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A set of detailed documents created by the nation’s top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit, day care centers and restaurants during the still-raging pandemic has been shelved by the Trump administration. The 17-page report by a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team, titled “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen. (Dearen and Stobbe, 5/7)

Confronted with America’s worst public health crisis in generations, President Trump declared himself a wartime president. Now he has begun doing what past commanders have done when a war goes badly: Declare victory and go home. The war, however, does not seem over. Outside New York, the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is still growing, not receding. The latest death toll estimates have more than doubled from what Mr. Trump predicted just weeks ago. And polls show the public is not ready to restore normal life. (Baker, 5/6)

His decision to expand the characterization to everyday Americans is a noticeable shift from his previous declarations that “one is too many” deaths. The toll from the illness surpassed 70,000 this week and seems on track to top 100,000 by the end of the month, numbers far larger than Trump recently predicted. Asked Wednesday if the nation needs to accept greater loss of life, Trump said “hopefully it won’t be the case, but it may very well be the case.” (Megerian, 5/6)

An increasing number of conservatives are convinced the medical community and the media are inflating the coronavirus death toll for political purposes, despite nearly all evidence indicating that, if anything, the figure is an undercount. The conspiracy theory started with those who argued the figure was being manipulated, before morphing into a more generalized suspicion about coronavirus modeling among Republicans. Fox News has begun to feature a constant drumbeat of doubt about the reliability of any model, and President Donald Trump on Sunday called the models “wrong from day one” and “out of whack,” but insisted on Tuesday he believed the government’s death toll. (Nguyen, 5/7)

Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority: President Donald Trump did a tremendous job. The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy and shows no signs of abating. And Trump’s ineffective leadership is largely to blame, say Democrats who are growing optimistic they can seize the Senate after being relegated to the minority for six years. (Everett and Bresnahan, 5/6)

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday an ousted health official who filed a whistleblower’s complaint accusing the administration of retaliating when he voiced concerns about the coronavirus in January seemed to be a disgruntled person who wants to help Democrats. (Mason and Wolfe, 5/6)

Bright led the agency that was focused on helping fund potential treatments for infectious diseases, including COVID-19, until his ouster late last month. He filed a formal whistleblower complaint on Tuesday with the Office of Special Counsel, alleging he was moved to a lower position at the National Institutes of Health because of his efforts to "prioritize science and safety over political expediency." (Weixel, 5/6)