�鶹Ů��

Making his first remarks on the latest grim milestone in the nation's battle with coronavirus, President Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented the loss of 200,000 Americans who have died from the disease, describing it as "a shame."  "It's a horrible thing," Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House as he left for a rally in Pennsylvania. "It should have never, ever happened." "It’s a shame," he added. (Fritze, Collins and Jackson, 9/22)

“I did the best I could,” President Donald Trump said. Huddled with aides in the West Wing last week, his eyes fixed on Fox News, Trump wasn’t talking about how he had led the nation through the deadliest pandemic in a century. In a conversation overheard by an Associated Press reporter, Trump was describing how he’d just publicly rebuked one of his top scientists — Dr. Robert Redfield, a virologist and head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Dearen, 9/23)

President Donald Trump claimed Monday at an Ohio campaign rally that the coronavirus poses little threat to young people and “affects virtually nobody,” as the number of Americans to have died from Covid-19 climbed toward 200,000 in the United States. “It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems, that’s what it really affects,” Trump told supporters at an airport outside Toledo. (Forgey, 9/22)

How other government officials marked the grim milestone —

As the U.S. passed a grim milestone of 200,000 coronavirus-related deaths, Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday sent his condolences to victims and their families while also saying things could have been worse. Six weeks from the election, Pence spoke at a Make America Great Again event in Gilford, N.H., to raise support for President Donald Trump in a state that he narrowly lost in 2016. Addressing the news of the new 200,000 death count midday, Pence called it a “heartbreaking milestone.” (Kim, 9/22)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited a memorial on the National Mall and led a moment of silence on the House floor commemorating the 200,000 people in the U.S. who have died of COVID-19. The death toll in the United States surpassed the 200,000 mark on Tuesday, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University. The country has faced 6.8 million cases over the course of the past six months. (Brufke, 9/22)

U.S. coronavirus deaths surpassed 200,000 on Tuesday, hitting a dismal milestone in the country’s troubled pandemic response as health officials worry the fall and winter could bring more devastation. The U.S. continues to lead the world in deaths and confirmed cases, with about 6.9 million infections since the coronavirus emerged in January, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker. Despite accounting for 4 percent of the global population, the U.S. has recorded about 20 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths. (Wanneh, 9/22)

It's been six months since the World Health Organization first declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. Since then, over 30 million people worldwide have been infected, and we're rapidly approaching 1 million global deaths. The U.S. is among the world's most-affected countries, now hitting a sobering milestone: 200,000 American lives lost to COVID-19. (Croll, 9/22)

On March 13, President Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and said "two very big words," as he put it, that would shift Americans' understanding of the novel coronavirus, from a distant problem to a threat that hit closer to home. "I am officially declaring a national emergency," Trump said that day. (Schumaker, 9/22)

Sometime this week, alone on a hospital bed, an American died. The coronavirus had invaded her lungs, soaking them in fluid and blocking the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that makes up our every breath. Her immune system’s struggle to fight back might have sparked an overreaction called a cytokine storm, which shreds even healthy tissue. The doctors tried everything, but they couldn’t save her, and she became the 200,000th American taken by COVID-19—at least according to official counts. In reality, the COVID-19 death toll probably passed 200,000 some time ago. And yet “the photos of body bags have not had the same effect in the pandemic” as after other mass-casualty events such as Hurricane Katrina, says Lori Peek, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies disasters. “Is our national empathy—our care and love and concern for one another—at such a low level that we are not truly feeling, in our bones, in our hearts, and in our souls, the magnitude of the loss?” (Khazan, 9/22)

When COVID-19 claimed its first 100,000 lives in the U.S., Hidalgo County, Texas, seemed to have avoided the worst of it. The county, which sits on the border with Mexico, had just 10 deaths when the U.S. crossed that tragic milestone on May 27. But the U.S. has now doubled its death count to top 200,000 victims, and Hidalgo County has become one of the deadliest hot spots for COVID-19. Despite the lack of dense urban areas there — its largest city, McAllen, has fewer than 150,000 residents — the disease has killed more than 1,500 people across the county. (McMinn, Talbot and Eng, 9/22)

In related news —

As the United States crosses the grim milestone of 200,000 COVID-19-related deaths, experts are warning about a less visible but worrisome outbreak happening simultaneously: increasingly poor mental health. More than half of U.S. adults -- about 53% -- reported that their mental health has been negatively impacted due to worry and stress over the pandemic, according to a nationwide poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kindelan, 9/22)

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to spell out a tough new standard for an emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine as soon as this week that will make it exceedingly difficult for any vaccine to be cleared before Election Day. The agency is issuing the guidance to boost transparency and public trust as it approaches the momentous decision of whether a prospective vaccine is safe and effective. Public health experts are increasingly worried that President Trump’s repeated predictions of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 3, coupled with the administration’s interference in federal science agencies, may prompt Americans to reject any vaccine as rushed and potentially tainted. (McGinley and Johnson, 9/22)

Among the proposed requirements is that a coronavirus shot reduce the rate of infections by 50% compared with a placebo, which the regulators have already required for a regular approval of any Covid-19 vaccines. ... The draft requirements indicate the Food and Drug Administration wants to hold Covid-19 vaccines to high standards similar to what it would have used for a typical review of the shots, the people said, even though the agency plans to conduct the review more quickly than normal because of the urgent need created by the coronavirus pandemic. (Burton, 9/22)

According to the report, the FDA is expected to ask vaccine manufacturers seeking an emergency authorization to follow trial participants for a median of at least two months after they receive a second vaccine shot. It also said the agency is asking that trials identify a specific number of severe cases of Covid-19 in patients who received a placebo in the trials. Few vaccine developers were expected to have definitive trial results before the presidential election. Pfizer had been the exception, although its timetable could slip with the new guidance. (9/22)

The standards come as the FDA is looking to reassure the public that it is following the science and will make sure any vaccine is safe and effective before authorizing it amid fears of political pressure from President Trump. Trump has accused the FDA of harboring a “deep state” that is slowing down the approval of treatments and vaccines. (Sullivan, 9/22)

The government works to prepare for when a vaccine is available —

A federal advisory committee on Tuesday discussed but did not formally recommend who should get the initial doses of a limited COVID-19 vaccine when it's available. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was expected to vote on prioritization but is now waiting until more data becomes available. (Weixel, 9/22)

As the United States gears up for a massive immunization effort to begin as soon as a coronavirus vaccine is available, health officials are planning the details of the rollout. While all new vaccines are closely followed once they enter the market, because a COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be released under an Emergency Use Authorization, safety considerations are front and center. (Weise, 9/22)

In other news from the FDA —

After years of controversy, the Food and Drug Administration has issued a proposed rule to clarify when manufacturers would have to update product labeling to reflect unapproved uses of their medicines. In doing so, the agency has left intact a decades-old rule that stated drug makers must update labeling if there is evidence indicating a company intended its medicine to be used off-label, or for an unapproved use. Doctors are free to prescribe a medicine for any purpose, but court rulings have determined drug makers can make statements about off-label uses only if information provided is truthful and not misleading. (Silverman, 9/22)

