Haridasani Gupta, 10/14)

Barron Trump, the 14-year-old son of President Trump and Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19, after initially testing negative. The First Lady made the announcement on Wednesday in a post called, "My personal experience with COVID-19," on the White House website, adding it was one of her greatest fears as a parent. A wave of relief washed over her when the boy first appeared to be untouched by the virus after she and the president were diagnosed with the highly contagious coronavirus. But that relief was short lived. "I couldn't help but think 'what about tomorrow or the next day?' " she wrote. (Romo, 10/14)

The first lady noted that Barron, 14, exhibited no symptoms, a departure from herself and the president, who have both said they experienced mild symptoms. ... She also acknowledged “just how fortunate my family is to have received the kind of care that we did,” expressing her gratitude to first responders and others dealing with the virus. (Oprysko, 10/14)

Before departing for a campaign rally in Des Moines Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn that Barron is doing "fine." ... Barron's private school, St. Andrew's Episcopal, was set to begin "a phased transition to hybrid learning" this week. (Mandell, 10/14)

In related news —

President Trump on Wednesday invoked his son Barron’s positive coronavirus case in a push to physically reopen U.S. schools, saying that the 14-year-old was unaffected by the virus because of his immune system. (Chalfant, 10/14)

After receiving a heavy infusion of monoclonal antibodies to treat his bout of Covid-19, President Trump has declared that he is immune to the virus that causes it and talked privately about wearing a Superman T-shirt under his dress shirt when he left the hospital. Even as the president has exulted in his supposed imperviousness to the coronavirus that is resurging across parts of the country, he has delighted in portraying former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as vulnerable and cloistered, wearing masks “every time you see him.” (Mandavilli, 10/14)

Dozens of scientists from around the world warned against a "herd immunity" approach to curbing the spread of Covid-19 in a letter published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet. Herd immunity, which occurs when enough people become immune to a contagious disease to make further spread unlikely, is a "dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," the scientists wrote. The letter, signed by 80 researchers from the fields of public health, epidemiology, virology, infectious diseases and others, said relying on immunity among people who have recovered from Covid-19 is a flawed strategy. (Edwards, 10/14)

The idea that the public can infect its way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is "a dangerous fallacy unsupported by the scientific evidence," 80 researchers said Wednesday in a letter published in the Lancet. They strongly denounced the idea, advocated by the White House, of achieving "herd immunity" against the virus that causes the disease by letting healthy people with a low risk of serious illness get infected.  (Weise, 10/14)

A vaccine is still the best way to bring an end to the Covid-19 pandemic, health experts say, adding that pursuing herd immunity would be dangerous. The idea of letting the virus run unchecked through communities "misses the basic point that we're all connected," former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Thomas Frieden told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. Frieden was responding to recent efforts to promote herd immunity as an answer to Covid-19. The idea is being pushed by those eager to stop the economic damage the pandemic has caused. (Holcombe, 10/15)

Read the letter in The Lancet:

The president’s aides appeared to [give] wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent. ... Interviews with eight people who either received copies of the memo or were briefed on aspects of it as it spread among investors in New York and elsewhere provide a glimpse of how elite traders had access to information from the administration that helped them gain financial advantage during a chaotic three days when global markets were teetering. (Kelly and Mazzetti, 10/14)

When Deborah Birx, a physician with a background in HIV/AIDS research, was named coordinator of the task force in February, she was widely praised as a tough, indefatigable manager and a voice of data-driven reason. But some of her actions have undermined the effectiveness of the world’s preeminent public health agency, according to a Science investigation. Interviews with nine current CDC employees, several of them senior agency leaders, and 20 former agency leaders and public health experts—as well as a review of more than 100 official emails, memos, and other documents—suggest Birx’s hospital data takeover fits a pattern in which she opposed CDC guidance, sometimes promoting President Donald Trump’s policies or views against scientific consensus. (Piller, 10/14)

U.S. diplomats and security officials privately warned the state of Nevada not to use Chinese-made coronavirus test kits donated by the United Arab Emirates over concerns about patient privacy, test accuracy and Chinese government involvement, documents obtained by The Associated Press show. The documents illustrate how the U.S. government actively — if quietly — tried to keep the state out of a project involving the Chinese firm BGI Group, which is the world’s largest genetic sequencing company and which has expanded its reach during the coronavirus pandemic. (Gambrell and Price, 10/15)

And more on how mixed messaging and disinformation have impacted the pandemic response —

Almost 40 years ago, a CDC report described mysterious pneumonia cases among five previously healthy young men in Los Angeles. That led to reporting of similar cases — and the eventual identification of AIDS. Since then, those same weekly CDC reports have published important articles on SARS, Ebola and Zika, among other major disease trends. And this year, many Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) articles have presented updated research and critical health information about COVID-19. But the MMWR, known as “the voice of the CDC,’’ has come under recent political pressure, according to media reports. (Miller, 10/13)

People seek COVID-19 information from different sources based on sex, age, education level, political bent, and beliefs about the pandemic, according to a study published last week in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance. ... The vast majority of the 11,242 participants who completed the survey (91.2%) said they turned to traditional news sources such as television, radio, podcasts, and newspapers. But the largest single source of COVID-19 information was government websites (87.6%), which were also the most trusted source (43.3%). Another large source was social media (73.6%), although participants said they trusted government information far more. (Van Beusekom, 10/14)

For decades, people struggling with illnesses of all kinds have sought help in online support groups, and during 2020, such groups have been in high demand for COVID-19 patients, who often must recover in isolation. But the fear and uncertainty regarding the coronavirus have made online groups targets for the spread of false information. And to help fellow patients, some of these groups are making a mission of stamping out misinformation. (Smith, 10/15)

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will make sure that a COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to seniors at no cost once a vaccine is approved, CMS Administrator Seema Verma said during today's HLTH 2020 virtual conference. And while it is important that seniors – who are in a high-risk category for COVID-19 – don't have any barriers to getting the vaccine, CMS is working to guarantee a free vaccine for Medicaid and private insurance members as well, Verma said. (Hackett, 10/13)

