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The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court late Thursday to overturn the Affordable Care Act — a move that, if successful, would bring a permanent end to the health insurance program popularly known as Obamacare and wipe out coverage for as many as 23 million Americans. In an 82-page brief submitted an hour before a midnight deadline, the administration joined Republican officials in Texas and 17 other states in arguing that in 2017, Congress, then controlled by Republicans, had rendered the law unconstitutional when it zeroed out the tax penalty for not buying insurance — the so-called individual mandate. (Gay Stolberg, 6/26)

The Justice Department said the 2010 health law, a signature achievement of the Obama administration, is invalid because Congress in 2017 ended the financial penalty for not having health insurance, though it didn’t take effect until 2019. “The entire ACA thus must fall with the individual mandate,” Solicitor General Noel Francisco wrote in the Justice Department’s brief, which was filed late Thursday. “The individual mandate is no longer a valid exercise of Congress’s legislative authority in light of Congress’s elimination of the penalty for noncompliance.” (Armour, 6/26)

At issue is whether the law's individual mandate was rendered unconstitutional because Congress reduced the penalty for remaining uninsured to zero and, if so, whether that would bring down the entire law. A federal appeals court in December ruled that the mandate was unconstitutional but punted the decision on which, if any, of the law's provisions could be retained back to the district court -- which had previously found the entire law to be invalidated. (de Vogue, Luhby and Mucha, 6/26)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) responded to the brief by saying there is “no moral excuse for the Trump Administration’s disastrous efforts to take away Americans’ health care." Dismantling the ACA would leave more than 23 million people without healthcare plans, according to a recent analysis by the liberal-leaning think tank Center for American Progress. (Elfrink and Flynn, 6/26)

Legal experts in both parties have widely criticized this argument as weak, saying Congress's intent in the 2017 tax law was clearly only to repeal the mandate penalty, not the entire Affordable Care Act. (Sullivan, 6/25)

Two lower federal courts have ruled that the ACA’s individual mandate is unconstitutional after the GOP Congress in 2017 zeroed out the penalty for going without health insurance. The Supreme Court had previously upheld the mandate on the grounds that it was a tax. The lower courts also called into question the viability of the entire law without the mandate. (Dwyer, 6/26)

The move is sure to ignite further political controversy and elevate healthcare as a major election issue. Trump is seeking re-election in November against Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, who has vowed to protect health insurance coverage for Americans under the law. The Trump administration’s filing came the same day the United States set a new record for a one-day increase in cases of the fatal and highly contagious coronavirus. The disease has killed thousands of Americans and forced millions to lose their jobs, including any employer-based health benefits they may have had. (Singh, 6/26)

Some 20 million Americans could lose their health coverage and protections for people with preexisting health conditions also would be put at risk if the court agrees with the administration in a case that won’t be heard before the fall. (Alonso-Zaldivar and Sherman, 6/26)

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden attacked President Trump on Thursday for his legal efforts to overturn the Affordable Care Act even amid the coronavirus pandemic, calling it "cruel" and "heartless." "I think it's cruel, it's heartless, it's callous and it's all because in my view he can't abide the thought of letting stand one of President Obama's greatest achievements, the Affordable Care Act," Biden said in a speech in Lancaster, Pa. "I cannot comprehend the cruelty that's driving him to inflict this pain on the very people he's supposed to serve," he said. (Sullivan, 6/25)

"They would live their lives caught in a vise between Donald Trump’s twin legacies: his failure to protect the American people from the coronavirus, and his heartless crusade to take health care protections away from American families," Biden said. (Luthi, 6/25)

The number of people in the United States who have been infected with the coronavirus is likely to be 10 times as high as the 2.4 million confirmed cases, based on antibody tests, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. CDC Director Robert Redfield’s estimate, shared with reporters in a conference call, indicates that at least 24 million Americans have been infected so far. (Sun and Achenbach, 6/25)

The news comes as the Trump administration works to tamp down nationwide concern about the COVID-19 pandemic as about a dozen states are seeing worrisome increases in cases. The administration also looks to get its scientific experts back before the public more as it tries to allay anxieties about the pandemic while states begin reopening. Since mid-May, when the government began stressing the need to get the economy moving again, the panel’s public health experts have been far less visible than in the pandemic’s early weeks. (Miller and Marchione, 6/25)

If true, the estimate would suggest the percentage of U.S. deaths from the disease is lower than thought. More than 120,000 Americans have died from the disease since the pandemic erupted earlier this year. The estimate comes as government officials note that many new cases are showing up in young people who do not exhibit symptoms and may not know they have it. (Holland, 6/25)

[Redfield] added that with cases spiking across the country, Americans should continue social distancing and wearing face coverings. He particularly singled out younger people, under the age of 50, who have accounted for an uptick in cases as states began to reopen. “I’m asking people to recognize we’re in a different situation today than we were in March and April where the virus was disproportionately being recognized in older adults,” he said. (Ehley, 6/25)

Most people who contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus show few if any symptoms, and only a small percentage require hospitalization. But while the number of potentially infected people is multitudes higher than the number of confirmed cases, Redfield also said the relatively low percentage of Americans who have been infected means hundreds of millions more remain at risk. (Wilson, 6/25)

Between 5% and 8% of Americans have been infected with the coronavirus, with the numbers varying by region. New York, once the epicenter of the pandemic, will have a higher percentage of people with past infections than some states in the West, Redfield said. That means 90% or more have not been infected and are susceptible to the virus, highlighting the need to act aggressively to combat rising infection rates, he said. Some cases went unnoticed partly because testing was at first limited to people who were very ill, Redfield said. As more people get tested, he added, it's clear a large percentage had mild symptoms or none at all. (Karimi, 6/26)

The nation may be opening up, but the coronavirus is far from slowing down. In fact, COVID-19 is on the rise. There were 38,459 new cases of the virus reported nationwide on Thursday, a number that surpassed a record set the prior day of 38,115. (Kaleem, 6/25)

Americans are living through a split-screen pandemic: Their leaders are relaxing restrictions while their states set records for new coronavirus infections. Churches, beaches and bars are filling up, and so are hospital beds. Early in the outbreak, President Trump told governors they were on their own — for testing, medical supplies and stay-at-home orders. Now, in this new phase of soaring cases and reopenings, the effects of this decentralized decision-making are particularly noticeable and subject to politics, with some states making seemingly arbitrary decisions. (Thebault and Hauslohner, 6/25)

When Texas began lifting coronavirus restrictions, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott didn’t wear a mask. He wouldn’t let mayors enact extra precautions during one of America’s swiftest efforts to reopen. He pointed out that the White House backed his plan and gave assurances there were safe ways to go out again. Two months later, a sharp reversal is unfolding as infections surge. (Weber, 6/26)

Texas paused reopening plans Thursday, as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations increased in many U.S. states, and a government estimate showed more than 20 million Americans may have contracted the virus, far exceeding diagnosed infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that only about 1 in every 10 Covid-19 cases in the U.S. has been identified, Director Robert Redfield said during a briefing with reporters Thursday. He also noted that most Americans are still susceptible to the virus. (Calfas, Abbott and Restuccia, 6/25)

Texas, which has been at the forefront of efforts to reopen devastated economies shut down in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, has seen one of the biggest jumps in new cases, reporting more than 6,000 in a single day on Monday. “This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business,” Governor Greg Abbott, a two-term Republican, said in a statement. (Brooks, 6/25)

Just 55 days after reopening Texas restaurants and other businesses, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday hit the pause button, stopping additional phases of the state’s reopening as new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations soared and as the governor struggled to pull off the seemingly impossible task of keeping both the state open and the virus under control. The announcement by Mr. Abbott — which allows the many shopping malls, restaurants, bars, gyms and other businesses already open to continue operating — was an abrupt turnaround and came as a growing number of states paused reopenings amid rising case counts. (Fernandez and Mervosh, 6/25)

Oregon, Nevada, Kansas, Louisiana, and North Carolina have also announced reopening pauses or delays in the past week in light of increasing case counts. Today Abbott also suspended elective surgeries and medical procedures in Bexar, Dallas, Harris, and Travis counties in an effort to free up hospital beds. The counties represent San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin. Texas Public Radio said yesterday that San Antonio's ventilator availability dropped below 70%, and one Houston hospital's intensive care unit capacity was already at 120%. (Soucheray, 6/25)

Gov. Greg Abbott, a day after a key coronavirus metric he’s been watching hit “red flag” territory, again has moved to conserve hospital beds by halting elective surgeries. He also announced Thursday that he’s pausing any further reopening of businesses and other public activities until Texas can “corral” a recent surge in COVID-19 infections. And Thursday afternoon, he hinted in an interview with Victoria TV station KAVU that Texans “should anticipate more orders up in the coming days.” (Garrett, 6/25)

Pincu is among scores of Texans who are weighing the risks of in-person voting during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The state saw more than 5,000 new cases on Tuesday and Wednesday. And after reaching an all-time high of new cases on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott was forced to pause the state’s reopening, canceling elective surgeries and limiting outdoor gatherings. (Barragán, 6/26)