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it started a 60,000-person clinical trial of its single-dose Covid-19 vaccine on three continents, becoming the fourth experimental Covid-19 shot to enter final-stage testing in the U.S. The New Brunswick, N.J., company said it could learn pivotal results from the trial by early next year, which if positive could lead to government authorization of the vaccine for emergency use soon afterward. J&J aims to enroll adult volunteers in the U.S. and several other countries, including Brazil and South Africa. (Loftus, 9/23)

J&J is the fourth drugmaker backed by the Trump administration’s Covid-19 vaccine program Operation Warp Speed to enter late-stage testing. The others are Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The trial will enroll up to 60,000 adult volunteers across 215 locations in the U.S. and other countries, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Participants will be randomly selected to receive a dose of the potential vaccine or a placebo, according to details of the trial, which will determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective. (Lovelace Jr., 9/23)

Dr. Dan Barouch, head of Beth Israel’s Center for Virology and Vaccine Research in Boston, which helped develop the vaccine and tested it in laboratory monkeys, said a single-dose regimen has obvious advantages over a vaccine that requires a shot and a booster dose months or years later. “Think about yourself," he said in a phone interview. “It would be so much easier to go to your doctor for a one-and-done shot then to remember to go back for a booster shot. And, of course, on a global scale for a global vaccine campaign, it’s much easier. The amount [of vaccine] you make goes twice as far.” (Saltzman, 9/23)

Fujifilm Holdings Corp said on Wednesday a late-stage study of its antiviral drug Avigan showed it reduced recovery times for COVID-19 patients with non-severe symptoms, boosting expectations for regulatory approval in Japan. The Phase 3 clinical study of 156 patients in Japan showed that those treated with Avigan improved after 11.9 days, versus 14.7 days for a placebo group. Results of the study, conducted by subsidiary Fujifilm Toyama Chemical, were statistically significant, the company said in a release. (9/22)

More than 100,000 people are taking part in studies to see if one or more COVID-19 vaccine candidates actually work. Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson is about to start wide-scale testing for its vaccine. It will involve as many as 30,000 volunteers. AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna already have vaccine candidates in large studies in the United States. Novavax should start its study later this fall. (Palca, 9/23)

The worldwide effort to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus kicked off in January, soon after scientists in China posted online the genome of a virus causing a mysterious pneumonia. Vaccine development usually takes years and unfolds step by step. Experimental vaccine candidates are created in the laboratory and tested in animals before moving into progressively larger human clinical trials. These steps are now overlapping in the race to find a vaccine for a global disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Human testing began in some cases before animal studies were finished. As companies launch small Phase 1 trials intended to establish the correct dose, they already are planning the Phase 3 trials that evaluate whether the vaccines are effective and safe. (Steckelberg, Johnson, Florit and Alcantara, 9/21)

What do you do when Vladimir Putin offers you Russia’s new coronavirus vaccine, for free? United Nations staff in New York and around the world are now facing that choice, after the Russian president offered Tuesday to provide them the Sputnik-V vaccine in a speech to this year’s General Assembly marking the body’s 75th birthday. (9/22)

And more on how the public is viewing the vaccine race —

The percentage of Americans who say they will seek a coronavirus vaccine as soon as it becomes available has dropped among Republicans, Democrats and independents, according to the latest Axios-Ipsos polling. Thirty-nine percent of respondents now say they will likely get a first-generation vaccine once it is available. This includes 43 percent of Democrats and independents and 33 percent of Republicans. The steepest drop is among Democrats, who were 13 percentage points less likely to get a vaccine immediately than in a previous poll. Interest among Republicans fell 8 points, and only 2 points among independents. (Budryk, 9/22)

Michelle Vargas of Granite City, Illinois, has always vaccinated her 10-year-old daughter, Madison. They both typically get flu shots. But when a vaccine for the coronavirus eventually comes out, Vargas will not be giving it to her daughter — even if Madison's school district requires it. (Chuck, 9/23)

Scientists around the world are currently undertaking one of the fastest vaccine-development programs in history, trying to get the novel coronavirus under control as quickly as humanly possible. But the vaccines being tested sit at a nexus of misinformation and mistrust. Between Trump’s apparent meddling in federal health agencies’ decision-making, skepticism about the seriousness of the disease, and long-standing culture wars around the safety of vaccines in general, it’s easy to find yourself floundering, unsure who you can trust. So I spoke with a handful of people who really know how vaccines, clinical trials and COVID-19 work to find out how to know when it’s a good idea to get the vaccine. They offered these four pieces of advice. (Koerth, 9/23)

If the Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare in November, insurers could resume discriminating against Americans with preexisting medical conditions just as they did before the law was passed. Democrats are loudly insisting that this is an especially dangerous prospect in a pandemic, as coronavirus could be considered a pre-existing condition. (Cunningham and Ellerbeck, 9/22)

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Affordable Care Act would have fairly immediate ramifications for many Americans who have lost their employer-sponsored insurance amid layoffs triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, non-partisan think tank, estimated that around 6.2 million workers lost access to health insurance they got through their employers as a result of being let go since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. That figure takes into account workers who were originally laid off but have since found new employment. (Keshner and Passy, 9/22)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that President Trump is rushing to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg so he can repeal ObamaCare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act. “Why the president is in such a rush is because he’s in a hurry to overturn the Affordable Care Act. And he wants to do that,” Pelosi said at The Atlantic Festival on Tuesday night. “The oral arguments start Nov. 10, a week after the election, and he wants to get a justice in there in time for that so they can hear the arguments and vote on it.” (Moreno, 9/22)

Also —

For feminists who believe abortion access is essential to women’s health, advancement, and self-determination, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death was a gut punch. ... For anti-abortion activists, however, the solemnity of Ginsburg’s death was mixed with ecstasy: They believe they are about to taste victory. The next six weeks, which will almost certainly see a vicious Supreme Court confirmation battle amid the final race to Election Day, may determine the future of abortion in America for a generation. (Green, 9/22)

n a tense exchange between Amy Coney Barrett and Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2017, the California Democrat sharply questioned whether the judicial nominee could separate her Catholic views from her legal opinions. "The conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you," Feinstein pointedly said. "And that's of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for years in this country." (Raju, 9/22)

With President Donald Trump poised to nominate a U.S. Supreme Court justice to fill the vacancy created by the death of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a new 6-3 conservative majority could be emboldened to roll back abortion rights. The ultimate objective for U.S. conservative activists for decades has been to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. But short of that, there are other options the court has in curtailing abortion rights. (Hurley, 9/23)

Congressional Democrats sharply criticized a Defense Department decision to repurpose a $1 billion coronavirus fund into an economic stimulus for defense contractors, a change the lawmakers say violated congressional intent. Two lawmakers asked for an investigation and public hearings on the matter following a Washington Post article that revealed the change. The funds, set aside under the Cares Act economic stimulus package passed in March, were given to the Pentagon to “prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.” But the Defense Department decided to divert most of that funding toward long-standing defense concerns such as drone technology, body armor and dress uniforms. (Gregg and Torbati, 9/22)