CMS on Oct. 14 added 11 new services to the list of telehealth services that Medicare will reimburse during the COVID-19 pubic health emergency. The Trump administration announced March 17 that CMS will temporarily pay clinicians to provide telehealth services for beneficiaries during the pandemic. Since the public health emergency began, CMS has added more than 135 services to the Medicare telehealth services list, including emergency department visits and initial inpatient visits. Medicare will begin paying eligible practitioners who provide these newly added telehealth services effective immediately and through the duration of the public health emergency. Here are the 11 additional services and their respective codes. (Drees, 10/14)

CMS' long-standing Hospital Readmission Reduction Program incorrectly penalizes hospitals or overlooks hospitals that should receive a penalty, according to a new study. The findings, published Wednesday in JAMA Cardiology, are the latest to uncover flaws in the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program, which has been heavily criticized by hospitals and quality researchers since its inception in 2012 under the Affordable Care Act. (Castellucci, 10/14)

Medicare open enrollment begins today —

The number of Americans on Medicaid continues to rise as people lose their insurance during the economic downturn, but policy experts disagree on how much additional funding states facing higher costs may need. National enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program jumped by 4 million between February and June, an increase of almost 6 percent, according to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data released recently. (Raman, 10/15)

More than 4.6 million Florida residents receive health coverage through Medicare, and the time to review their benefits is here. The process will look a bit different this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment often happens face-to-face, at crowded events and inside offices where beneficiaries can ask questions and get help. This year, though, those interactions are mostly happening online and over the phone. Insurance companies have trained staffers on new processes and say they’re geared up for the start of open enrollment on Thursday, Oct. 15. (Reeves, 10/14)

Part A, Part B, Part D, and what’s this about Plan F, G and N? Navigating Medicare is like alphabet soup with a side of number crunch. Over a two-month period at the end of every year, people over 65 and those with long-term disabilities are left are trying to figure out what kind of health coverage they need in the coming year. Here’s your Houston How To primer on Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans for the 2020 open enrollment period. (Don’t worry, there’s a glossary for health insurance terms in the collapsed fact box.) (Wu, 10/15)

The coronavirus pandemic has raised the stakes, making decisions about health care more important than at any time in the last century. For more than 62 million Americans age 65 and over, the Medicare program is central to that process. About 4.6 million of them are Floridians. Every year at this time, during Medicare’s open enrollment period, the Tampa Bay Times sets out to help readers better understand the program and use it to the fullest. Our guide explains how Medicare works, helps beneficiaries compare coverage options available in the Tampa Bay area and points the way toward help. (Tobin, 10/15)

Also —

CMS released its report card for Medicare Advantage and Part D prescription drug plans Oct. 8. Medicare ranks Medicare Advantage and Part D plans on a quality scale of one to five stars, with five representing excellent performance and one reflecting poor performance. To assign stars, Medicare analyzes how health plans performed on 44 measures for Medicare Advantage and Part D plans; 32 measures for only Medicare Advantage plans; and 14 measures for standalone Part D prescription drug plans. Here are the 28 plans receiving a five-star rating. (Haefner, 10/13)

The flu season is coming. We don’t know exactly when it will arrive or how long it will last but it’s on its way. In the United States, flu season generally begins in October, peaks between December and February, and extends into May. Every year, the arrival of the flu presents a risk for seniors. People 65 years and older account for 70 to 85% of flu-related deaths and 50 to 70% of flu-related hospitalizations each flu season. However, this year the risk is considerably greater because of the pandemic. Eight of 10 COVID-19 related deaths have been among those 65 and older. Getting the flu or COVID is serious but getting both can be deadly.  (Omdahl, 10/13)

A federal judge on Wednesday declared a 2015 Tennessee law that requires a waiting period before an abortion unconstitutional. The law required anyone seeking an abortion to make two trips to a clinic. The first visit for in-person counseling by a doctor. The individual must then must wait at least 48 hours before returning for an abortion.  (Timms, 10/14)

The ruling was significant, as it was the first by a federal court to strike down a waiting period since a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision upheld a 24-hour waiting period in Pennsylvania, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented the Tennessee clinics that sued to stop the law. And although it is unlikely to have an immediate effect in other states, it sets a precedent for other federal courts to cite when reviewing similar laws. Waiting periods are one of a number of abortion restrictions that could ultimately be ruled upon by the Supreme Court, which could tip further to the right if President Trump’s latest nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, is confirmed, as expected, by the U.S. Senate. (Levenson and Tavernise, 10/14)

A federal appeals court on Tuesday blocked Texas' ban on the safest and most common second-trimester abortion procedure in a 2-1 ruling, saying the law “unduly burdens a woman’s constitutionally protected right to obtain a pre-viability abortion.” Attorney General Ken Paxton is likely to ask the entire 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — on which appointees of Republicans outnumber appointees of Democrats 12-5 — to reconsider the ruling by a three-judge panel of its members. (Briseno, 10/14)

In Planned Parenthood news —

Protesters and counterprotesters clashed Tuesday outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Walnut Creek, Calif., in an incident that resulted in multiple people being pepper sprayed. According to NBC News, a group of anti-abortion protesters and counterprotesters regularly demonstrate outside the Planned Parenthood but on Tuesday, the anti-abortion protesters arrived with its own group of armed security guards. (Seipel, 10/14)

Women — and some men — from all walks of life are sharing personal and touching stories about how Planned Parenthood has drastically changed their lives for the better. On Wednesday, the hashtag #ThanksPlannedParenthood began to trend on Twitter as people spoke out about how the reproductive health care nonprofit provided them with medical care, guidance and support when they had nowhere else to turn. (Wanshel, 10/14)

Joe Biden’s presidential campaign said Thursday that vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris will suspend in-person events until Monday after two people associated with the campaign tested positive for coronavirus. The campaign said Biden had no exposure, though he and Harris spent several hours campaigning together in Arizona on Oct. 8. Harris was scheduled to travel Thursday to North Carolina for events encouraging voters to cast early ballots. The campaign told reporters Thursday morning that Harris’ communications director and a traveling staff member for her travel to Arizona tested positive after that Oct. 8 trip. (Barrow, 10/15)