In a public briefing Thursday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she and state health officials are monitoring a “very concerning” climb in the transmission rate of the disease and waiting to see whether it’s a longer-term trend. The state’s business restrictions – allowing restaurants and salons, for example, to operate at partial capacity – will remain in place for now. They are set to expire Wednesday, though the governor said she expects to decide before then whether to extend the order or make changes. (McKay, 6/25)

In one of his sharpest rebukes of President Donald Trump to date, former Vice President Joe Biden lambasted the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, comparing Trump to a whining child. "(Trump's) like a child who can't believe this has happened to him -- all his whining and self pity. This pandemic didn't happen to him. It happened to all of us. And his job isn't to whine about it, his job is to do something about it -- to lead," Biden said in a speech in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Thursday. (Nagle, 6/25)

Biden reiterated his campaign pledge to expand health care coverage by implementing a public insurance option. “We need a public option, now more than ever, especially when more than 20 million people are unemployed,” Biden said. Speaking at a podium emblazoned with the words “Protect and Build on the Affordable Care Act,” the former vice president touted the legislation as one of President Barack Obama’s crowning achievements that covered tens of millions of Americans. (Cohen, 6/25)

President Donald Trump and his top aides sought Thursday to minimize the threat of the coronavirus to the public’s health and the U.S. economy despite alarms blaring across two dozen states — including many overseen by Trump-friendly leaders. Aides insisted there would be no change in White House strategy to fight the pandemic, and no additional money or new resources given to states dealing with spikes in cases. “In only 3 percent of the counties across the country are we seeing an increase in cases,” said a senior administration official. “The vast majority of the country is not experiencing that. When they turn on the TV and see maps full of red and then they go out into their communities, that is not what they see.” (Cook, 6/25)

President Donald Trump and Republican governors are pointing to fewer coronavirus deaths to suggest that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic has passed — and to blunt criticism that a surge of new infections in more than half the states is proof the country reopened too soon. But that’s a dangerous gamble. Death rates tell nothing about the current spread of the virus and only offer a snapshot of where the country was roughly three weeks ago. If the caseloads in states like Texas, Arizona and Florida are any indication, the U.S. will almost certainly see a spike in deaths in July that could undermine the entire nationwide reopening effort. (Goldberg, 6/25)

America's single worst day of new coronavirus cases obliterated President Donald Trump's fantasyland vision of a post-Covid America -- even as he sowed new diversions in an effort to hide the reality of his leadership void in a deepening national crisis. More than 37,000 new cases of Covid-19 were reported on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The numbers superseded the previous darkest day of the pandemic, on April 24. (Collinson, 6/26)

President Donald Trump keeps spinning a tale about COVID-19 that is at odds with his own administration's disease experts and data compiled by his own coronavirus task force, which was obtained exclusively by NBC News. In Trump's telling, the deadly pandemic isn't really a serious threat to the public and rising infection rates are simply due to increased testing. "It's going away," he said Tuesday at an event in Phoenix. But on the same day, the coronavirus task force produced an internal document showing that Phoenix had the highest number of new cases among the 10 metropolitan regions where the week-over-week change in infection rates spiked the most. Arizona's biggest city had recorded 13,169 new cases over the previous seven days, accounting for a jump of 149.2 percent over the previous week's infection rate. (Allen, 6/24)

The White House coronavirus task force will hold a press briefing on Friday, marking the first time the group has spoken on camera to the public in roughly two months. The briefing will take place at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and will be led by Vice President Pence, who chairs the task force. The announcement comes as cases are spiking in several states. (Samuels, 6/25)

The briefing will not take place at the White House, but at the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a schedule released by the White House. The public meeting comes as President Donald Trump has tried to declare the pandemic "over" despite the rising numbers, and has instead focused his administration's energy on reopening the economy. (Hoye and Kelly, 6/26)

The federal government sent coronavirus stimulus payments to almost 1.1 million dead people totaling nearly $1.4 billion, Congress’s independent watchdog reported Thursday. The Washington Post previously reported that the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service disbursed some payments of up to $1,200 each to dead people. But the astonishing scope of the problem had not been known. (Werner, 6/25)

While the government has asked survivors to return the money, it’s not clear they have to. It also may be a politically sensitive gambit for the Treasury Department to aggressively seek to claw back the money, especially because some recipients may have died in the early months of this year from COVID-19. When billions in aid are rushed out the door in a crisis, “these are the kinds of things that happen,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of advocacy group Public Citizen. (Gordon, 6/25)

An unnamed Treasury official offered a conflicting account of how the department learned of the payments, the report indicates, telling GAO it was not aware of the issue “until it was reported in various media outlets.” “Treasury officials said that upon learning that payments had been made to decedents, Treasury and IRS, in consultation with counsel, determined that a person is not entitled to receive a payment if he or she is deceased as of the date the payment is to be paid.” (Faler, 6/25)

A whistleblower says the Trump administration continues to retaliate against him, stating in an updated complaint on Thursday that top officials are actively trying to discredit him and prevent him from being successful in a new role. Rick Bright, who led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) until he was demoted in late April, said in an amended complaint he has been "deliberately impeded" in his role at the National Institutes of Health, which "does not remotely utilize his expertise or experience." (Weixel, 6/25)

Bright, who played a central role in helping companies develop coronavirus vaccines, therapeutics, and tests as head of BARDA, was suddenly reassigned to a narrower position at the NIH in April. He is currently in a legal fight with Azar to gain his old job back. He alleges he was ousted from his role because he sounded the alarm over the administration’s lack of preparedness to respond to the pandemic and alleged cronyism between HHS officials and industry. (Florko, 6/25)

The complaint said former colleagues of Bright’s at his old agency are now avoiding him. It described a conversation with one such colleague, who is not identified by name. The former colleague is quoted as saying that the agency’s new acting director, Dr. Gary Disbrow, had warned him “to be ‘very careful’” about dealing with Bright. The complaint said Disbrow had explained that Azar “was very angry with Dr. Bright and was ‘on the war path.’ (Disbrow) explained that Secretary Azar directed HHS employees to refrain from doing anything that would help Dr. Bright be successful in his new role.” (Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/26)

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos fired a shot last month in the nation’s culture wars, overhauling how colleges handle investigations of sexual assault and ending what she called Obama-era “kangaroo courts” on campus. The new Education Department rules give more protections to the accused, primarily young men who face discipline or expulsion as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct. (Powell, 6/25)

A tidal wave of packages is keeping the U.S. Postal Service afloat during the coronavirus recession, boosting the beleaguered agency’s finances to near pre-pandemic levels while legislators and the White House joust over its independence. When the pandemic’s resulting economic shutdown took hold in early spring, postal leaders told lawmakers the mail service expected to hemorrhage $2 billion a month for 18 months, risking insolvency as soon as September. After Congress approved an emergency $10 billion loan from the Treasury Department, the agency said it could hold out until March 2021, but it’s avoided accessing those funds, wary of conditions the Trump administration is poised to impose in exchange. (Bogage, 6/25)

President Donald Trump on Thursday promised “retribution” against protesters nationwide who tore down statues and referred to Wisconsin demonstrators as “terrorists.” “Every night, we’re going to get tougher and tougher,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall in Wisconsin on Thursday night, in response to an audience question about his plan to tamp down protests there. “And at some point, there’s going to be retribution because there has to be. These people are vandals, but they’re agitators, but they're really — they’re terrorists, in a sense.” (Muller, 6/26)

President Trump lashed out at the Black Lives Matter movement in twin tweets Thursday, accusing one of its members of treason and lamenting reported plans for a new mural in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan that honors the cause. Trump, who has said he supports peaceful protesters, has increasingly articulated disdain for the protests that continue across the country after the death of George Floyd. His comments Thursday were among his most aggressive attacks on the movement that rose up in recent years against racial profiling and police violence. (Itkowitz, 6/25)

Mayor Bill de Blasio has ignited a new feud with President Trump by ordering the words “Black Lives Matter” to be painted in large yellow letters on the street outside of Trump Tower. The words are expected to be painted in the coming week on Fifth Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets, according to the city. (Zaveri, 6/25)

As coronavirus cases spike across the country, President Donald Trump and his top officials say everything is mostly under control. But Senate Republicans are pressing them to show a little urgency. The latest outbreaks are also reshaping the GOP’s political and legislative strategy, with Republicans planning to focus more on health care in the next coronavirus relief bill. And they’re flashing rare frustration at the Trump administration for its decision to wind down federally supported testing sites. (Everett and Levine, 6/25)

The final Thursday in June saw jobless claims top 1 million for a 14th straight week and a frightening spike in coronavirus infections across the Sun Belt, compelling a growing number of Republican governors and members of Congress to issue urgent public health warnings. President Trump called it a success story. (Stokols and Hook, 6/25)

Texas Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) on Thursday sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) protesting the administration’s plans to cut back federal support of drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites in Texas and other states. The senators called the testing sites “critical to Texas’ testing capacity” at a time the number of coronavirus cases in the state is spiking, hitting a peak of 5,551 new cases on Wednesday. (Bolton, 6/25)