A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country’s supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used to make things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms. The change illustrates how one taxpayer-backed effort to battle the novel coronavirus, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans, was instead diverted toward patching up long-standing perceived gaps in military supplies. (Gregg and Torbati, 9/22)

Two House Democrats are pressing for an investigation and public hearings following a report that the Pentagon redirected most of its $1 billion in COVID-19 funding to projects that had little to do with the coronavirus. In calling for congressional action, Reps. Mark Pocan (Wis.) and Barbara Lee (Calif.) cited a Washington Post article published Tuesday that said the Defense Department funneled a large portion of its money from the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March to buying jet engine parts, body armor, dress uniforms and other military needs. (Mitchell, 9/22)

On stimulus negotiations —

The partisan battle shaping up over the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg has barely begun. But it is already vacuuming up enormous attention on Capitol Hill and overshadowing negotiations to provide desperately needed aid to workers, businesses, and state and local governments struggling because of a pandemic that now has killed more than 200,000 Americans. It leaves the path to passing another stimulus bill before the election narrower than ever. “I don’t see it now,” said Richard Shelby of Alabama, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, following a six-second pause when a reporter asked about prospects for a deal. (Bidgood, 9/23)

And leaders criticize the CDC's waffling —

Senate Democrats want to create a task force to investigate any political interference in government health agencies' coronavirus response. Legislation introduced Tuesday would create a task force within the Pandemic Response and Accountability Committee — an independent body created by the CARES Act — to investigate what Democrats argue are clear examples of the Trump administration impeding scientific work by agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Lim, 9/22)

"We've seen the deliberate undermining of public health over the course of this outbreak for political purpose," said Khan, Dr. Ali Khan, who used to direct the Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response at the CDC and is now the dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. "And we have seen numerous examples now of deliberate change of guidance that's not evidence-based. ... Unfortunately, it's becoming harder to trust what CDC tells us." (Doubek, 9/22)

In other news from Capitol Hill —

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) received a round of applause from fellow lawmakers on Tuesday after delivering an emotional speech on the House floor regarding her life with alopecia areata, a condition that causes hair loss. In the five-minute speech, the freshman congresswoman shared intimate details about coming to terms with the reality of her condition and urged support for a bill authored by herself and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) that would allow seniors to purchase medical wigs using Medicaid funds. (Bowden, 9/22)

President Trump mocked Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s appearance and use of a face mask on Tuesday as the first presidential debate draws nearer. “He feels good about the mask, and that’s OK. Whatever makes you feel good,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Pittsburgh. “Honestly, why the hell did he spend all that money on the plastic surgery if he’s going to cover it up with a mask?” (Moreno, 9/22)

Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser on Tuesday assailed the former White House coronavirus task force adviser who recently lambasted the administration’s pandemic response and announced that she’d vote for Joe Biden this November. Retired Gen. Keith Kellogg took to the podium during a press briefing at the White House to say he was “not proud of Olivia Troye,” and pushed back on her claims that President Donald Trump was callous in the face of the public health crisis, which has now killed more than 200,000 Americans. (Niedzwiadek, 9/22)

President Donald Trump is slated to hold a Friday evening rally in Virginia — but the trip is really about the next state over. Advisers say the idea behind Trump's event in Newport News at the end of the week is to woo voters in neighboring North Carolina, a key battleground where absentee balloting has begun. (Isenstadt, 9/22)

President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will face questions about the novel coronavirus, the Supreme Court and their respective records in elected office when they meet for the first 2020 presidential debate next week. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, the moderator of the first debate, announced the list of topics on Tuesday. The debate will also cover the economy, race and violence in U.S. cities, and the integrity of the election, according to Wallace. (Chalfant, 9/22)

Cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise again, and that spells trouble for President Trump, who would prefer to fight for reelection on almost any other issue. The number of coronavirus cases confirmed on a daily basis in the United States “has jumped more than 15 percent in the past 10 days,” The New York Times reported Tuesday. The Times noted this was the biggest increase since late spring and warned that a “surge appears to have begun.” (Stanage, 9/22)

In other election news —

Requiring Montana counties to open polling places for November’s election would be “absolutely catastrophic,” for voters and for public health, the governor’s chief legal counsel, Raph Graybill, told a federal judge Tuesday.U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen heard arguments in Missoula on a motion by President Donald Trump’s campaign and other Republican groups who want to overturn an option that Gov. Steve Bullock gave counties to hold the election by mail to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Christensen said he would rule quickly. (Hanson, 9/23)

Voters overwhelmingly prefer that campaigns don’t dispatch workers to knock on their doors as part of their outreach efforts, with the number rising because of the pandemic that has sickened millions of Americans. Sixty-three percent of voters now feel apprehensive about encountering canvassers outside their door, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll released Tuesday. Just 28 percent say they are comfortable being contacted in person by campaign volunteers. (Cadelago, 9/22)

After a years-long hiatus, Vivek Murthy is back in the political spotlight. As a top health care adviser to Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, Murthy is filling a role similar to the one he played during the Obama administration: Providing key counsel on public health issues to the Democratic Party’s leader. (Facher, 9/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday it advises against traditional trick-or-treating this year amid the novel coronavirus. The recommendation came as part of a list of Halloween guidelines broken down by level of risk. Door-to-door trick-or-treating, trunk-or-treating "where treats are handed out from trunks of cars lined up in large parking lots" and indoor parties or haunted houses are among the riskiest Halloween activities when it comes to preventing the spread of COVID-19, the CDC says. Others to be avoided include hayrides or tractor rides with others, visiting fall festivals in other communities and using alcohol or drugs, "which can cloud judgment and increase risky behaviors." (Yasharoff, 9/22)

In a year that's been plenty scary, this much is clear: Pandemic Halloween will be different than regular Halloween. Many traditional ways of celebrating are now considerably more frightful than usual, because now they bring the risk of spreading the coronavirus. Accordingly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued new guidelines on how to celebrate Halloween safely. No big surprise: Classic door-to-door trick-or-treating and crowded, boozy costume parties are not recommended. (Wamsley, 9/22)

Like Halloween, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out the risks when it comes to Thanksgiving activities. Among the "Low-Risk Activities," are small dinners with people that only live in your household, having a virtual dinner with family and friends, and shopping online for deals. "Moderate-Risk Activities" include having a small outdoor dinner with family and friends in your community, visiting pumpkin patches or apple orchards (where masks and social distancing is enforced), and attending a small outdoor sporting event with safety precautions in place. (Owen, 9/23)

In 65 days, people across the nation will be hard at work, preparing a Thanksgiving feast. But, before you make any plans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is offering some guidance to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. On its website, the institute is laying-out the risks associated with typical holiday traditions. (9/22)