The positive tests late Wednesday included a flight crew member, who doesn't work for the campaign, and the senator’s communications director, Liz Allen, according to Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon. Harris wasn’t in close contact with either person within two days of the tests and so faces no obligation to quarantine, Dillon said. “Regardless, out of an abundance of caution and in line with our campaign’s commitment to the highest levels of precaution, we are canceling Senator Harris’s travel through Sunday, October 18th,” Dillon said. (Jansen, 10/15)

The U.S. Postal Service agreed Wednesday to reverse changes that slowed mail service nationwide, settling a lawsuit filed by Montana Gov. Steve Bullock during a pandemic that is expected to force many more people to vote by mail. The lawsuit filed against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service on Sept. 9 argued changes implemented in June harmed access to mail services in Montana, resulting in delayed delivery of medical prescriptions, payments, and job applications, and impeding the ability of Montana residents to vote by mail. (Samuels, 10/15)

U.S. Postal Service employees and supervisors have routinely falsified data on package deliveries, likely so they are not penalized for tardiness, according to postal workers and internal data obtained by The Washington Post. And the practice appears to have intensified as Americans ordered more items online during the coronavirus pandemic. ... The problematic scans are among several practices that have drawn attention recently, as the Postal Service grapples with cost-cutting measures introduced by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and prepares for an unprecedented flood of mail-in ballots for the November election. (Zauzmer and Bogage, 10/15)

In related news about mail-in and early voting —

President Donald Trump is increasingly finding success in his strategy to restrict voting by mail — using lawsuits to stop late-arriving ballots from being counted in swing states. After failing to stop any states from automatically mailing ballots to all registered voters, Republican attorneys have starting to make inroads on a different issue — limiting when any ballots can be counted. (Kumar, 10/15)

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that absentee ballots in the presidential battleground state of North Carolina must have a witness signature, a boost for Republican groups seeking to enforce stricter rules on mail-in voting. U.S. District Judge William Osteen in Greensboro issued an injunction essentially barring voters from being able to “fix” an absentee ballot they had already sent in if it lacked a third-party signature attesting that the voter, and not somebody else, signed the ballot. (Reid, 10/14)

With less than three weeks to go before Nov. 3, roughly 15 million Americans have already voted in the fall election, reflecting an extraordinary level of participation despite barriers erected by the coronavirus pandemic — and setting a trajectory that could result in the majority of voters casting ballots before Election Day for the first time in U.S. history. (Gardner and Viebeck, 10/14)

President Donald Trump is seeking to paint Joe Biden's health care plan as socialized medicine that would eliminate private insurance coverage. However, Biden has not swayed from his commitment to continue allowing private plans -- despite the pressure from the Democrats' progressive wing, which wants to put the federal government at the center of the nation's health care system, akin to Sen. Bernie Sanders' "Medicare for All" proposal. (Luhby, 10/15)

Joseph R. Biden Jr. is preparing for the biggest challenge he would face if elected president — ending the coronavirus pandemic — by reaching back nearly a century to draw on the ideas of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose big-government policies lifted the country out of the Great Depression and changed the shape of America. With infection rates ticking back up in much of the country as the weather cools and social distancing becomes tougher, addressing the public health crisis could reach new levels of urgency by Inauguration Day. If current trends hold, as many as 400,000 Americans may have died from Covid-19 by then, recent projections show. (Goodnough and Gay Stolberg, 10/14)

President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will compete for TV audiences in dueling town hall meetings instead of meeting face-to-face for their second debate as originally planned. The two will take questions in different cities on different networks Thursday night: Trump on NBC from Miami, Biden on ABC from Philadelphia. Trump backed out of plans for the presidential faceoff originally scheduled for the evening after debate organizers shifted the format to a virtual event following Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. (Miller, Barrow and Madhani, 10/15)

Also —

President Trump is using his recovery from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to reinforce the message that the pandemic is receding and Americans should return to work — resisting entreaties to change his tone and behavior three weeks ahead of the presidential election. Despite the outbreak at the White House that also infected the first lady, their son and nearly a dozen top aides, Trump and his allies continue to downplay the virus, arguing that the country is “turning the corner” and holding campaign events with thousands of supporters even as cases are increasing rapidly, especially in the Midwest. (Dawsey and Abutaleb, 10/14)

Losing a loved one to COVID-19 is devastating in much the same way losing someone to any illness is. There are stages of grief—periods of confusion, anger, and immense sadness. But for many families experiencing a coronavirus-related loss, another feeling is tangled up with all the others: a penetrating and persistent sense of regret. For Sabila Khan, whose father contracted COVID-19 at a short-term rehabilitation center, that regret takes the form of impossible what-ifs and if-onlys. What if they’d brought him home during the first week of March? she often wonders. What if she could have been there in the emergency room to advocate for him, as he waited three days for an open bed? ... There are thousands of Americans like Khan, for whom the past few months have been nothing less than a nightmare. (Godfrey, 10/15)

In state election news —

By the time Will Guzzardi, a state legislator in Illinois, called a vote on his controversial drug pricing reform bill, the crowd in the Springfield hearing room had suspiciously thinned. Three committee Democrats were suddenly missing, and, as a result, his bill failed by three votes. (Facher, 10/15)

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday cast doubt on the prospects of getting a fifth COVID-19 relief package deal approved before Election Day. "I’d say at this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult," he said at the Milken Institute Global Conference. (Elis, 10/14)

[Mnuchin] again stressed the need for liability protection from pandemic-related lawsuits for small businesses and schools that reopen. Democrats have stressed the need to protect workers who risk their health by returning to job sites. "Having that immunity from prosecution or for taking responsibility, if that's a deal breaker for them, not having it in there, I think that it should be a deal breaker for us to leave it in there," Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said on a press call Wednesday. "We have to make sure that there is some ability for safety of workers. And right now, that's not where they are.”  (Lerman, 10/14)