Administration officials have said that slowing down testing has not been requested and his comments were made "in jest," but Trump maintains that he wasn't kidding. The federally funded testing program was intended to jump-start initial capabilities in critical areas across the US, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. But given Food and Drug Administration approval for individuals to self-administer nasal swab tests at sites, the demand for personal protective equipment and trained health care providers will be reduced, a FEMA spokesperson said in a statement in April, when the administration began its transition away from the program. (Vazquez, 6/25)

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he had “sarcastically” claimed that a decrease in coronavirus testing would lower U.S. infection rates, adding a new twist to the weeklong scramble by the White House to clarify the president’s comments on virus testing. “Sometimes I jokingly say, or sarcastically say, if we didn’t do tests we would look great,” Trump said in an interview and Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity. “But you know what? It’s not the right thing to do.” (Muller, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: The Pandemic Shifts; The Politics, Not So Much

President Donald Trump caused a stir when he said at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last weekend that he wanted less testing for COVID-19. While aides denied that, it didn’t help when on Wednesday the administration announced it would cut off federal funding for a number of state testing sites, including several in Texas, which is in the midst of a large spike in cases. (6/26)

The House on Thursday passed an expansive policing overhaul bill aimed at combating racial discrimination and excessive use of force in law enforcement, as Democrats sought to respond to a nationwide outcry for racial justice and pushed through legislation that is doomed in the Republican-controlled Senate. The bipartisan vote was 236-181 to approve the measure, the most sweeping federal intervention into law enforcement in years. It would eliminate legal protections that shield police officers from lawsuits, make it easier to prosecute them for wrongdoing, impose a new set of restrictions on the use of deadly force, and effectively ban the use of chokeholds. (Edmondson, 6/25)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gathered with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the Capitol steps, challenging opponents not to allow the deaths to have been in vain or the outpouring of public support for changes to go unmatched. But the collapse of a Senate Republican bill leaves final legislation in doubt. (Mascaro, 6/26)

The bill would crack down on excessive police force and ban chokeholds, enforce national transparency standards and push accountability for officer misconduct with a national database to track offenses. “To the protesters: we hear you, we see you, we are you,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in an impassioned speech on the floor just before the vote. Jeffries, one of the most senior Black members in Congress, said he first learned of Floyd’s death from his young son, who told him, “‘Dad, it’s happened again. What are you going to do about it?’” (Ferris, Caygle and Bresnahan, 6/25)

Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked over how to address racial inequities in policing, despite strong public sentiment for effective reform after Floyd died in Minneapolis as a white policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. “People say, ‘Well, why can’t you compromise with the other side?’ Well, they don’t ban chokeholds. We ban chokeholds. So are we supposed to come up with a number of chokeholds we are going to agree with? No,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the vote. (Morgan, 6/25)

With the Trump administration threatening a veto, most House Republicans lined up against the Democratic proposal and instead indicated support for a narrower proposal offered by Senate Republicans. Only three Republicans — Reps. Will Hurd (Tex.), the lone black GOP House member; Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), and Fred Upton (Mich.) — broke ranks and joined Democrats in backing the House bill. (Sonmez, Kane and Colvin, 6/25)

Last week, Republicans, led by Mr. Scott, the only black GOP senator, presented a bill that would, among other things, study the status of black men in America and, separately, the criminal justice system, collect data on the use of no-knock warrants and the use of force by police. Lawmakers hoped the studies would provide data to shape future legislation. The bills had some overlap, which gave some lawmakers hope that a compromise could be reached, but activists largely urged Democrats to block the Senate bill, saying it didn’t go far enough to address the issue. (Andrews, 6/25)

As the United States faces its biggest crisis over civil rights in decades, Congress is poised to do nothing. Again. What could have been a searing, soul-searching moment where America’s political leaders helped establish a new national accord on race and the role of police in society has instead devolved into a frenzy of political posturing, campaign sloganeering and ugly partisan fights. (Bresnahan, Ferris, Caygle and Levine, 6/25)

As Americans were clamoring in the streets last week to defund the police and as Democrats in Congress were drafting legislation to make it easier to track and prosecute officer misconduct, Larry Cosme, a leader of the police lobby, was at the White House making a direct appeal to some of President Trump’s top advisers against some of the most consequential reforms. At a meeting in the State Dining Room that included Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Cosme and about two dozen others listened as families of victims of police violence spoke emotionally of the need for a different approach, and pledged that they were ready to make some changes. (Broadwater and Edmondson, 6/25)

When pressed to take a position on tough issues during the Democratic presidential primary, Kamala Harris often replied with a variation of “we need to have that conversation.” But as the U.S. is roiled by police killings of Black men and women, the California senator is done hedging. As one of two Black Democrats in the Senate, Harris took a lead role this week in blocking Republican-backed legislation to overhaul policing. In an interview with The Associated Press, Harris said she wouldn’t be “played” by GOP leaders seeking to move the bill without input from Democrats and called on Americans to do more to acknowledge racial injustice in policing. (Ronayne, 6/26)

A presidential campaign that has largely been frozen for several months because of the coronavirus is looking a bit more like those from other years. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden swung through critical battleground states Thursday, presenting starkly different visions for America as it struggles with a pandemic. Touring a shipyard in Marinette, Wisconsin, Trump insisted the economy is “coming back at a level nobody ever imagined possible.” But in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Biden warned that “no miracles are coming” and slammed Trump’s handling of the virus. (Weissert and Levy, 6/26)

Joe Biden said on Thursday that if he were president, he would mandate that every American wear a mask in public to combat the spread of the coronavirus. In an interview with KDKA, the CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, the presumptive Democratic nominee said he would attempt to leverage federal power to mandate mask wearing. “The one thing we do know is these masks make a gigantic difference,” he said. (Viser, 6/26)

President Donald Trump’s plans to kick off Independence Day with a showy display at Mount Rushmore have angered Native Americans, who view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to Indigenous people. Several groups led by Native American activists are planning protests for Trump’s July 3 visit, part of Trump’s “comeback” campaign for a nation reeling from sickness, unemployment and, recently, social unrest. (Groves, 6/25)

President Donald Trump wasn’t the only one thrown off course by a lower-than-expected turnout at his comeback rally in Tulsa. Republican officials and Trump campaign aides, some of whom have been working since last year to plan the party’s convention festivities, said the disappointing event last weekend in Oklahoma imparted a critical lesson as they look ahead to Jacksonville, Fla., where Trump will deliver his acceptance speech as the GOP’s presidential nominee in late August: Learn to manage expectations and plan for trouble. (Orr, 6/25)

CMS wants to make permanent changes to telehealth flexibilities for home health providers, the agency said Thursday. The Trump administration loosened telehealth restrictions for home health providers during the COVID-19 pandemic but now wants them to go beyond the public health emergency. According to the proposed rule, CMS is looking to bump pay for home health providers by 2.6% overall, or about $540 million. (Brady, 6/25)

CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation announced Thursday it will extend by one year its pilot program that allows hospices to bill for routine home care as well as end-of-life services under Medicare. The Medicare Care Choices Model, which started in 2016, was set to conclude at the end of this year but the extension allows hospices to enroll beneficiaries to the program until June 30, 2021 and it will now conclude on December 31, 2021. (Castellucci, 6/25)

Nearly 1 in 3 black Americans know someone personally who has died of covid-19, far exceeding their white counterparts, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll that underscores the coronavirus pandemic’s profoundly disparate impact. The nationwide survey finds that 31 percent of black adults say they know someone firsthand who has been killed by the virus, compared with 17 percent of adults who are Hispanic and 9 percent who are white. (Goldstein and Guskin, 6/26)

Two decades of life experience made a mental-health activist of Kai Koerber. When he was 16 and a student at a Parkland, Fla., high school, a gunman killed 17 people, including one his friends. "I really did suffer a domestic terrorist attack, and that's not something that happens to you every day," Koerber says. But as a young Black man growing up in the South, Koerber had already faced threats of racial and police violence routinely, and those experiences, too, shaped his relationship with the world. He's coped with that stress, he says, through a lifelong practice of meditation. And after the school massacre, Koerber also sought emotional support from a therapist with a deep empathy for his personal traumas. (Noguchi, 6/25)

Colorado Governor Jared Polis on Thursday appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the 2019 death of an unarmed Black man who died days after he was subdued by three policemen and injected with a powerful sedative. Polis said the state’s attorney general, Phil Weiser, will probe the death of Elijah McClain, who died following an encounter with police who applied a carotid neckhold on him. During the incident, paramedics injected him with ketamine and he lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered. (Coffman, 6/25)

The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was “being suspicious.”Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain’s death. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others. (Nieberg and Peipert, 6/25)

A New York City police officer was arrested on Thursday and charged with strangulation and attempted strangulation after videos emerged over the weekend that appeared to show him using an illegal chokehold to arrest a man on a boardwalk, police said. The officer, David Afanador, had already been suspended from the New York Police Department without pay. Afanador, 39, turned himself in to be arrested at a police station house, the NYPD said. He pleaded not guilty at an initial court appearance, his lawyer said. (Allen, 6/25)

A former Miami police officer was charged on Thursday with battery and misconduct after a video surfaced showing him pressing his knee on a Black woman’s neck and tasing her stomach, while she kept screaming, U.S. media reports said .Jordi Martel, 30, was charged with official misconduct for filing two reports with false details about the incident that took place outside a striptease club on Jan. 14, State Attorney Katherine Rundle told a press conference. (6/26)