In related news —

Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’s top infectious diseases expert, warned Tuesday that the country is “entering into a risk period” for rising coronavirus infections as fall begins. Asked by CNN’s Sanjay Gupta “how bad … this could get” in the fall, Fauci responded, “It’s always the balance of trying not to frighten people at the same time of trying to jolt them into a realization of what needs to be done to protect themselves as individuals and the country.” (Budryk, 9/22)

U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday that he said would ban the military, government contractors and federal grantees from some diversity training. The lengthy order says it forbids “divisive concepts,” including teaching that the United States is “fundamentally racist or sexist” or that any individual bears “responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex.” (9/22)

He signed an executive order that requires contracts to now include a provision that says contractors with the federal government will not have "workplace training that inculcates in its employees any form of race or sex stereotyping or any form of race or sex scapegoating" or face the cancellation of contracts. "Instructors and materials teaching that men and members of certain races, as well as our most venerable institutions, are inherently sexist and racist are appearing in workplace diversity trainings across the country, even in components of the Federal Government and among Federal contractors," the order says. (9/22)

ReNika Moore, director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program, said in an emailed statement, "Our country needs to acknowledge and reckon with its history of systemic racism and racial discrimination. Instead, the Trump Administration is leading with ignorance and moving to ban training that could help address the issue. This is an attack on the fight for racial justice." (Knutson and Rummler, 9/23)

Hundreds of detainees and staff at a federal immigration detention center in California are being tested for COVID-19 amid an outbreak of the highly contagious virus. Saturation testing of detainees at the 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County was expected to be completed by Sunday, according to Gabriel Valdez, assistant field office director of enforcement and removal operations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility, owned and operated by private prison company The GEO Group, is one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country.  (Plevin, 9/22)

Hundreds of detainees and staff at the federal immigration detention center in San Bernardino County are being tested for COVID-19 amid an outbreak of the highly contagious virus. Saturation testing of detainees at the 1,940-bed Adelanto ICE Processing Center was expected to be completed by Sunday, according to Gabriel Valdez, assistant field office director of enforcement and removal operations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The facility, owned and operated by private prison company The GEO Group, is one of the largest immigration detention centers in the country. (Plevin, 9/21)

Also —

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced that Mexico is investigating a whistleblower’s claim that at least six migrant women have been subjected to improper gynecological procedures including hysterectomies while being detained in the United States. Ebrard said that if the allegations of abuse in the complaint filed on behalf of nurse Dawn Wooten are true it would be “unacceptable.” (9/22)

A hospital in rural Georgia where a physician has been accused of performing a large number of hysterectomies on immigrant detainees said its records show that just two women in immigration custody have been referred to the hospital for the procedure since 2017. Heath Clark, an attorney for ERH Healthcare, which operates the Irwin County Hospital, said both of the procedures were performed by Mahendra Amin, the physician whom activists have accused of carrying out forced sterilizations on immigrant women in U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement custody. (Miroff, 9/22)

The recent allegation that a doctor has performed hysterectomies on immigrant women at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia has sparked calls for investigation. The disturbing allegation is only the latest case of systemic medical neglect and mistreatment in immigration detention settings. The spread of the novel coronavirus has been particularly devastating for people in migrant detention centers. The difficulty of social distancing within these centers has led to outbreaks at facilities throughout the country — including most recently at an ICE detention center in Adelanto, Calif., where six people have been hospitalized. (Ordaz, 9/18)

A Canadian woman accused of mailing ricin to the White House last week appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Buffalo, N.Y., Tuesday afternoon to face a charge of making threats against President Trump. Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 53 years old, was arrested Sunday on the U.S.-Canada border; in court, she was accompanied by a French interpreter and a court-appointed lawyer. Ms. Ferrier wasn’t required to enter a plea at the hearing, but U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. entered a not-guilty plea on her behalf and ordered her detained, after a federal prosecutor cited “serious risk of flight.” (Davis O'Brien, 9/22)

Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 53, was charged by complaint with one felony count of making a threat against the U.S. president. The FBI in charging papers also alleged that she was linked to similar letters sent to employees at detention facilities in Texas, where she was incarcerated last year. Ferrier, a computer programmer from Quebec, was arrested Sunday in Buffalo upon reentering the United States from Canada. She made an initial court appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. of Buffalo, who entered the not guilty plea. (Hsu, 9/22)

Ms. Ferrier wrote in a threatening and scornful letter sent with the ricin that she believed Mr. Trump was a dictator who was hurting the United States. “I found a new name for you: ‘The Ugly Tyrant Clown’ I hope you like it,” she wrote. “You ruin USA and lead them to disaster. I have US cousins, then I don’t want the next 4 years with you as president. Give up and remove your application for this election.” (Schmidt, 9/22)

Ultraviolet-C light kills coronavirus on N95 respirator masks, effectively decontaminating them so they can safely be reused, dermatology researchers at Henry Ford Health System and the University of Michigan announced Tuesday. A shortage of the medical-grade masks early in the COVID-19 pandemic drove the health systems to collaborate on a project to test whether a high dose of UV-C light — used to treat some skin conditions like vitiligo and psoriasis —  would kill virus particles but still preserve the integrity of the masks. (Shamus, 9/22)

Respirator masks made in China and purchased by U.S.-based healthcare systems often don't meet federal filtration standards, according to a new analysis by the not-for-profit patient safety organization ECRI. N95 respirator masks are used by healthcare personnel when interacting with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients. Shortages of these masks in the U.S. has forced some providers desperate for them during the COVID-19 pandemic to buy from suppliers that haven't received certification from the U.S. government, many of which are based in China. These masks tend to be called KN95. In an analysis of nearly 200 masks from 15 mask models manufactured in China, ECRI found 60% to 70% of the masks didn't filter 95% of aerosolized particles as their name suggests and is standard for N95 respirator masks in the U.S. (Castellucci, 9/22)

In other science and research news —

When you hear the word “bacteria,” you might think of germs or disease. But not all bacteria are harmful. Trillions of these microorganisms — also called microbes — live on our skin and inside our bodies, but they’re too tiny to see with the naked eye. Our microbes have important jobs, ranging from helping us digest food to protecting us from infections. The genetic material for the microorganisms — including bacteria, fungi and other microbes — that reside on or in our bodies is called the human microbiome. (Rich, 9/22)

In June, when MIT artificial intelligence researcher Regina Barzilay went to Massachusetts General Hospital for a mammogram, her data were run through a deep learning model designed to assess her risk of developing breast cancer, which she had been diagnosed with once before. The workings of the algorithm, which predicted that her risk was low, were familiar: Barzilay helped build that very model, after being spurred by her 2014 cancer diagnosis to pivot her research to health care. (Robbins, 9/23)

Today, PLOS Medicine published two large COVID-19 studies, one a meta-analysis of 79 international studies showing that most infected patients eventually have symptoms, and the other a study of 5.8 million US Department of Veterans Affairs patients revealing that blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be infected—but not to die within 30 days—than whites. (Van Beusekom, 9/22)