A failure by Congress to enact a new economic relief package would prolong the pain of the coronavirus crisis for many Americans, but those without jobs face a special threat — millions could run out of unemployment benefits altogether by the end of the year. The Senate reconvenes on Monday, giving lawmakers about two weeks to send legislation to President Donald Trump before the Nov. 3 election. But the sides are far apart, with Democrats demanding at least $2 trillion in funds, Republicans pushing for $500 billion, and the White House attempting to bridge the gap even as Trump sends conflicting signals about what he wants. (Mueller and Rainey, 10/14)

In other news from Capital Hill —

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) said Wednesday that he is self-isolating after taking a rapid coronavirus test that came back positive ahead of a planned appearance with Vice President Pence, saying he is awaiting confirmation that he does have the virus. "Earlier today, I was expected to appear with the Vice President. While taking part in offsite testing protocols, I took a rapid test that came back positive for COVID-19. I am awaiting the results of a PCR test and I am self isolating until I have confirmed results," Huizenga tweeted. (Marcos, 10/14)

Russian authorities have given regulatory approval to a second coronavirus vaccine after early-stage studies, two months after a similar move prompted widespread criticism from scientists both at home and abroad. Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement on Wednesday, during a televised meeting with government officials. “We now need to increase production of the first vaccine and the second vaccine,” Putin said, adding that the priority was to supply the Russian market with the vaccines. (Litvinova, 10/14)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the approval of a second new coronavirus vaccine in as many months – but neither has completed the kind of extensive and rigorous three-phase trials required in the U.S. Speaking during a televised news conference, Putin said the new vaccine developed by Siberian biotech company Novosibirsk's Vektor [State Virology and Biotechnology Center], a former Soviet-era bioweapons lab. (Neuman, 10/14)

In other vaccine news —

China is expanding distribution of its coronavirus vaccines outside of clinical trials, with a state-owned company offering them to students going abroad amid a campaign by officials to boost public confidence in homegrown inoculations. China National Biotec Group Co., a division of state-owned Sinopharm that is developing two Covid-19 vaccines, was giving them free to Chinese students planning to study abroad, according to a company website and students who applied for it. (Deng, 10/14)

Eli Lilly & Co. said it is reviewing safety data that caused federal researchers to pause a trial of the company’s Covid-19 antibody in hospitalized patients. In the meantime, other trials using lower doses of the drug outside the hospital will continue. On Tuesday, Lilly said enrollment had been paused in the ACTIV-3 trial of its monoclonal antibody treatment sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The trial is testing a high-dose version of the treatment combined with the drug remdesivir, considered to be a standard of care. To date, the study has enrolled 326 participants who are hospitalized with Covid-19. (Griffin, Cortez and Langreth, 10/14)

Facing public skepticism about rushed COVID-19 vaccines, U.S. health officials are planning extra scrutiny of the first people vaccinated when shots become available — an added safety layer experts call vital. A new poll suggests those vaccine fears are growing. With this week’s pause of a second major vaccine study because of an unexplained illness — and repeated tweets from President Donald Trump that raise the specter of politics overriding science — a quarter of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated. That’s a slight increase from 1 in 5 in May. (Neergaard, 10/14)

Also —

About 70% of registered voters surveyed said they would take a Covid-19 vaccine, although many want to wait until it has been available for a while to see if there are major problems or side effects, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows. The survey found that 20% of respondents said they would take a vaccine as soon as one becomes available, while about half the respondents wanted to wait until they learned more information about the shot. (Hopskins, 10/15)

It’s long past hackathon time. With Covid-19 cases surging in parts of the U.S. at the start of flu season, developers of artificial intelligence tools are about to face their biggest test of the pandemic: Can they help doctors differentiate between the two respiratory illnesses, and accurately predict which patients will become severely ill? (Ross, 10/15)

Does the flu vaccine affect my chances of getting COVID-19?The flu vaccine protects you from seasonal influenza, not the coronavirus — but avoiding the flu is especially important this year. Health officials and medical groups are urging people to get either the flu shot or nasal spray, so that doctors and hospitals don’t face the extra strain of having to treat influenza in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (10/15)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday approved the world’s first successful treatment for the Ebola virus, a major step against one of the world’s deadliest pathogen. The FDA gave its formal blessing to Inmazeb, a mixture of three monoclonal antibodies produced by the American pharmaceutical company Regeneron, after a trial among 382 adult and pediatric patients in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (Wilson, 10/14)

For the first time, an Ebola therapy has been approved for use. The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Inmazeb, an antibody cocktail made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. With the approval, there are now both a vaccine — Merck’s Ervebo — and a therapeutic to battle Ebola Zaire, tools that for decades were out of reach for Ebola, which is one of the deadliest infections known to humankind. There is currently an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the third in the last three years in that country. (Branswell, 10/14)

In other pharmaceutical and biotech news —

Vertex Pharmaceuticals said Wednesday that it has shelved an experimental drug to treat a rare, inherited lung disease due to liver toxicity reported in a mid-stage clinical trial. The discontinuation of the drug, called VX-814, is a rare clinical development setback for Vertex, which has strung together a long list of successful treatments for cystic fibrosis. (Feuerstein, 10/14)

After a two-year battle, a Dutch health insurer has won a lawsuit that accused AstraZeneca (AZN) of creating an unfair monopoly for one of its most popular medicines by relying on an invalidated patent to thwart lower-cost competition. At issue was a patent for the antipsychotic tablet Seroquel, which the District Court of the Hague ruled AstraZeneca used to charge “unjustifiably” high prices to health insurers. (Silverman, 10/14)

Amid growing concern over access to Covid-19 medical products, hundreds of advocacy groups are urging the World Trade Organization to waive some provisions in a trade deal governing intellectual property rights so drugs and vaccines can be more easily obtained, especially by low-income countries. Earlier this month, the South African and Indian governments proposed that a WTO council, which is meeting this week, waive some rules for patents, industrial designs, copyrights, and protection of trade secrets. And their proposal argued the waiver “should continue until widespread vaccination is in place globally, and the majority of the world’s population has developed immunity” to the coronavirus. (Silverman, 10/14)