Officials in Philadelphia on Thursday announced a moratorium on the use of tear gas in the city and apologized for their response to a June 1 protest against police brutality. The announcement, by the mayor and the police commissioner, came hours after The New York Times published a visual investigation into the use of force by the police. During a confrontation with several hundred demonstrators who had entered Interstate 676 in the city center this month, SWAT officers used tear gas and pepper spray on a group of nonviolent protesters, some of whom were trapped as they tried to leave. (Tabrizy, Koettl, Xiao, Reneau and Jordan, 6/25)

Two weeks after the creation of an advisory council to review Atlanta’s use-of-force policies by police, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms has received the initial recommendations and issued three administrative orders as a result. The newly established Use of Force Advisory Council provided Bottoms with 10 recommendations, three of which were adopted, according to a news release. The other seven are undergoing further “legal and operational review.” (Hansen, 6/25)

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms won praise from politicians and commentators with her poised and powerful rebuke of protesters who smashed windows and spray-painted buildings during protests after the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by a white police officer. “I am a mother to four black children in America. . . . So you’re not going to out-concern me or out-care about where we are in America,” Bottoms said during a news conference. “This is not a protest. . . . This is chaos. A protest has purpose.” (Williams and Willis, 6/25)

It was another gruesome video of policing in America — a naked Latino man, his face covered by a mesh spit guard, his hands cuffed behind him as he lay dying face down on the ground at his grandmother’s house. He pleaded for water more than a dozen times, saying he could not breathe as police officers restrained his legs and torso. This time, the scene was a southern Arizona city with a politically moderate image, a large Latino population and a Police Department said to be relatively progressive. (Romero, McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Bogel-Burroughs, 6/25)

Over four weeks since a police officer killed George Floyd on video in Minneapolis, a nationwide reckoning with anti-Black racism is showing no signs of slowing. In the streets, protestors have participated in demonstrations of all sizes, including a student-led march of over 10,000 in San Francisco and 15,000 people marching for Black trans lives in New York. Online, people have created and shared innumerable resources on anti-racist action and how to break down anti-Blackness in non-Black communities. (Yu, 6/25)

The outcry has reverberated for weeks online and at demonstrations nationwide: Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor. But three months after plainclothes detectives serving a warrant busted into her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment and shot the 26-year-old Black woman to death, only one of the three officers who opened fire has lost his job. No one is facing criminal charges. (Lovan, 6/26)

Rayshard Brooks didn’t hide his history. About five months before he was killed by Atlanta police in a Wendy’s parking lot — before his name and case would become the latest rallying point in a massive call for racial justice and equality nationwide — Brooks gave an interview to an advocacy group about his years of struggle in the criminal justice system. He described an agonizing cycle of job rejection and public shame over his record and association with a system that takes millions of Americans, many of them Black like him, away from their families and treats them more like animals than individuals. (Thanawala and Seewer, 6/26)

Americans are growing increasingly aware of racial inequality in the United States, but a large majority still oppose the use of one-time payments, known as reparations, to tackle the persistent wealth gap between Black and white citizens. According to Reuters/Ipsos polls this month, only one in five respondents agreed the United States should use “taxpayer money to pay damages to descendants of enslaved people in the United States.” (Johnson, 6/25)

Black Lives Matter-Los Angeles and other protest groups are asking a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order and injunction to forbid the Los Angeles Police Department from using baton strikes and “rubber” bullets to control crowds during future protests, arguing that such use violates demonstrators’ constitutional rights and has caused a plethora of injuries. With protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police bringing calls to end police brutality, lawyers for the protesters on Wednesday asked a federal judge to end LAPD practices that they say have fallen short of their constitutional duties. (Winton, 6/25)

In this college town that considers itself a bastion of progressive politics and inclusion, race relations are really a tale of two cities. Demonstrators who toppled statues of figures with no racist history this week say they went after the sculptures because they wanted to shatter a false narrative that the state and the city support Black people and racial equity. (Richmond, 6/25)

The police officers were discussing work when their conversations moved, as so many have recently, to the protests against racial injustice rippling across the country. Their words quickly turned hateful. One officer used racist slurs to assail a black judge and a black woman he had arrested, while another described feeling like a civil war was coming and described his plans to go out and buy an assault rifle. (Laverty, Berman and Elfrink, 6/25)

A week after a deputy shot and killed an 18-year-old man in Gardena, setting off heated demonstrations, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has yet to fully explain how the shooting occurred and has not interviewed the two patrol deputies involved. But details are emerging about the deputies, including earlier allegations faced by the officer who fatally shot Andres Guardado. Sources with knowledge of the case identified them to The Times as Deputies Miguel Vega, who opened fire, and Chris Hernandez, who did not shoot. (Tchekmedyian and Lau, 6/25)

Minnesota police officers who are fired for misconduct or charged with criminal behavior often end up back on the force. Law-enforcement officers in the state who appealed terminations since 2014 were reinstated half the time, according to a Wall Street Journal review of records from the Minnesota Bureau of Mediation Services, which maintains a database of arbitration awards. (Jones and Radnofsky, 6/25)

Verizon is joining an escalating movement to siphon advertising away from Facebook in an effort to pressure the company into doing more to prevent racist and violent information from being shared on its social networking service. The decision announced Thursday by one of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies is part of an boycott organized by civil rights and other advocacy groups under the rallying cry of “#StopHateforProfit.” The protest, spurred by last month’s killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, is supposed to last through July. (6/25)

Facebook Inc. is working to persuade its top advertisers not to pause spending on the social network, as it tries to keep a boycott from a handful of marketers from turning into a widespread revolt. Facebook executives in emails and calls with advertisers and ad agencies over the past week have conveyed that they are taking seriously the concerns of civil-rights groups about the proliferation of hate speech and misinformation on its platform. But they are also maintaining that business interests won’t dictate their policies, according to people familiar with the discussions. (Vranica, 6/25)

When country singer Rissi Palmer was working on her debut album, she wanted a song like Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman,” a song that would introduce her and tell her story to fans. On her 2007 debut single, “Country Girl,” she celebrated her country roots while explaining that she didn’t have to look or talk a certain way to call herself a country girl. (Hall, 6/26)

Hackers used racist language and anti-Semitic images to disrupt an online meeting of Wake Forest University employees, the school’s president said. In a message posted to the school’s website, Nathan Hatch said about 500 Wake Forest staff members were on a Zoom call on Wednesday when unidentified hackers disrupted it, the Winston-Salem Journal reported Thursday. (6/25)

LGBTQ Pride is turning 50 this year a little short on its signature fanfare, after the coronavirus pandemic drove it to the internet and after calls for racial equality sparked by the killing of George Floyd further overtook it. Activists and organizers are using the intersection of holiday and history in the making — including the Supreme Court’s decision giving LGBT people workplace protections — to uplift the people of color already among them and by making Black Lives Matter the centerpiece of Global Pride events Saturday. (McMillan, 6/26)

The deaths of Black Americans like Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and others at the hands of police have pushed race in America to the forefront of the national conversation. But for many, discussions about racism and the reality of living in America as a Black person happen daily. (Stabley, 6/25)

Roughly 487,000 people signed up for an Affordable Care Act exchange plan after losing other health coverage since the last open enrollment period ended in December, CMS said Thursday. That's about 46% higher than sign-ups during the same period last year. Sign-ups through a special enrollment period for people who lost minimum essential coverage rose sharply during April and remained high in May, suggesting that the enrollments were related to job losses due the COVID-19 pandemic. (Livingston, 6/25)

Short-term health plans routinely refuse to pay the costs of treating beneficiaries, but have seen a surge in enrollment as a result of Trump administration policies, according to a new report released Thursday from House Democrats. Short-term plans don't have to comply with ObamaCare's coverage rules. The Energy and Commerce Committee investigation found that most plans will deny coverage or charge more for people with pre-existing conditions. The plans will also charge women more than men, and deny women basic health services, like preventive screening procedures and routine tests, including pelvic exams. (Weixel, 6/25)

A nonpartisan government watchdog on Thursday said it plans to examine HHS' distribution of $175 billion in COVID-19 relief grants to healthcare providers. The Government Accountability Office noted in a report on COVID-19 relief spending that it will be important for HHS to ensure it has robust internal controls to make sure funds go to eligible providers. (Cohrs, 6/25)

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asked a San Francisco Superior Court judge on Thursday to deny a request from Sacramento-based Sutter Health to delay finalizing a $575 million antitrust lawsuit settlement reached in December 2019. In a news release issued about the filing, Becerra stated: “We are in the midst of a global pandemic, so it is more important than ever that we make health care more accessible and affordable for patients who need it.” (Anderson, 6/25)

Piedmont Healthcare has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that claimed the system overbilled Medicare and Medicaid for cardiac care and illegally paid kickbacks to practitioners who referred heart patients to its hospitals, the Justice Department announced Thursday. To get higher payments from the federal health programs, Piedmont over a five-year period admitted thousands of patients to its hospitals for cardiac procedures that could have been performed on an outpatient basis, according to the original complaint filed in federal court in Atlanta. (Hart and Teegardin, 6/25)