The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday passed legislation that would allow federal antitrust enforcement against insurers. Similar versions of the bill have been considered and passed in the House over the last decade, though none have become law. Odds appear slim this year as well. The bill would fall under the purview of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will soon be preoccupied with a blockbuster Supreme Court confirmation battle. (Cohen, 9/22)

In other health industry news —

Sam's Club is giving its members a new way to see the doctor – virtually. The Walmart-owned warehouse club chain announced a partnership with Seattle-based virtual primary care provider 98point6 Tuesday to provide members with an exclusive introductory fee and quarterly subscription. Sam's Club members with either a Club or Plus membership level can sign up for a quarterly subscription to 98point6’s telehealth virtual clinic via a text-based app for $20 per participant for the first three months, $10 less than 98point6’s regular sign-up fee of $30.  (Tyko, 9/22)

Amazon is expanding a virtual health care initiative for employees called Amazon Care on Tuesday to all of its staff in Washington, marking the initiative’s transition from pilot to a more fully-fledged program. The shipping giant — which has aggressively moved into health care in recent months — launched Amazon Care as a benefit to its office workers in Seattle last September and expanded the service to include warehouse employees in May. (Brodwin, 9/22)

"I hope this small gift helps you get started with your recovery,” reads a note on a Target gift card. “We were flooded out of our home during Florence in 2018 so I can sympathize with you. Best wishes!”Such are the wishes, along with simpler expressions such as “You are Louisiana Strong” and “Blessings,” that decorate the 391 gift cards that the CarolinaEast Foundation is sending to the Lake Charles Memorial in Lake Charles where Hurricane Laura devastated homes and lives on August 27. The hospital’s foundation will distribute the cards, mostly gift cards for Target and Lowes, to its staff. (Hand, 9/22)

One more piece of Boston history has disappeared, as the Floating Hospital for Children was renamed and will now be known as Tufts Children’s Hospital. To be clear, child-focused care at the hospital has not been conducted on a ship since 1927. It has been earthbound as part of Tufts Medical School’s Chinatown facilities, which include Tufts Medical Center, a 450-bed hospital. (Ellement and Gardizy, 9/22)

Also —

As cases surge in Kentucky and Ohio, one hospital is begging residents to wear masks and practice social distancing, as it reaches capacity due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. "Our hospital is at capacity. We are working to open a third nursing unit to care for COVID patients," wrote Kristie Whitlatch, president and CEO of King's Daughters Medical Center in Ashland, Kentucky. "Multiple nursing units dedicated to one virus are unprecedented in our 120-year history." (Asmelash, 9/22)

Kaiser Health News: Battle Rages Inside Hospitals Over How COVID Strikes And Kills 
Front-line health care workers are locked in a heated dispute with many infection control specialists and hospital administrators over how the novel coronavirus is spread ― and therefore, what level of protective gear is appropriate. At issue is the degree to which the virus is airborne ― capable of spreading through tiny aerosol particles lingering in the air ― or primarily transmitted through large, faster-falling droplets from, say, a sneeze or cough. This wonky, seemingly semantic debate has a real-world impact on what sort of protective measures health care companies need to take to protect their patients and workers. (Lewis and Jewett, 9/23)

Kaiser Health News: Colleges’ Opening Fueled 3,000 COVID Cases A Day, Researchers Say 
Reopening colleges drove a coronavirus surge of about 3,000 new cases a day in the United States, according to a draft study released Tuesday. The study, done jointly by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College, tracked cellphone data and matched it to reopening schedules at 1,400 schools, along with county infection rates. (McAuliff, 9/23)

Colleges and universities that reopened for face-to-face instruction might have caused tens of thousands of additional cases of Covid-19 in recent weeks, according to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College. The researchers estimated that an extra 3,200 cases a day occurred in the U.S. that likely wouldn’t have happened had schools kept classes online. (Korn and Abbott, 9/22)

Reopening colleges and universities for in-person classes led to more than 3,000 new cases of coronavirus a day that otherwise would not have occurred, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Davidson College participated in the study, according to The Wall Street Journal. They used GPS tracking data to analyze movements of people, including returning students, and determined the infection rates in counties where colleges were located during the period where campuses began reopening. (Budryk, 9/22)

In other school news —

After a 29-hour marathon meeting that included 18 hours of public testimony, the Miami-Dade County School Board voted Tuesday to start welcoming students back for in mid-October with a staggered return for five-days-a-week instruction. Miami-Dade, the fourth-largest school district in the country, had started the school year last month with all-remote learning. It was one of only a handful of systems in the state given permission to do so by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) because of exceptionally high coronavirus rates. (Strauss, 9/22)

More Kansas schools have ended in-person classes and canceled sports because of coronavirus exposure and team quarantines. Both Haysville and Derby have quarantined their high school football teams, but Derby still plans to hold Friday night’s game, the Wichita Eagle reported. Chanute has canceled football games, but is continuing in-person classes against the recommendation of the state’s reopening guide. (9/22)

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many academic institutions across the country are dealing with outbreaks -- or offering only virtual learning in an attempt to prevent them. But one liberal arts school in Maine is seeking to avoid either fate. (Brown and Frazee, 9/22)

As school districts created their plans for returning to school, a hybrid schedule, which puts students into two groups who rotate attending in-person and virtually, emerged as a popular choice. But as districts go from fully virtual to hybrid schedules, it's also splitting students into two other groups — those who are in-person part-time and those who are always virtual. (Slaby, 9/23)

Walmart is experimenting with using drones to deliver at-home COVID-19 tests in a bid to provide more contactless testing options, the superstore chain announced Tuesday. Walmart has partnered with lab company Quest Diagnostics and DroneUp, a drone services provider, to perform trial deliveries of test collection kits in Las Vegas and Cheektowaga, N.Y. The trials will begin immediately in Las Vegas and take place in Cheektowaga early next month. (Livingston, 9/22)

More than 100,000 people are taking part in studies to see if one or more COVID-19 vaccine candidates actually work. Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson is about to start wide-scale testing for its vaccine. It will involve as many as 30,000 volunteers. AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna already have vaccine candidates in large studies in the United States. Novavax should start its study later this fall. The reason the trials are so large has to do with the complications of getting an accurate analysis of whether the vaccine works — and how the scientists and public health officials define "works." (Palca, 9/23)

More than 100 million COVID-19 tests have been performed in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID Data Tracker. But the true number of tests is unknown because of decentralized accounting and the fact that not all tests were created equally. (Croll and Salzman, 9/23)

The U.S. aviation industry is urging the government to establish COVID-19 testing protocols before international flights as a way to safely reopen travel routes that have been cut amid the pandemic. Industry stakeholders want the U.S. to reach an agreement on pre-flight COVID-19 testing procedures with Europe, Canada or the Pacific first as part of a "limited testing pilot project." This would allow people to travel between two countries without the need to quarantine, and allow government officials to evaluate the efficacy of the program. (Kaji and Maile, 9/22)