UnitedHealth Group reported lower earnings in the third quarter of 2020 compared with a year ago, suggesting that the period of record profits large health insurers reaped early in the COVID-19 pandemic may have ended. Last quarter, Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth, the parent company of insurer UnitedHealthcare, nearly doubled its net income as healthcare providers deferred costly non-urgent procedures and patients put off routine care to comply with stay-at-home orders and practice social distancing. (Livingston, 10/14)

A new American Medical Association study finds highly concentrated health insurance markets have grown even more so over the past five years, a trend the trade group said can harm consumers and providers alike. Health insurance markets were highly concentrated in 74% of the country's metropolitan statistical areas in 2019, up from 71% in 2014. More than half of markets experienced upticks in health insurer consolidation during that time, according to the report, the 19th edition of the AMA's research on the subject. (Bannow, 10/14)

It’s no secret COVID-19 has upended the entire health care system. The pandemic spurred clinicians and health systems to adapt quickly, accelerating changes that would have otherwise taken years to achieve. One of the most significant changes is the rapid development and implementation of artificial intelligence and analytics. (Murphy, 10/14)

Surging coronavirus cases in many areas of the country may make it unwise to hold large family gatherings at Thanksgiving this year, particularly if elderly relatives or out-of-state travel are involved, Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, told “CBS Evening News” on Wednesday. “You may have to bite the bullet and sacrifice that social gathering, unless you’re pretty certain that the people that you’re dealing with are not infected,” Fauci said. (Noori Farzan, 10/15)

For months now, Americans have been told that if we want to socialize, the safest way to do it is outdoors. ... [But] next month, America will celebrate a holiday that is marked by being inside together and eating while talking loudly to old people. Federal and local officials have offered little guidance on whether and how people should be socializing this winter. That has left even medical experts confused about what’s safe, and what’s not. (Khazan, 10/12)

In other public health news on COVID-19 —

The “Diamond Sweet 16 Package” at the Miller Place Inn, an opulent Long Island catering hall, includes options like virgin frozen daiquiris and a make-your-own s’mores bar. But those treats are unavailable for now. The inn has closed temporarily and its owners have been fined after one such party there last month left 37 people infected with the coronavirus and forced over 270 to quarantine, officials said. (Slotnik and Gold, 10/14)

As scientists learn more about COVID-19, they’re finding that “superspreading events” — where dozens or hundreds of cases are tracked back to a single gathering or person — can play an outsized role in how infections spread. And stopping them could slow the pandemic. (Kossakovski, 10/14)

In one of the first large-scale studies of COVID-19 transmission in US childcare programs, no association was found between day care exposure and COVID-19 transmission risk for providers. The Pediatrics study analyzed online survey data from 57,335 childcare workers—identified through a variety of national childcare organization contact lists—who reported activity from Apr 1 to May 27. (10/14)

Ongoing illness after infection with COVID-19, sometimes called “long COVID,” may not be one syndrome but possibly up to four causing a rollercoaster of symptoms affecting all parts of the body and mind, doctors said on Thursday. In an initial report about long-term COVID-19, Britain’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) said one common theme among ongoing COVID patients is that symptoms appear in one physiological area, such as the heart or lungs, only to abate and then arise again in a different area. (Kelland, 10/14)

According to data collected by the Census Bureau, anxiety and depression rose even further among American adults in June and July, after the killing of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests. How American teenagers fared during this time is more of a mystery. With teens no longer going to school and few able to see friends, many people worried about how teens would adapt. However, teens’ experiences of these events might differ from adults’, just as responses to the Great Depression varied by age. (Twenge, 10/13)

KHN: Sleepless Nights, Hair Loss And Cracked Teeth: Pandemic Stress Takes Its Toll 
In late March, shortly after New York state closed nonessential businesses and asked people to stay home, Ashley Laderer began waking each morning with a throbbing headache. “The pressure was so intense it felt like my head was going to explode,” recalled the 27-year-old freelance writer from Long Island. (Pattani, 10/15)

In other public health news —

Although clear statistics are difficult to find, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says those working in farming are among the most likely to take their own lives, compared with other occupations. Recently The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting confirmed that some 450 farmers killed themselves in nine Midwestern states between 2014 and 2018 – a  number that is likely higher in reality, the group says, because many suicides are classified as farm accidents.(Hanes, 10/14)

Wildfires churning out dense plumes of smoke as they scorch huge swaths of the U.S. West Coast have exposed millions of people to hazardous pollution levels, causing emergency room visits to spike and potentially thousands of deaths among the elderly and infirm, according to an Associated Press analysis of pollution data and interviews with physicians, health authorities and researchers. (Brown and Fassett, 10/15)

Organized and efficient, L’Oreal Thompson Payton had a five-year-plan. Married at 27, she wanted to start having kids after she turned 30. Once ready, she downloaded an app to track her cycle, started prenatal vitamins, and picked out baby names. But the baby never came. Like 12% of American women of reproductive age, Thompson Payton, now 32, has impaired fertility. (McFarling, 10/14)

Nick Saban, the football coach at the University of Alabama and one of the most powerful figures in college sports, said Wednesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, deepening the pandemic’s turmoil throughout the Southeastern Conference. Saban, whose second-ranked team is scheduled to host No. 3 Georgia on Saturday, said in a statement that he was asymptomatic and isolating at his home in Tuscaloosa. Alabama’s athletic director, Greg Byrne, also tested positive, the university said. (Blinder, 10/14)

Saturday’s college football game between No. 10 Florida and LSU has been postponed, the Southeastern Conference announced Wednesday, after the Gators’ program was placed on hold Tuesday because of a number of positive coronavirus tests. Florida Athletic Director Scott Stricklin said the team’s trip to Texas A&M for a game last weekend was “the root” of the outbreak and told reporters that some players did not report having symptoms of covid-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus, before leaving on Friday. Stricklin said the players thought they were suffering from allergies. (Boren and Bonesteel, 10/14)