A former executive of an Addison surgical company that was bought by Tenet Healthcare is claiming in a federal lawsuit that he was fired after trying to “blow the whistle” on attempts to hide a significant financial liability from stockholders. (Krause, 6/25)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas and its president Dr. Dan McCoy have parted ways, according to the company. In a statement, Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp. said it’s pursuing a “different leadership approach” in Texas and confirmed McCoy is no longer with the company. HCSC executive Jeff Tikkanen will take on McCoy’s role as interim president until a permanent replacement is named, according to the company. (DiFurio, 6/25)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday broadened its warning about who is at risk of developing severe disease from Covid-19 infection, suggesting even younger people who are obese or have other health conditions can become seriously ill if they contract the virus. The new advice, timed to influence behavior going into the July 4 weekend, came as CDC Director Robert Redfield acknowledged serology testing the agency has conducted suggests about 20 million Americans, or roughly 6% of the population, has contracted Covid-19. Redfield said for every person who tests positive, another 10 cases have likely gone undiagnosed. (Branswell, 6/25)

Younger people are making up a growing percentage of new coronavirus cases in cities and states where the virus is now surging, a trend that has alarmed public health officials and prompted renewed pleas for masks and social distancing. In Arizona, where drive-up sites are overwhelmed by people seeking coronavirus tests, people ages 20 to 44 account for nearly half of all cases. In Florida, which breaks records for new cases nearly every day, the median age of residents testing positive for the virus has dropped to 35, down from 65 in March. (Bosman and Mervosh, 6/25)

Invisible outbreaks sprang up everywhere. The United States ignored the warning signs. We reconstructed how the epidemic spun out of control. (6/25)

The natural response to a disaster is to at first believe that it is not happening. The Covid-19 pandemic, we are learning, is a disaster playing out in slow motion — when every moment is a little bit worse than one would expect. In the United States, the result is a grim sense of déjà vu. (Herper, 6/25)

Scientists are monitoring the virus that causes COVID-19 for genetic changes that could make a vaccine ineffective. But so far, they're not seeing any. "There's nothing alarming about the way the coronavirus is mutating or the speed at which it's mutating," says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. "We don't think this will be a problem [for vaccines] in the short term." (Hamilton, 6/26)

Amanda Ponzar knew she had gained weight from all her baking while sheltering at home in Alexandria, Va., but she hadn’t realized how much until she ordered shorts online from Walmart Inc. They had an elastic waist but were still too tight. “You need smaller thighs to wear those,” her 12-year-old son told her. She is now buying bigger sizes as a stopgap until her old clothes fit. (Kapner, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: Packed Bars Serve Up New Rounds Of COVID Contagion 

As states ease their lockdowns, bars are emerging as fertile breeding grounds for the coronavirus. They create a risky cocktail of tight quarters, young adults unbowed by the fear of illness and, in some instances, proprietors who don’t enforce crowd limits and social distancing rules. Public health authorities have identified bars as the locus of outbreaks in Louisiana, Florida, Wyoming and Idaho. Last weekend, the Texas alcohol licensing board suspended the liquor licenses of 17 bars after undercover agents observed crowds flouting emergency rules that required patrons to keep a safe distance from one another and limit tavern occupancy. (Rau and Lawrence, 6/25)

Video telemedicine took off earlier this year as the coronavirus paused in-person doctor visits. Earl Egner missed that trend. The 84-year-old diabetic and cancer survivor has no computer or cellphone. Instead, he relies on a form of communication older than himself — the telephone — to talk to doctors as he stays hunkered down in his Somerset, Virginia, home. (Garcia Cano and Murphy, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: Seniors In Low-Income Housing Live In Fear Of COVID Infection 

Davetta Brooks, 75, who has heart failure, a fractured hip and macular degeneration, is afraid. Conditions in her low-income senior building on Chicago’s Near West Side — the Congressman George W. Collins Apartments — are “deplorable,” she said. Residents are not wearing masks or gloves to guard against the coronavirus, she said: “They’re touching everything on the elevator, in the laundry room. And anybody and everybody’s relatives and friends are coming in and out with no scrutiny.” (Graham, 6/26)

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise sharply in states without strict mandates on face coverings, Vermont stands out among its neighbors. The rest of the Northeast requires at least some customers of businesses to wear masks. Several states have what amount to across-the-board requirements. (Danforth, 6/25)

An overwhelming majority of Americans say they've worn a face mask in public in the last week, as the coronavirus pandemic persists and infections reach new highs in more than a dozen states, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds. Nearly nine in 10 Americans (89%) who left their home in the last week said they wore a face mask or a face covering, compared to only 11% who said they did not. (Karson, 6/25)

After Gov. Roy Cooper issued a mandatory mask requirement across North Carolina on Wednesday amid rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state, several sheriffs publicly said they would not enforce the mandate when it goes into effect on Friday. The sheriff of Sampson County said the rule is "not only unconstitutional, but unenforceable." The sheriff of Iredell County echoed that sentiment. (Deliso, 6/25)

Riley Darby-McClure, a medical student at University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, understands what it's like to experience the healthcare system as a transgender individual. When LGBTQ care was only briefly discussed during the first two years of medical school, they were concerned. "It was important to me going to medical school to make sure that my peers and I were getting educated" on the LGBTQ community, Darby-McClure said. There is evidence that shows LGBTQ individuals face discrimination when seeking healthcare. Some providers deny transgender individuals care and physicians and nurses have a history of asking inappropriate questions or making wrong assumptions about healthcare needs for LGBTQ persons. (Castellucci, 6/25)

If the country wants to crank up its Covid-19 testing capacity into the millions — the range that could be required for safer reopenings of businesses and universities — experts say it’s time to ramp up a technique known as “pool testing.” It’s a simple construct: combine — or pool — samples from multiple people and test them as a group for the coronavirus. It’s a way to dramatically and efficiently increase volume, to churn through what you expect to be a lot of negative samples at a fast clip. (Joseph, 6/26)

Mounting evidence out of the United Kingdom provides more insight into how COVID-19 affects children, further confirming what researchers have been saying for months: Children are not as adversely affected by COVID-19 as adults. A newly published study in Lancet found that children, including infants, generally have mild symptoms of COVID-19, and even those who develop the disease severely enough to warrant intensive care unit admission are unlikely to die. (Adigun, 6/25)

As hospitals in some areas struggle and ICU beds run short, recent events like bar crawls and family gatherings may have contributed to the increase in coronavirus cases across the country, experts say... "Every activity that involves contact with others has some degree of risk right now," according to a press release issued by the CDC on Thursday. (Carrega, 6/25)

Chilblains—which in this pandemic have been referred to as "COVID toes"—are not a sign of COVID-19 infection but rather a result of sedentary lifestyles linked to community lockdown measures and a lack of warm footwear, two small studies published today in JAMA Dermatology have found. In a study involving 31 patients with chilblains, 11 of them teenagers, from Apr 10 to 17 at a Brussels hospital, none tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) or had antibodies against the virus on serologic testing. (6/25)

When it comes to COVID-19 and pregnancy, there is a lot we don't know. Now, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and a recent multi-center study on pregnant women with COVID-19 have provided a little bit more clarity. (Baldwin, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: Lost On The Frontline 

America’s health care workers are dying. In some states, medical personnel account for as many as 20% of known coronavirus cases. They tend to patients in hospitals, treating them, serving them food and cleaning their rooms. Others at risk work in nursing homes or are employed as home health aides.“Lost on the Frontline,” a collaboration between KHN and The Guardian, has identified 697 such workers who likely died of COVID-19 after helping patients during the pandemic. (6/26)

Some states with spiking COVID-19 cases are losing control of their outbreaks, warn public health experts who say the states must take strong actions now to slow the virus’s spread. “It’s going to be difficult now to get this under control,” Scott Gottlieb, the former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, said Thursday on CNBC. (Hellmann, 6/25)

For the second consecutive day, Florida has reported more than 5,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state. Thursday’s rise in reported cases was lower than Wednesday’s record-setting mark, but it’s only the second time the state has crossed the 5,000-case mark in a day. In total, the state has reported more than 114,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and at least 3,327 coronavirus-related deaths. (Schneider and Lush, 6/25)

A drive-up testing site equipped for several hundred people in West Phoenix was swarmed on Saturday by about 1,000 people, leaving some baking in their cars for hours. A nearby testing station has already reached capacity for this weekend, appointments vanishing within minutes. Hospitals are filling up. Restaurants are again shutting down, more than a month after Arizona reopened its economy under the mantra “Return Stronger.” (Duda, Stanley-Becker and Janes, 6/25)

Gas tax revenue plummeted this spring, income taxes won’t rebound anytime soon and some states are offering a property tax holiday because people can’t pay during the pandemic. But so-called sin taxes are rolling in as liquor stores boom, marijuana sales continue, vapers vape and smokers smoke. While not a huge portion of state tax revenue, sin taxes are a relative bright spot in a dark revenue picture. And some states are considering increasing those levies to make up some of the lost pandemic revenue. (Povich, 6/26)