The novel coronavirus was apparently no match for a 102-year-old woman in New Hampshire. Mildred "Gerri" Schappals, who lives at The Huntington at Nashua, an assisted living facility, contracted COVID-19 in May but quickly recovered. "I was surprised," her daughter, Julia Schappals, told local news station WMUR. "But then again, I was not surprised that she survived. That's how she's been her entire life, and when we asked her about it she kind of poo-pooed it." (Farber, 9/22)

Our understanding of how the novel coronavirus spreads is still evolving. Early in the pandemic, there was great concern about the potential for infection from surface contact. But since then, evidence has pointed to human-to-human transmission as the primary vehicle of infection. Yet this research is not necessarily being broadly communicated to the American public. (Sy and Carlson, 9/22)

I've covered plenty of cruise ship stories during the coronavirus pandemic for ABC. I was there at a port outside Rome for one of the first suspected COVID-19 cases on a cruise ship, and again in Japan for nearly two weeks standing beside the Diamond Princess cruise ship when more than 700 people were infected on board. So it seems fitting that now, during the pandemic, would be the first time I ever board a cruise ship. (Rulli, 9/23)

Kaiser Health News: Native Americans Feel Double Pain Of COVID And Fires ‘Gobbling Up The Ground’  
When the first fire of the season broke out on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in Northern California in July, Greg Moon faced a dilemma. As Hoopa’s fire chief and its pandemic team leader, Moon feared the impact of the blaze on the dense coniferous forests of the reservation, near Redwood National and State Parks, where 3,000 tribal members depend on steelhead trout and coho salmon fishing. He was even more terrified of a deadly viral outbreak in his tribe, which closed its land to visitors in March. (Green, 9/23)

Nearly three-quarters of hotels will have to lay off more employees during the coronavirus pandemic if they don't receive additional government funding, according to a new survey. Seventy-four percent of respondents to an American Hotel & Lodging Association survey of its members said they would have to lay off additional employees as they await passage of further COVID-19 recovery legislation from Congress. (Oliver, 9/21)

In other public health news —

Experts in adolescent sexual health are concerned that the coronavirus pandemic will have serious effects on the sexual health and social behavior of young people. “I would start from the fact that our young people are not OK,” said Laura Lindberg, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, who was the lead author of an article on the subject in June in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. Their developmental task, she said, is to separate from their parents, connect with their peers and build relationships, and “the pandemic has just put an enormous roadblock.” (Klass, 9/21)

If ever there were a time for people to know the important skills that make up what mental health experts refer to as “psychological first aid,” a pandemic is it. Like regular first aid, PFA is a way of helping someone in pain — except rather than cleaning and bandaging a cut or applying ice to a sprained ankle, you tend to someone’s anxiety or distress in a way that will ease it and help restore a sense of equanimity. Many disaster responders and public health professionals have been trained in PFA, but it’s time for the rest of us to join them, so we can help our families, our friends and ourselves. (Colino, 9/22)

Lady Gaga and her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, are getting candid about mental health. During a ticketed, virtual event for their book "Channel Kindness: Stories of Kindness and Community" on Tuesday night, the pop star and her mom addressed a question from an attendee who asked for advice on opening up about mental health to parents. According to Germanotta, many young people resist talking about mental health with their parents because parents don't often share their own struggles with their children. (Trepany, 9/22)

New York City’s Health Department warned Tuesday evening that Covid-19 was spreading at increasing levels in several neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, a worrisome indicator after a couple of months of declining or flat transmission. City health officials said that they were especially concerned about a clear uptick in transmission among some of the city’s Hasidic communities, which were devastated by Covid-19 in the spring but had seen few cases in the summer. (Goldstein, 9/22)

In news from the East —

Authorities in Maine have issued over a dozen citations to businesses in noncompliance with coronavirus restrictions since late August, marking a rush from just two since the pandemic began, according to a news outlet. The Portland Press Herald/Sunday Telegram reported 14 "imminent health citations," penalizing businesses for dismissing preventative measures, including social distancing and wearing of masks. If the business violates the citation within 30 days, the state then issues a temporary license suspension, per the report. The outlet reportedly obtained state health inspection program records, which revealed temporary suspension of food and beverage licenses for two businesses. (Rivas, 9/22)

A large, prominent evangelical Capitol Hill church late Tuesday filed a legal challenge to the District, alleging the city government is violating the First Amendment by facilitating and tolerating massive anti-racism protests but forbidding worship services — indoor or outdoor — of more than 100 because of covid-19. The complaint filed by the 850-member Capitol Hill Baptist Church is the first legal challenge by a religious organization to the capital’s coronavirus restrictions. There have been two others in the region — one in Virginia and one in Maryland — since quarantine measures began, and final decisions are pending in both. (Boorstein, 9/22)

The day after Thomas C. Wright Jr. tested positive for the novel coronavirus, his office sent an email to Victoria Christian Church, warning fellow worshipers that the Republican state legislator from Lunenburg might have unwittingly exposed them. “Because he was in church this past Sunday, he felt it necessary to inform you of his positive test results,” Wright’s legislative assistant, Tammy Brankley Mulchi, wrote on Aug. 26. (Vozzella, 9/22)

Thousands of Hurricane Laura Evacuees are currently being housed in hotels throughout the DFW area. But they said the arrival of additional daily necessities has been slow. Darchel Levy knows what it’s like to be uprooted and forced to relocate. She lives in North Texas now, but it wasn’t always home. (Sweat, 9/21)

In news from the Midwest and West —

A group of people at a Michigan playground discovered 39 razor blades on the equipment, prompting authorities to close playgrounds across the city, police said. Officers recovered an additional two blades after they were called at about 4:40 p.m. Monday to the playground, according to a news release from the Eaton Rapids Police Department. "Some of the blades appeared to have been placed intentionally to cause harm," police said on Facebook. (Berg, 9/22)

Seasonal workers who packed asparagus at a west Michigan farm initially chalked up their exhaustion, dizziness and headaches to the demands of working 13 hour-shifts seven days a week. But then some workers lost their sense of taste and smell and had a hard time breathing. By mid-June, it was clear that Todd Greiner Farms in Hart was dealing with a major COVID-19 outbreak among its workforce. (Jackson, Warikoo and Gee, 9/22)

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers declared a new public health emergency and extended a face coverings mandate into November to fight a flare-up of coronavirus cases, as the United States surpassed the grim milestone of 200,000 COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday. In-person social gatherings led to cases skyrocketing among people aged 18 to 24, Evers said, as he pleaded with students who returned to colleges for the fall semester to stay out of bars and wear masks. (Caspani and Holland, 9/22)

North Dakota’s top health official has lifted the state’s 14-day quarantine order for people returning from international travel. The quarantine order was issued in April and amended twice, most recently in July. (9/22)

Gov. Gary Herbert will increase pandemic restrictions in two Utah cities. But he stopped short of implementing any mask mandates as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in the state, state officials announced Tuesday. Herbert is imposing new restrictions in the cities of Provo and Orem that will limit social gatherings to 20 people starting Wednesday. The state health department is granting one exception to the new rules that will allow team sports, but without spectators. (Eppolito, 9/22)