The NCAA’s Division I Council voted to give eligibility relief to winter-sport athletes regardless of how many games they play during the 2020-21 academic year. Athletes now have the opportunity to play five seasons within a six-year span rather than the typical four seasons in five years. Winter sports are set to begin in the upcoming months, and some of those seasons will resemble a normal schedule. However, the circumstances presented by the novel coronavirus pandemic will make the experience different from what athletes envisioned when they pursued college sports. (Giambalvo, 10/14)

The Tennessee Titans played a football game Tuesday night, and there was a phenomenal sigh of relief from the NFL. It didn’t matter that the Titans beat the Buffalo Bills, 42-16, to improve to 4-0. The Titans were marooned playing the NFL’s second Tuesday game since 1946 (when a team called the Boston Yanks took the field) because Tennessee was home to the NFL’s first coronavirus outbreak. The Titans were sidelined for more than two weeks because of more than 20 infections inside the team, part of a growing Covid-19 problem in the NFL that also caused postponement of a New England Patriots’ game last weekend. Worried that the same situation could play out over and over again with even thornier consequences, the league is taking one more stab at beefing up protocols to prevent further scheduling chaos. (Beaton, 10/14)

Texas social workers are criticizing a state regulatory board’s decision this week to remove protections for LGBTQ clients and clients with disabilities who seek social work services. The Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners voted unanimously Monday to change a section of its code of conduct that establishes when a social worker may refuse to serve someone. The code will no longer prohibit social workers from turning away clients on the basis of disability, sexual orientation or gender identity. (Walters, 10/14)

Half of Texans are experiencing some kind of financial hardship because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a new survey finds. The survey, conducted by the Episcopal Health Foundation, highlights how the pandemic affects people across the state with different household incomes and races, with and without health insurance, and other factors. Nearly 1,900 Texans were surveyed. (Keomoungkhoun, 10/14)

With record-high coronavirus caseloads, Utah’s contact tracers are getting overwhelmed — and a Salt Lake County epidemiologist says that infected patients are increasingly refusing to participate, in part out of protest against what they believe is a manufactured threat. (Alberty, 10/14)

Michigan lawmakers worked until the wee hours Wednesday morning, waiting as legislative leaders and the administration of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer debated behind closed doors on how best to help millions of workers and small businesses struggling from   the financial strain brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. (Boucher, 10/14)

A Wisconsin judge has temporarily blocked an order from Gov. Tony Evers (D) that would limit the capacity of indoor spaces like bars and restaurants at 25 percent as the state sees one of the worst outbreaks of COVID-19 in the U.S.Tavern League of Wisconsin, a trade association for alcohol retailers, and other groups filed a suit over the order, arguing the governor and his administration do not have the authority under state law to limit the capacity of businesses. (Hellmann, 10/14)

A new rapid-result test site at Burlington International Airport might give arriving passengers an early warning of COVID-19 or flu infection, but not the option of instantly bypassing Vermont's 14-day COVID-19 quarantine. The new coronavirus- and flu-testing service for travelers and the general public officially opened Wednesday at a small building just north of BTV's vehicular exit. (Baird, 10/14)

In school news —

A Superior Court judge has ruled that Boston Public Schools can continue in-person teaching, despite rising rates of coronavirus in the city. Late last week, the Boston Teachers Union asked for an injunction, noting that the positivity rate on all of the city's coronavirus tests was then above the agreed-upon weekly threshold of 4%. (Larkin, 10/14)

A Suffolk Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request from the Boston Teachers Union for an injunction that would have allowed all educators to choose whether to work remotely while coronavirus positivity rates in the city exceed 4 percent.Superior Court Judge Robert Gordon said the high-needs students who are currently attending school in-person would “suffer measurable deficits” if the district did an about-face and decided to conduct classes remotely. About 2,600 high-needs students have been attending classes in person — fewer than the district had initially expected — but all other students are learning at home. (Gans, 10/14)

Germany has agreed to provide more than a half billion euros to aid Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization that negotiates compensation with the German government said Wednesday. ... With the end of World War II now 75 years in the past, Holocaust survivors are all elderly, and because many were deprived of proper nutrition when they were young today they suffer from numerous medical issues. In addition, many live isolated lives having lost their entire families and also have psychological issues because of their persecution under the Nazis. (Rising, 10/14)

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could leave an additional 10,000 children a month to die from starvation, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said Wednesday that he expects an increase by nearly 14 percent in the number of children suffering from malnutrition this year, Reuters reported. “We cannot accept a world where the rich have access to healthy diets while the poor are left behind,” he said at the United Nations Food and Agriculture conference. (Jenkins, 10/14)

Hong Kong and Singapore say they have agreed to a bilateral air travel bubble, re-establishing travel links as coronavirus infections in both cities decline. Under the air travel bubble, travelers from Hong Kong and Singapore will not be restricted on their travel purposes, Hong Kong commerce minister Edward Yau said at a news conference on Thursday. This means that tourists from each city will be able to visit the other. (10/15)

Pope Francis apologized to the faithful Wednesday for not being able to greet them and shake their hands as Italy posted a record spike in coronavirus infections that is threatening to once again spiral out of control. Instead of wading into the crowd to embrace the sick and kiss babies during his weekly general audience Wednesday, Francis walked in through a back door directly onto the stage to begin his catechism lesson. (Winfield, 10/14)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new strategy for combating COVID-19 seemed to unravel Wednesday as regional leaders chose their own paths and the mayors of the cities facing the toughest restrictions accused Johnson of using the crisis to divide them for political advantage. Fearing Johnson hadn’t gone far enough, two regions in the United Kingdom chose to impose tougher measures than the prime minister. Northern Ireland said it would close schools, pubs and restaurants to slow the spread of the virus, while Wales announced it would not allow in people from hot spots in other parts of the U.K. (Kirka, 10/14)