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday declared a budget emergency in the most populous U.S. state, blaming expenses and the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Declaring a budget emergency allows the state to tap into its rainy day fund. California anticipates a $54.3 billion budget deficit due to costs and a drop in revenue linked to the pandemic.(Bernstein, 6/26)

Kaiser Health News: Watch: Fauci, Other Health Officials Weigh California’s COVID Response 

Samantha Young, California Healthline’s California politics correspondent, helped moderate a discussion hosted by the Sacramento Press Club about California’s response to the coronavirus crisis. The discussion touched on the reopening of the economy, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order requiring Californians to wear face coverings and whether hospitals are ready to handle a surge in cases as infections continue to rise statewide. (6/25)

Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration rolled out its contact tracing program to great fanfare, promising it would help ensure New York City’s re-emergence from the crush of the coronavirus. But things didn’t go as planned and after spending a week on the defensive City Hall is now seeking to shift the perception of a lackluster program cursed by a turf war between the mayor and his health department. (Goldenberg and Durkin, 6/25)

Three sheriffs in North Carolina have declared that they will not be enforcing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's statewide mask mandate despite a growing number of coronavirus cases. Cooper issued an executive order on Wednesday that will require all people in the state to wear a mask in public, where physical distancing of 6 feet from other people isn't possible. (Kim, 6/25)

As the number of COVID-19 cases continue to rise sharply in states without strict mandates on face coverings, Vermont stands out among its neighbors. The rest of the Northeast requires at least some customers of businesses to wear masks. Several states have what amount to across-the-board requirements. (Danforth, 6/25)

Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said Thursday that he’s creating an equity and inclusion Cabinet-level office to combat racial injustice and support marginalized communities in the city. Speaking during a briefing outside City Hall, Walsh said the office will tackle “barriers to equity” and also work on issues such as health care access, women’s advancement, and supporting immigrants and refugees. (Andersen and McDonald, 6/25)

The Baker administration is planning to work with schools and municipalities to get more people to get a flu shot this fall, when cold and flu season is poised to overlap with ongoing efforts to fight COVID-19. Word of the developing strategy was tucked into a memo that Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley sent to school superintendents detailing safety protocols for reopening schools. (Young, 6/25)

New jobless claims in Maine have fallen below the peak seen during the Great Recession as more Mainers return to work amid relaxing coronavirus restrictions. Mainers submitted about 5,600 new jobless claims to the state for the week of June 14 to June 20, according to new data released by the Maine Department of Labor on Thursday morning. Of those, about 2,900 were for traditional state benefits, while another 2,700 were for benefits under Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a new federal program approved by Congress as part of a coronavirus-relief package in late March. (Burns, 6/25)

The coronavirus has exposed disparities in healthcare among people of color, and tribal communities are among the hardest hit. Montana is trying to change that with free mass testing. (Siegler, 6/25)

The spike in COVID-19 across Montana, and in Yellowstone County, has put a strain on health officials in conducting contact tracing, but there will be no further restrictions implemented locally. During a press conference at RiverStone Health Thursday, Yellowstone County Health Officer John Felton asked for more vigilance on the part of residents in preventing any further spread of the virus as the state reported its largest single-day increase in cases to date. (Hamby, 6/25)

With Jefferson Parish coronavirus cases growing at more than double the rate of neighboring New Orleans over the last month, President Cynthia Lee Sheng on Thursday warned parish business and restaurant industry leaders that the uptick could trigger the return of tighter restrictions and urged them to take the lead on safety measures like masks and distancing. (Roberts III and Adelson, 6/25)

The state of Georgia is juggling three crises: a rising number of COVID-19 cases, problems with voting access as the general election approaches, and the killings of two Black men, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks. Georgia hit a record high of new confirmed cases this week. But Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan says he stands by the decision to begin opening up the state at the end of April. (Silva, 6/25)

A judge said she will “disregard” the U.S. Department of Justice’s statement in support of a lawsuit challenging Hawaii’s quarantine, imposed on arriving travelers in an attempt to protect against the spread of the coronavirus. The Justice Department’s statement said the quarantine discriminates against out-of-state travelers, even though it applies to both visitors and returning residents. (Sinco Kelleher, 6/25)

The unexpected move by U.S. District Court Judge Jill Otake in Honolulu appears to be the first serious judicial resistance to the drive that Attorney General William Barr announced in April to scrutinize state and local lockdown measures aimed at containing the coronavirus. (Gerstein, 6/25)

You can finally go to Hawaii without quarantining -- if you've tested negative for Covid-19. Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Hawaii has been serious about keeping the virus out. Gov. David Ige established a 14-day mandatory quarantine for visitors and returning residents on March 26 and has since extended the quarantine through July 31. On Wednesday, Ige announced an amendment to the mandatory quarantine that likely has visitors, returning residents and local businesses smiling for the first time in three months. (Fletcher, 6/25)

Leaders of Texas Medical Center hospitals said they’re ready to handle a COVID-19 surge as Gov. Greg Abbott banned elective procedures in four counties, including Harris. The hospitals’ message, delivered at a virtual news conference, was a change in tone from a letter the executives published 18 hours earlier, warning an alarming increase in hospitalizations could soon overwhelm the system. (Despart and Wallance, 6/25)

Parkland Memorial Hospital opened a third ward for COVID-19 patients on Thursday, adding 48 beds to help absorb a continuing rise in coronavirus cases.UT Southwestern Medical Center said it was also expanding space dedicated to COVID-19. (Schnurman and Jimenez, 6/25)

Dallas-area hospitals on Thursday told city officials that they have the capacity to handle the rapidly increasingly number of people suffering from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. As a result, the makeshift hospital at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will go unused, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said on Twitter. (Garcia, 6/25)

As hospitals in some areas struggle and ICU beds run short, recent events like bar crawls and family gatherings may have contributed to the increase in coronavirus cases across the country, experts say... "Every activity that involves contact with others has some degree of risk right now," according to a press release issued by the CDC on Thursday. (Carrega, 6/25)

Eighteen members of a Texas family have tested positive for COVID-19, according to multiple reports. The infections began after one relative, who was unknowingly sick with coronavirus, came into contact with seven family members at a birthday party in Carrollton, Texas, on May 30, according to area outlet WFAA. Those seven relatives spread the virus to 10 others through interactions. (Pitofsky, 6/25)

New emergency rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in licensed child care centers were enacted Thursday by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission . The change comes nearly two weeks after the commission moved to terminate previous emergency restrictions on child care. Since June 12, providers have not been required to screen for illness. (Dellinger, 6/25)

Four Dallas teenagers noticed something about the outpouring of support for health care workers treating COVID-19 patients: No one had reached out to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in east Oak Cliff. In short order, they created Serve Our Heroes, a nonprofit that on April 10 began delivering 75 warm meals daily to nurses and support staff working in the facility’s COVID-19 ward. (Haber, /26)

One day after an independent investigation into the coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home revealed "utterly baffling" medical decisions by the home's leadership team and substantial oversight failures by the state's Department of Veteran Services (DVS), Gov. Charlie Baker announced a series of reforms he plans to implement. His list includes nine recommendations from the report, plus three others from his administration. He said at a press conference on Thursday that he hopes the recommendations "can find their way into state law shortly." (Wasser, 6/25)

In their gut-wrenching report on the state-run Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, investigators pointed to a clear gap in the facility’s management: Its superintendent was not licensed to run a nursing home, nor was he required to be. But in detailing several proposals Thursday to overhaul supervision of the facility, Governor Charlie Baker did not recommend rewriting state law to change that standard. (Stout and Krueger, 6/25)

By the time the Georgia National Guard arrived in late April to offer COVID-19 testing at Westbury Medical Care and Rehab in Jackson, the coronavirus had proven to be a deadly force inside nursing homes. Jennifer Vasil, Westbury’s director, was doing everything she could to protect the home’s vulnerable seniors after their first resident tested positive in early April. Westbury closed its doors to visitors in March and scrambled to get as much PPE as possible. Vasil had a system in place to separate residents, hoping to shield those showing no signs of infection. (Teegardin, 6/25)

The muffled, gagging sounds in the background of the phone call filled Monette Hayoun with dread. Was her severely disabled 85-year-old brother, Meyer, choking on his food? Was he slowly suffocating like the Holocaust survivor who died a few months earlier in another of the care home’s bedrooms, a chunk of breakfast baguette lodged in his throat? (Leicester, 6/26)

Mayo Clinic has partnered with Medically Home to launch a hospital-at-home model that they plan to scale across the country. The Rochester, Minn.-based health system has built on Boston-based Medically Home's technology and network of in-home services, and paired it with its clinical expertise and integrated model. The aim is to deliver more affordable and efficient high-acuity care to patients typically bound to the hospital for infusions, skilled nursing, lab and imaging work, and behavioral counseling, among other services. They plan to partner with community organizations and regional suppliers to round out their staffing and supply chain needs, some of which are as basic as reliable WiFi connections needed to relay vital signs. (Kacik, 6/25)

A new survey reveals a wide range of serious psychiatric and neurological complications tied to Covid-19 — including stroke, psychosis, and a dementia-like syndrome. The study underscores how aggressively the coronavirus can attack beyond the lungs, and the risk the disease can pose to younger adults. (Joseph, 6/25)