In nursing home news —

An outbreak of the coronavirus has occurred at a nursing home in the Omaha bedroom community of Blair, with more than two dozen residents and staff infected, health officials said. The Three Rivers Public Health Department reported in a Friday news release the outbreak at Crowell Memorial Home in Blair, which is about 20 miles northwest of Omaha. The facility is licensed for 108 assisted living and skilled nursing beds. (9/22)

Gov. Brian Kemp’s administration this week updated nursing home and assisted living visitation rules to pave a clearer path for families to resume seeing loved ones amid the coronavirus pandemic. The new guidelines still restrict visitations in homes that have active coronavirus cases and in counties with high infection rates. But the new guidelines ease some of the more stringent requirements that were part of Kemp’s initial order issued Sept. 15. They bring the state’s rules in line with federal guidelines released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last Thursday. (Schrade, 9/22)

He wanted to fix rural America’s broken nursing homes. Now, taxpayers may be on the hook for $76 million. (Blau, 9/22)

Nursing homes in the South Bay and East Bay — along with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center — were issued fines on Tuesday for failing to protect workers from COVID-19 exposure, said the state agency which oversees workplace safety. Cal/OSHA issued the largest penalty against the Santa Rosa Police Department, where a 43-year-old detective died of the virus in late March. (Debolt, 9/22)

Finland is set to launch a pilot program involving coronavirus-sniffing dogs at Helsinki Airport on Wednesday, amid hopes that dogs could come to play a key role in screening for the virus. The voluntary canine tests will deliver results within 10 seconds and require less than a minute of travelers’ time, said Anna Hielm-Björkman, a researcher at the University of Helsinki who is using the trial to gather data. (Noack, 9/22)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has always looked for the silver lining in Britain’s response to the pandemic. Last spring, he promised to “send coronavirus packing” in 12 weeks. In the summer, he cajoled people to return to their offices and restaurants, even offering to subsidize their meals. On Tuesday, however, an uncharacteristically somber Mr. Johnson offered no sweeteners as he announced a raft of new restrictions on British society to try to keep the second wave of infections now hitting the country from getting far worse through the fall and winter. (Landler and Castle, 9/22)

Months after Italy’s lockdown against the coronavirus ended, Enrica Grazioli still sanitizes everything that comes into her Milan apartment, wears face masks diligently and limits interactions between her sons and their grandparents. Ms. Grazioli, a self-proclaimed social butterfly who loves to cook for guests, still hasn’t had friends over for dinner since the virus struck. “Am I overdoing it?” says Ms. Grazioli. “Maybe, but we had a national tragedy of epic proportions and you don’t quickly forget something like that.” (Sylvers and Stancati, 9/22)

The Vatican on Tuesday reaffirmed its stance that euthanasia and assisted suicide are “intrinsically evil,” and told priests they should minister to those contemplating such deaths to try to change their minds but shouldn’t be present at the end if they don’t. The Vatican’s doctrine office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a lengthy new document on end-of-life care for the terminally ill on Tuesday. It takes into account medical advances, the advent of “do not resuscitate” orders and legal approval for assisted suicide, as well as new Vatican perspectives on palliative care, including for children. (Winfield, 9/22)

The U.S. has won more medals than any other nation in Olympic history. It usually has the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games. And it’s the highest-value single market for Olympic broadcast rights, the International Olympic Committee’s primary source of revenue. It’s also, by coronavirus metrics, the least desirable guest at any party. The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases of the virus and in confirmed deaths from the disease. Only 15 countries currently welcome U.S. visitors without qualification, according to the online tool Covid Controls. (Bachman and Radnofsky, 9/22)

After months of heated accusations and painstaking negotiations, the White House and the pharmaceutical industry neared agreement late last month on a plan to make good on President Trump’s longstanding promise to lower drug prices. The drug companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket consumer costs and would even pick up the bulk of the co-payments that older Americans shoulder in Medicare’s prescription drug program. (Martin and Haberman, 9/18)

Over the last 100 years, the practice of medicine has come a long way. More focus on evidence-based research, new innovations in medical technology, and novel therapeutic and treatment methods are just some of the ways that modern medicine has been able to increase both quality of life and the average life expectancy of society. However, one major area of concern in the last decade has been prescription drug pricing. (Balasubramanian, 9/21)

Americans spend more on prescription drugs — average costs are about $1,200 per person per year — than anyone else in the world. It’s true that they take a lot of pills. But what really sets the U.S. apart from most other countries is high prices. Cancer drugs in the U.S. routinely cost $10,000 a month. Even prices for old drugs have spiked, as companies have bought up medicines that face no competition and boosted charges. While private insurers and government programs pick up the biggest share of the bill, high drug costs are ultimately passed on to members of the public through the premiums they pay to keep their insurance policies active and the taxes they pay to the government. In a February poll, nearly a third of respondents said a candidate’s position on lowering drug costs was the most or among the most important issues influencing their vote in the November general election. (Langreth, 9/16)

President Trump clearly wants Americans to believe he has axed the nation’s costly drug prices, as Election Day nears. Over the past two months, the president has tweeted 18 times that he has lowered — or will lower — the cost of prescription drugs. (Winfield Cunningham with Ellerbeck, 9/18)

Whether it is buying a loaf of bread at the supermarket or hiring a roofing contractor, consumers expect to know the full price of what they are purchasing before they buy it. Transparency between buyer and seller on both the price and quality of the goods or services in a transaction is fundamental to our free-market economic system. In nearly every industry, individuals are able to shop for goods and services by comparing publicly available price and quality information. However, in health care, patients rarely know how much they will pay for medical services before receiving them. In contrast to the transparency found elsewhere, the opaque nature of health care pricing makes comparison shopping virtually impossible in most states. When the bills eventually arrive, they can be shocking. (Sen. Susan Collins, 9/22)

The White House announced a most favored nations executive order on Sunday, its latest attempt to lower prescription drug costs in the U.S. The new policy, which relies on international price competition, promises to provide Americans with “the same low prices” for prescription medications available in other countries. But the policy is founded on incorrect assumptions about how other countries would respond, where seniors’ high out-of-pocket costs really come from, and what it would mean for the U.S. to adopt cost-effectiveness standards used by foreign governments. (Susan Peschin, 9/16)

America's big drug companies are refusing to let President Donald Trump use them as campaign props. That is right and proper. First, nine of them pledged to not release a vaccine before one is deemed effective and safe. Having failed to manage or even acknowledge the COVID-19 crisis, Trump has turned to pushing the fantasy that an acceptable vaccine would appear by Nov. 3.Big Pharma said not before its time. The companies vowed to "stand with science," a point that has to be made nowadays. (Froma Harrop, 9/22)

Few industries have a harder time securing positive PR than America’s drug makers. So you should take with a heap of salt the recent report about how they took a moral stand against President Trump. According to the report in the New York Times the industry was on the verge of agreeing to reduce consumer drug costs by $150 billion until the Trump White House went a step too far. (Michael Hiltzik, 9/21)