A quadrivalent (four-strain) flu vaccine derived from the Nicotiana benthamiana plant, a relative of the tobacco plant, produces "non-inferior" results at minimum, according to the results of two phase 3 vaccine efficacy (VE) trials published in a Lancet study yesterday. The first study found a 35.1% absolute VE (95% CI, 17.9% to 48.7%) for respiratory illness caused by matched strains in adults 16 to 64 years of age, and the second reported an 8.8% relative VE (95% CI, -16.7% to 28.7%) across all strains in adults 65 and older compared with a chicken egg–derived quadrivalent inactivated vaccine. (10/14)

We conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of hospitalized children aged younger than 22 years with COVID-19 infection at Steven and Alexandra Cohen Children’s Medical Center at Northwell Health. Cases were identified from patients with fever and/or respiratory symptoms who underwent a nucleic acid amplification–based test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. (Kainth et al, 10/1)

In an ongoing, placebo-controlled, observer-blinded, dose-escalation, phase 1 trial conducted in the United States, we randomly assigned healthy adults 18 to 55 years of age and those 65 to 85 years of age to receive either placebo or one of two lipid nanoparticle–formulated, nucleoside-modified RNA vaccine candidates: BNT162b1, which encodes a secreted trimerized SARS-CoV-2 receptor–binding domain; or BNT162b2, which encodes a membrane-anchored SARS-CoV-2 full-length spike, stabilized in the prefusion conformation. The primary outcome was safety (e.g., local and systemic reactions and adverse events); immunogenicity was a secondary outcome. Trial groups were defined according to vaccine candidate, age of the participants, and vaccine dose level (10 μg, 20 μg, 30 μg, and 100 μg). In all groups but one, participants received two doses, with a 21-day interval between doses; in one group (100 μg of BNT162b1), participants received one dose. (Walsh et al, 10/14)

Vaccines to prevent coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) are urgently needed. The effect of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccines on viral replication in both upper and lower airways is important to evaluate in nonhuman primates. (Corbett et al, 10/15)

In a study last week in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers analyzing New York public health data from 2004 to 2015 found an association between flu-like illness and increased risk for heart attack and stroke in adults regardless of flu vaccine effectiveness (VE). "We found that if someone's going to have a heart attack, it's going to occur within seven days of the flu-like illness, during the acute phase," study author Amelia Boehme, PhD, MSPH, says in an American Heart Association (AHA) press release. "With stroke, we see an increased risk seven to 15 days after, similar to heart attacks. But with stroke, there is an additional higher-risk period after 30 days." (10/12)

Obesity shortens life expectancy. Bariatric surgery is known to reduce the long-term relative risk of death, but its effect on life expectancy is unclear. (Carlsson et al, 10/15)

Prospective studies of Zika virus in pregnancy have reported rates of congenital Zika syndrome and other adverse outcomes by trimester. However, Zika virus can infect and damage the fetus early in utero, but clear before delivery. The true vertical transmission rate is therefore unknown. We aimed to provide the first estimates of underlying vertical transmission rates and adverse outcomes due to congenital infection with Zika virus by trimester of exposure. (Ades et al, 10/14)

President Trump has long seemed fascinated with the idea that herd immunity could provide an easy end to the coronavirus pandemic, even before his own diagnosis with covid-19 and his blithe declaration after he checked himself out of the hospital that no one should be afraid of getting it. “With time, it goes away,” he told an ABC News town hall last month. “And you’ll develop — you’ll develop herd — like a herd mentality. It’s going to be — it’s going to be herd-developed, and that’s going to happen. That will all happen.” The neuroradiologist he brought in to advise on the pandemic response over the summer, Scott Atlas, has argued that rising case counts will bring the nation to herd immunity faster. (Marc Lipsitch, Gregg Gonsalves, Carlos del Rio and Rochelle P. Walensky, 10/14)

... The arrival of a second wave and the realisation of the challenges ahead has led to renewed interest in a so-called herd immunity approach, which suggests allowing a large uncontrolled outbreak in the low-risk population while protecting the vulnerable. Proponents suggest this would lead to the development of infection-acquired population immunity in the low-risk population, which will eventually protect the vulnerable. This is a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence. (10/15)

As if Donald Trump's irresponsibility was not already a national tragedy, the White House seems now to favor a controversial approach to Covid-19 that threatens to bring nothing less than mass suffering.More than 216,000 Americans have already died. Yet on Tuesday, senior Trump administration officials said that they were receptive to pursuing "herd immunity," an approach touted by a group of scientists who have put out what they call the "Great Barrington Declaration." (Jeffrey Sachs, 10/14)

Politicians often flatter their audiences, but at a rally in Bemidji, Minn., last month, President Trump found an unusual thing to praise about the nearly all-white crowd: its genetics. “You have good genes,” he insisted. “A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory. … You have good genes in Minnesota.” In case it was not clear from the sea of white faces that he was making a point about race, Trump later said the quiet part out loud. “Every family in Minnesota needs to know about Sleepy Joe Biden’s extreme plan to flood your state with an influx of refugees from Somalia, from other places all over the planet,” he declared. (Adam Cohen, 10/14)

President Trump’s executive order on essential medicines aims to encourage pharmaceutical companies to bring their manufacturing back to the U.S. But it may also have unintended consequences for both domestic and foreign companies. (Joy Strum, 10/15)

Governments’ responses to today’s pandemic are laying a foundation for tomorrow’s surveillance state... History has shown that powers acquired during an emergency often outlive the original threat. And governments in democracies as well as authoritarian states are now exploiting the health crisis to digitize, collect, and analyze our most intimate data, thus threatening permanent harm to our privacy. (Adrian Shahbaz and Allie Funk, 10/14)

Voters can’t weigh in on the Barrett nomination, but they can correct this country’s course. Here’s the fundamental question: Will voters reward the party that is working to provide more health care, or the party that has painstakingly robbed one million children of insurance? Will voters help tug the United States forward, or will they support the backward thinkers who have been on the side of discrimination, racism, bigotry and voter suppression? At the polls, which side of history will you stand on? (Nicholas Kristof, 10/14)