Hospitalized COVID-19 patients may be more likely to develop clotting in their major organs, which researchers say may explain why some with the virus suffer heart attacks despite having no prior coronary damage. A series of 18 autopsies performed on NYU Winthrop Hospital patients who tested positive for COVID-19 discovered abnormal clotting and deposits of cells and proteins that cause clots in small blood vessels in their hearts, kidneys, lungs and livers. The findings were published Thursday in Lancet. (Johnson, 6/25)

Three research institutions in Seattle have joined forces to study how Alzheimer's disease takes root in the brain. The consortium will create a new research center at the Allen Institute for Brain Science to study tissue from brains donated by people who died with Alzheimer's. UW Medicine and the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Group are also part of the effort, which will be funded by a five-year $40.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health. (Hamilton, 6/25)

More people are seeking mental health services amid the pandemic, which will test the limits of the already-stretched sector and significantly increase healthcare costs if left unaddressed, a new report shows. Around 12% of consumers with employer-based insurance sought help for mental health as a result of COVID-19, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute survey from April 28 to May 8. (Kacik, 6/25)

The need for mental health support is more evident than ever, especially among Black Americans, say people who study and experience the burden of racism. People of color were already dealing with heavy loads from a pandemic that continues to claim a greater proportion of Black, Latino and Native American lives and a greater share of jobs. Now there's the emotional reckoning following George Floyd's murder, which has stirred up a kind of collective trauma. (Noguchi, 6/25)

When it comes to suicide prevention, even a little bit of help can go a long way. That's according to a recent study, published in Jama Psychiatry, which found that brief encounters with a health care professional may lower a person's risk of attempting suicide for up to a year. (Safai, 6/26)

The Covid-19 crisis has washed across the United States like a tidal wave. And experts say it has set the stage for dangerous ripple effects, with Americans suffering from a decline in conditions they are failing to have treated because of the pandemic. “There’s a huge, massive wave coming up behind us, because people have delayed vital care in terms of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease,” said Garth Graham, vice president of community health at CVS Health, speaking at a virtual Milken Institute conference this week. The same underlying health conditions, he added, can exacerbate the severity of Covid-19 — particularly if left unchecked. (Keshavan, 6/25)

Kaiser Health News: Sweeps Of Homeless Camps Run Counter To COVID Guidance And Pile On Health Risks

Melody Lewis lives like a nomad in the heart of downtown.Poking her head out of her green tent on a recent June day, the 57-year-old pointed a few blocks away to the place where city crews picked up her tent from a sidewalk median earlier this spring and replaced it with landscaping rocks, fencing and signs warning trespassers to keep out. (Rodgers, 6/26)

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that pregnant women with COVID-19 are at increased risk for hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and mechanical ventilation but not death. Researchers studied the disease surveillance data of 8,207 pregnant women infected with the novel coronavirus and 83,205 nonpregnant women aged 15 to 44 years from Jan 22 to Jun 7 to determine whether the immunologic and physiologic changes of pregnancy put them at risk for more severe outcomes. (Van Beusekom, 6/25)

Disney is changing the story of its Splash Mountain flume ride. Out: the controversial 1946 movie “Song of the South,” which the company refuses to even show because of content that has been decried as racist. In: “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s first animated film featuring a black princess.“ The new concept is inclusive – one that all of our guests can connect with and be inspired by, and it speaks to the diversity of the millions of people who visit our parks each year,” Disneyland Resort public relations director Michael Ramirez said in a blog post. (Sampson, 6/25)

Since Pennsylvania ordered the closure of nonessential businesses, people have been asking Trish Wellenbach if she will change the name of the Philadelphia children’s museum she runs. When global health experts are advising the world to avoid touching, is the Please Touch Museum sending the wrong message? Wellenbach isn’t budging on this point. “We are going to stick with the name,” said the museum’s president and chief executive. But the institution will make a number of modifications that will allow it to comply with safety protocols without sacrificing the principles of its founder, a Montessori educator from the 1970s. (Sachs, 6/25)

Over the past three months, parents around the world have struggled to cope with the physical, emotional, and mental demands of illness, job loss, and uncertainty. For many of us, fulfilling our most basic responsibilities—providing for and protecting our children—has come to feel overwhelming, if not impossible. For parent-health care workers treating COVID-infected patients, the pressures and anxieties are magnified exponentially. If they could afford the considerable financial cost, some, like Baci, chose to live apart from their families. (Mnookin, 6/25)

Tens of thousands of residents are beginning medical careers as a new wave of coronavirus patients threaten to overwhelm hospitals and the doctors who care for them. It’s not quite what these new doctors signed up for — or expected — when they entered medical school four years ago. But they are providing reinforcements to a stretched corps of health care providers desperate for help as cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, surge in Texas. (Wu, 6/25)

President Trump again referred to COVID-19 as the "Kung flu” in Arizona on Tuesday night. The president's press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended his use of the term, saying he was simply characterizing the virus's origin. But others, including those working in health care, say these racial slurs are impacting the Asian American community. (Young and Hagan, 6/25)

As the coronavirus spread early on, more than half of California hospitals had just two weeks of critical N95 masks, though they were already experiencing hiccups in the supply chain, public records show. Now, as the Bay Area reopens, some hospitals and other health care facilities in the region are still fighting to keep enough personal protective equipment, or PPE, at the ready to shield workers against COVID-19. (Peterson, Stark and Pickoff-White, 6/25)

Alameda County has aggressively stockpiled protective gear to support all types of health care facilities, but no two counties have handled the challenge of obtaining PPE the same way. Santa Clara County has distributed around 4 million pieces of equipment so far, according to Dr. Jennifer Tong, who directs the health care surge branch for the county’s Emergency Operations Center. (Peterson and Stark, 6/25)

San Francisco, Redwood City and parts of San Mateo County have one of the lowest unemployment rates in California, 12.6% according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The area also had one of the lowest drops in employment. But those numbers mask the stark divide that’s only growing between people who can easily transfer to working from home, and those who can’t. (Sparling, 6/25)

After preliminary release of a study found that a cheap steroid reduced deaths by a third in hospitalized Covid-19 patients, hospitals across the U.S. saw a surge in demand for the drug, and there is a shortage of several injectable versions. Specifically, hospital orders for dexamethasone, a commonly used and inexpensive corticosteroid, spiked 183% on June 16, when study researchers released top-line data that suggested the decades-old therapy could possibly improve the odds of survival in the sickest patients. The study was run by scientists at the University of Oxford in the U.K. (Silverman, 6/25)

Heather Adams, a rising junior at American University, recently came to terms with a new reality: she won’t be heading back to campus in Washington, D.C. this fall. Though her school announced precautions to help keep students safe from the novel coronavirus, Adams said she wasn't convinced. “It feels like they are opening up irresponsibly and for their own benefit to get more money and I don't feel like they're really taking our safety into account as much as they need to,” Adams said. (Romero and Rubin, 6/26)

The presidents of three of Virginia's largest public universities have asked the state to set aside $200 million to increase testing for the novel coronavirus on college campuses and elsewhere, arguing that the funding will be crucial to resume higher education and other activities in the coming year. “In our shared view, expanded testing and the associated costs are unavoidable. Prompt action will allow both for more effective implementation of such testing and for more efficient management of the potential costs,” James E. Ryan of the University of Virginia, Michael Rao of Virginia Commonwealth University and Timothy Sands of Virginia Tech wrote on June 8 in a letter to state Health and Human Resources Secretary Daniel Carey. (Schneider and Anderson, 6/25)

Students will return to Howard University in August for a mix of in-person and online classes, the school announced Thursday, but campus life will be far from normal. Face masks must be worn in public settings and around others, dorm rooms will be limited to singles and doubles, and ­classes with more than 30 students will mostly meet online, Howard President Wayne A.I. Frederick said in a message to the campus, where 9,000 students attend. Instead of buffet-style dining in the cafeteria, students will receive to-go or delivered meals. Most events will be conducted virtually to prevent large gatherings. (Lumpkin, 6/25)

Across grade levels and campuses, more than 48 percent of the 2,324 parents who responded to a survey said they wouldn’t send their kids back to in-person classes on campus. Those fears were reported June 18, just as the Houston region began seeing an enormous spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, setting records for both data points every day for the past two weeks, and before Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday suspended elective surgical procedures in Harris County and Texas’ other large metropolitan areas. (Webb, 6/25)

A new drug from Zogenix that treats a rare and severe type of epilepsy was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday — a decision that clears the way for the company to compete against a recently approved medicine derived from marijuana. The Zogenix drug, called Fintepla, is a liquid solution administered to children born with Dravet syndrome, a severe type of epilepsy that causes frequent and prolonged seizures starting within the first year of life. Approximately 250 children in the U.S. are born with Dravet each year, and it affects about 20,000 people overall. (Feuerstein, 6/25)

Novartis (NVS) agreed to pay more than $345 million to resolve criminal charges brought by federal authorities of using various former and existing subsidiaries to bribe health care providers in different countries to boost prescriptions for its medicines. In doing so, the company becomes the latest in a growing number of drug makers to have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. (Silverman, 6/25)