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death could not have come at a worse time for the millions of Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. One week after the election, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear yet another case about whether the law is constitutional. The case was worrisome enough when Chief Justice John Roberts held the swing vote. But if President Trump succeeds in seating a new justice, the political gravity of the court will lurch even further to the right. A case that once looked like a Hail Mary would stand a real chance of success. That means more than ever, health care is on the ballot. (Andy Slavitt and Nicholas Bagley, 9/23)

If you or someone you care about is among the more than 50 million Americans suffering from pre-existing medical conditions, you should be aware that the stakes in this year’s election go beyond abstract things like, say, the survival of American democracy. They’re also personal. If Donald Trump is re-elected, you will lose the protection you’ve had since the Affordable Care Act went into effect almost seven years ago. (Paul Krugman, 9/21)

More than 80 years ago, the American salesman extraordinaire, Elmer Wheeler, introduced his "Five Wheeler Points" to help his brethren boost sales of whatever it was they were selling. The first Point, later immortalized by an episode of Seinfeld , was this: "don't sell the steak -- sell the sizzle." This adage seems to have been adopted by the some in the Trump administration as they still, seven months in, try to find their footing on the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Kent Sepkowitz, 9/22)

Previous presidents have lied or twisted the truth, but Mr. Trump’s distortions are on an epic scale. As of July, according to a database maintained by The Post, he had made more than 20,000 false or misleading statements in just 3½ years, including more than 1,000 about the coronavirus alone. His mendacity has been accelerating: While his first 10,000 lies accumulated in 827 days, The Post Fact Checkers reported, it took only 440 days to double the total. ...Even if Mr. Trump leaves office in January, the country is likely to be plagued for years by this delinking of public debate from reality. If he wins, his war against truth surely will escalate. (9/22)

A new clash between Donald Trump's political goals and his duties to public health threatens to deprive America of presidential leadership in the critical weeks that will decide if a second wave of Covid-19 swamps the country this winter. As the US death toll from the pandemic passed 200,000, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Tuesday that he was worried that the high base level of infections could make it difficult to keep the virus under control in the colder months. (Stephen Collinson, 9/23)

The happier days of summer are over. Covid cases are spiking again and tougher lockdown rules are being reintroduced, including curfews on pubs and restaurants and telling people to work from home where possible. (Boris) Johnson’s manifest failure to deliver a working system for mass testing and contact tracing in time for the reopening of schools and other parts of the economy made these restrictions inevitable. (Therese Raphael, 9/23)

The Trump administration has been executing a coordinated attack on what it sees as a critical public health issue. Unfortunately, the offensive is not targeting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has infected over six million people and claimed almost 200,000 lives in the US. Instead, the campaign has its sights set on women’s sexual health and reproductive rights, especially abortion. With the recent death of Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg threatening the fate of Roe v. Wade, the security of abortion rights has never been more precarious. (Michelle Onello, 9/22)

There’s something odd going on at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For a moment, it seemed that the agency had finally woken up to an important fact: The novel coronavirus is airborne. On Friday, the CDC updated its website with guidance on “how covid-19 spreads.” For the first time, they mentioned aerosols — the tiny particles that can stay airborne for hours and travel beyond six feet. Per the guidance, the virus travels “through respiratory droplets or small particles, such as those in aerosols, produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings, talks, or breathes. These particles can be inhaled into the nose, mouth, airways, and lungs and cause infection.” It ended with this kicker: “this is thought to be the main way the virus spreads.” But on Monday, the CDC removed this information from its website, bizarrely explaining that it “does not reflect our current state of knowledge.” (Joseph G. Allen and Linsey C. Marr, 9/22)

Since the first Covid-19 cases emerged in the U.S. in early 2020, attitudes toward coronavirus testing have evolved as we’ve learned more about the novel coronavirus and how it spreads. Initially, testing was intended to be diagnostic and confirm infections in people with symptoms such as cough, fever, shortness of breath, and fatigue. At that time, there was no understanding of the risk of silent transmission within the community via infected people who had not yet developed symptoms or who never developed them. (Menachem Fromer, Paul Varghese and Robert M. Califf, 9/23)

Midday on Tuesday, the death toll in America from COVID-19 passed the grim mark of 200,000. This is, without doubt, a monumental tragedy. It is also a massive national embarrassment. The United States accounts for 4% of the world’s population yet more than 20% of the world’s pandemic fatalities. Put another way, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is what would have resulted had Osama bin Laden mounted 67 attacks on the United States similar to those of 9/11.Had the United States matched Canada’s performance in restraining the number of deaths per capita, 118,000 of those 200,000 people would still be alive. If it had matched Germany’s, 163,000 would still be alive. (9/22)

Across the U.S., the reopening of college campuses is fast becoming a new public-health crisis. The arrival of students for the start of the fall semester has caused Covid-19 infections to spike in college towns from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, to Chico, California. Of counties where college students are at least 10% of the population, half have seen Covid cases hit their highest-ever levels in the past month. Given lack of guidance from federal and state officials and the inadequacy of the U.S.’s testing system, mounting infections among college students were all too likely. College administrators failed to anticipate the scale of the outbreaks or develop plans for containing them. To protect students, faculty and residents of surrounding communities, colleges now need to curtail student activities and move classes online. (9/21)

Decisions about whether and how to safely re-open K through 12 schools have become polarized. A vast and growing number of scientific studies are related to COVID-19 and schools, yet few are landmark studies — those that definitively settle a scientific question. (9/22)

By now many have heard about the debate over convalescent plasma as an effective treatment for Covid-19. On Aug. 23, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization stating that convalescent plasma—extracted from the blood of recovered patients—“may be effective” in hospitalized patients and can be used in the current emergency. The agency stopped short of fully authorizing or licensing convalescent plasma. But on Sept. 1 a National Institutes of Health panel argued that the data were insufficient “to recommend either for or against” use of plasma. How can two federal agencies come to different conclusions on a topic of such great importance in the middle of an epidemic? Understanding the dispute requires a little history and also thinking about how experts evaluate evidence. (Arturo Casadevall and Nigel Paneth, 9/22)

The year 2020 has put an exclamation point on the need for robust mental health care in the United States, first with the ongoing isolation posed by Covid-19 that is now magnified in the West by wildfires forcing everybody indoors. Americans are being asked to take never-before-seen steps to keep themselves safe: staying at home, wearing face coverings in public, limiting social interactions and human contact, and more. These measures are necessary to slow the spread of Covid-19, but they are taking their toll on Americans’ minds. (Wyden, 9/23)

Six months into the pandemic with no end in sight, many of us have been feeling a sense of unease that goes beyond anxiety or distress. It's a nameless feeling that somehow makes it hard to go on with even the nice things we regularly do. (Nick Couldry and Bruce Schneier, 9/22)

Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died last week at the age of 87, is rightfully being memorialized as a “feminist icon,” a “history-making jurist,” and as “Notorious RBG,” a pop culture legend. One more huzzah should be added to the list: cancer survivor. (Steven Petrow, 9/22)