On the surface, American politics appears to be full of paradoxes. In 2016, many women — and especially white Christian women — voted for Donald Trump over the first woman nominated for U.S. president by a major party. Now, in 2020, confirmation hearings are occurring for a woman, nominated by Trump, who opposes a woman’s right to choose abortion. How might those women who voted for Trump feel about these hearings that reopen questions about women’s autonomy over their own bodies? (Landon Schnabel, 10/14)

A Biden administration would aim to address today’s critical challenges — Covid-19, gaps in health insurance coverage, high costs, and inadequate care for the disabled — by means of actionable reforms aimed at the most vulnerable Americans. (Sherry Glied, 10/15)

The travesty of the 2020 college football season is now on full display. With the SEC schedule collapsing like a house of cards, the biggest name in the sport, 68-year-old Alabama head coach Nick Saban, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently in isolation at home, the university announced Wednesday evening. Thankfully, Saban is not experiencing any symptoms of the coronavirus, he said in a statement. Alabama’s athletic director Greg Byrne, 48, also tested positive, the university said. For now, No. 2 Alabama’s game with No. 3 Georgia is still on for this weekend, but the same can’t be said for two other SEC contests that are no longer on the schedule. LSU’s game at Florida was postponed Wednesday when it was announced that 21 Florida players had tested positive, meaning the school would have fewer than 50 scholarship players available when adding in everyone who came into contact with the infected players and is now in quarantine. (Christine Brennan, 10/14)

n Monterey County, 26% of the county’s COVID-19 cases are in East Salinas, a largely Latino community of farmworkers, service employees and others living in crowded conditions as they work on the pandemic front lines. It’s a very different story in the county’s wealthy seaside communities, including Monterey, Carmel and Pacific Grove. Combined, these locales have a population that slightly exceeds that of East Salinas — but they have only about 2% of the county’s coronavirus cases. (Angele Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor, 10/14)

Dave was laid off from his hotel job in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, and he lost his health insurance too. A week later, he was rushed to the emergency room with a lung problem. With support from an enrollment assister, he was able to enroll in MassHealth coverage that was made possible because of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. He is just one of the hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents given a lifeline by the ACA. (Elizabeth Warren, Amy Rosenthal, and Kate Walsh, 10/14)

In the time before the Covid-19 pandemic, a company pausing a clinical trial drew about as much media attention as its appointing a new director of human resources. Today, such pauses are huge news. (Adrian Hernandez, 10/14)

The race to develop safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 feels existential. But even if all goes according to plans, it’s clear that — at least for the foreseeable future — there will be far greater demand for these vaccines than supply. We’ve already seen the ugly scramble for personal protective equipment, COVID-19 testing kits, therapeutics and treatments, which pitted countries against one another, and in the U.S., forced states into competition. (Bruno Stagno-Ugarte, 10/14)

Vaccine Hesitancy — the reluctance of people to get inoculated against disease — was a public health difficulty before the pandemic. Now it has grown more serious just when everyone is looking to vaccines to save the day. Doubts and suspicions, once stirred by a small phalanx of activists, have become more widespread, in part in response to President Trump’s unrealistic promises to rush a coronavirus vaccine out before Election Day. (10/14)

Twitter placed a warning label atop a tweet by President Trump last week that contained misinformation about Covid-19: He falsely claimed it is less deadly than seasonal influenza. This week it applied the same label to another tweet by the president containing misinformation about Covid-19 immunity. (Christopher M. Worsham, Lakshman Swamy and Rahul Ganatra, 10/15)

In late June, I highlighted what I deemed a "horrifying" chart showing massive growth in new infections in the U.S. relative to the European Union. A key explanation for the discrepancy was that many U.S. states were moving forward with reopening despite high case counts, while many European countries had waited to “crush the curve” and ensure infections were lower before loosening restrictions. Now, almost four months later, that same chart remains very scary — but in a different way. For the first time since March, the EU is reporting more new Covid-19 cases on a population-adjusted basis than the U.S., reflecting a second wave of virus outbreaks on the continent. (Max Nisen, 10/14)

Before he had Covid-19, Brendan Delaney, the 57-year-old chair of medical informatics and decision making at Imperial College, could cycle 150 miles in a day. Covid changed that, but not because he had a severe case of the disease. Delaney never got seriously ill from the virus. Like many healthy people, he figured his symptoms, a mild fever and a cough, would pass soon enough. Instead, he experienced debilitating aftereffects, such as fatigue and breathlessness, which many are now calling Long Covid. Seven months later, he is still not back to normal. He can’t imagine getting back on a bike and says that if he pushes himself too hard, he ends up in bed with a fever for a couple of days. He considers himself lucky that he’s able to work. Many other Long Covid sufferers cannot. (Therese Raphael, 10/15)

Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the high-profile tragic deaths of a number of Black Americans this year, are stark and painful reminders of the deep-seated racial inequities and systemic racism that persist today—not only in our society but within our healthcare industry as well. Racism is unjust, unlawful and increasingly showing itself to be a deadly disease contributing to distrust in our U.S. healthcare system. (Mark C. Clement and David Cook, 10/14)

By September 22, 2020, the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the US had surpassed 200 000, according to such unofficial tallies. As of September 18, 2020, the NVSS reported 184 341 deaths involving COVID-19 through the week ending September 12, 2020. During the same time period (beginning February 1, 2020) according to the NCHS, an even larger number of deaths, 188 170, reportedly involved pneumonia, with or without COVID-19; if deaths involving pneumonia, influenza, or COVID-19 are counted, the number of deaths increases to 295 323. As the NCHS repeatedly explains, its tally of deaths attributed to COVID-19 at any moment is an undercount due to the lag in reporting and tabulation, but how much may be due to underreporting (eg, missed COVID-19 diagnoses among deaths attributed to pneumonia) or overreporting (eg, presumed COVID-19 diagnosis in a patient who died of influenza) are matters of speculation. (Harvey V. Fineberg, 10/12)