When the coronavirus first hit Europe, the continent was ill-equipped to detect or contain it. Now, many governments and health experts believe so much has changed that a crisis on the scale of this spring’s probably won’t be repeated. More than a month since Europe began lifting its lockdowns, new coronavirus infections are continuing to decline in most countries, despite concern about some new clusters, including among meat-processing workers in Germany. (Stancati and Douglas, 6/25)

At the Bairro do Zambujal housing project on the outskirts of Lisbon, the behavior of residents offers clues to why this part of Portugal has become a hot spot for new COVID-19 cases and how government efforts to stamp out the new coronavirus are being frustrated. A lot of people in the project that houses about 6,000 people disregard the recommendation from authorities to wear masks, says Maria Felicidade Nunes, president of the local residents’ association. (Hatton, 6/26)

Mexico pushed past 25,000 reported coronavirus deaths and 200,000 confirmed cases Thursday, as the treasury secretary said he tested positive and would self-isolate while working from home. The Health Department reported 6,104 newly confirmed infections, one of the highest 24-hour counts so far. That brought the country’s confirmed cases to 202,951. (6/26)

Russia on Friday reported 6,800 new coronavirus cases, the first daily rise below 7,000 since late April, taking its nationwide tally to 620,794.The country’s coronavirus response centre said 176 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 8,781. (6/26)

Japan’s host clubs, an offshoot of Japan’s century-old industry of hostess bars catering mostly to older men, have become a hot spot for new coronavirus infections, and, despite their relatively small number, have been singled out by Tokyo’s governor as a problem area. On Wednesday, Tokyo reported 55 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily count since early May, with 12 cases attributed to infections at host clubs. Japan has been one of the world’s success stories in suppressing Covid-19 by discouraging close contact in confined spaces and aggressively tracing those who have spent time with infected people. The clubs have proven problematic on both counts, because it is hard to be flirtatious at a distance and visitors tend not to want to be tracked down later. (Gale and Inada, 6/25)

Doctors in Nigeria have gone on strike, demanding face masks and pay that reflects the rising risk. Hospital staffers in Guinea-Bissau had to shutter a treatment ward after nearly everyone on the floor got sick. The coronavirus pandemic has tightened its grip on much of Africa, where reported cases have more than tripled over the last month, jeopardizing overstretched medical teams as the need for care soars. (Paquette, 6/25)

Like many countries, Norway ordered all gyms to close in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. But unlike any other nation, Norway also funded a rigorous study to determine whether the closings were really necessary. It is apparently the first and only randomized trial to test whether people who work out at gyms with modest restrictions are at greater risk of infection from the coronavirus than those who do not. The tentative answer after two weeks: no. (Kolata, 6/25)

When Pradeep Kumar’s wife was admitted to a government-run hospital in India’s capital for treatment of COVID-19, it took two days before she was able to see a doctor. “There are six other women in her room and everyone is frustrated,” he said outside New Delhi’s LNJP Hospital. “They’re behaving like they’re leprosy patients.” (Schmall, 6/26)

While China moved closer to containing a fresh outbreak in Beijing, the coronavirus took a stronger hold elsewhere, including the United States, where surging infections across southern states have highlighted the risks of reopening economies without effective treatment or vaccines. Another record daily increase in India on Friday pushed the country’s caseload toward half a million, and other countries with large populations like Indonesia, Pakistan and Mexico grappled with large caseloads and strained health care systems. (Tong-Hyung, 6/26)

The second-largest, second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history was declared over Thursday, almost two years after the first case was confirmed. An outbreak of the Ebola virus, which causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever, emerged in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 2018 and rapidly spread across three provinces, infecting 3,470 people -- 28% of them children -- and killing 2,277 of them, according to health officials. (Winsor, 6/25)

For a sweeping and much-lauded New York Times article on how the pandemic may play out over the next year, veteran science reporter Donald G. McNeil, Jr. consulted nearly two dozen experts in public health, medicine, epidemiology, and history. Initially, I only scanned the nearly 5,000-word story, and the names of experts sluiced by as I picked out predictive nuggets on lockdowns, death tolls, and vaccines. But after several women scientists called out McNeil for bias towards men on Twitter, I went back for a closer look. Sure enough, only two of 19 experts cited were women: Luciana Borio, a former director of medical and biodefense preparedness at the National Security Council, and Michele Barry, director of the Center for Innovation and Global Health at Stanford University. McNeil included quotes from both that mention family. (Carr, 6/22)

“This is going to be the rest of my life. They want me to die here.” Demel Dukes, a 41-year-old Detroiter and father of four, was sentenced to life in prison 18 years ago. For the past five, he’s been at the Chippewa Correctional Facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where hushed brick walls divide more than 1,000 beds inside from peaceable rural terrain outside. Just east on I-80, his own name happens to mark the landscape: Dukes Lake is half a mile away, nine acres of freshwater, popular for fishing. To him, it might as well be in another state. (Clark, 6/25)

It's 11:37 p.m. and the pattern shows no signs of shifting. At 1:12 am, it’s more of the same. Thumb down, thumb up. Twitter, Instagram, and—if you’re feeling particularly wrought/masochistic—Facebook. Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic left a great many people locked down in their homes in early March, the evening ritual has been codifying: Each night ends the way the day began, with an endless scroll through social media in a desperate search for clarity. To those who have become purveyors of the perverse exercise, like The New York Times’ Kevin Roose, this habit has become known as doomsurfing, or “falling into deep, morbid rabbit holes filled with coronavirus content, agitating myself to the point of physical discomfort, erasing any hope of a good night’s sleep.” For those who prefer their despair be portable, the term is doomscrolling, and as protests over racial injustice and police brutality following the death of George Floyd have joined the Covid-19 crisis in the news cycle, it’s only gotten more intense. The constant stream of news and social media never ends. (Watercutter, 6/25)

The psychiatrist was bald, with kind eyes, a silver goatee and the air of exhaustion that follows a person who works hard in a difficult field. It was March 2019, and having let an old prescription expire months earlier, I had gone to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Manhattan — my first time at a V.A. — hoping to get antidepressants. In a small, sparsely decorated office, the doctor and I faced each other across a wide desk. He told me about various V.A. programs — counseling, group therapy, a veterans’ yoga class, each accompanied by a flier — and described at length the V.A.’s crisis hotline. I appreciated his care, but I wasn’t there to break any new emotional ground; I really just wanted a prescription and to be on my way. I answered briskly as he worked through the questions any mental health worker asks you on a first visit. Did I have a history of anxiety or depression? Yes. Had I had thoughts of hurting myself or of suicide? Not really. Did anyone in my family have a history of mental health issues? (McCormick, 6/24)

As a lyme patient, Jennifer Crystal has a lifetime of experience dealing with severe illness. So when the 42-year-old writer and patient advocate came down with what appeared to be a mild case of food poisoning in early March, she cancelled her weekend ski trip to New Hampshire, but otherwise shrugged it off. However, when the dizziness gave way to a fever, and vomiting became a racking cough, Crystal began to worry. Her illness began just as Massachusetts declared a state of emergency due to Covid-19, and because her use of public transit put her in contact with so many people each day, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was becoming another coronavirus statistic. (Arnold, 6/17)

To the silver salesmen, moms must have seemed like an ideal demographic. Last year, Candy Keane, a 44-year-old lifestyle blogger in Florida, heard about colloidal silver—silver particles suspended in liquid—from a mom’s group she’s part of. A company called My Doctor Suggests was sending out free samples of its products, including colloidal-silver solution, lozenges, lotion, and soap, to bloggers who might be willing to review the products online. Keane spoke with Doug Godkin, the vice president of My Doctor Suggests, who she says assured her that taking the silver was as harmless as taking a vitamin, and that the solution could help with all kinds of ailments. She remembers him saying it would be safe to drink up to a bottle a day. (Khazan, 6/22)

The Sun Belt seemed immune this spring as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the Northeast. The Republican governors of Texas, Arizona and Florida began to let businesses reopen in early May. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas visited the White House for a thumbs-up from President Trump on May 7. “Texas is opening up, and a lot of places are opening up. And we want to do it, and I am not even sure that we have a choice,” the president said. “You know . . . this country can’t stay closed and locked down for years.” On Thursday, Mr. Abbott paused the reopening, and none too soon. The Sun Belt that opened in May is being convulsed by a surge of infections and hospitalizations. Texas had an average of 1,043 new cases a day when Mr. Abbott visited the White House; on Wednesday, Texas posted its worst day so far for new cases, with 5,551. (6/25)

Well, that was both alarming and slightly embarrassing. Gov. Doug Ducey has finally figured out that Arizona is in deep trouble. “COVID-19 is widespread in Arizona …” he said on Thursday. “It’s growing and it’s growing fast across all age groups and demographics.” “The rate of the spread of this virus is unacceptable,” he said, “and it’s time for us to step up our actions and our personal responsibilities.” “This virus,” he said, “is everywhere.” As opposed to, say, Tuesday when … it wasn’t? (Laurie Roberts, 6/25)

The time has passed for Gov. Greg Abbott to simply hope that Texans will voluntarily socially distance and wear masks. Coronavirus infections exploded after Memorial Day when too many of us broke those common sense health safety measures. July 4th could be a statewide catastrophe if we don’t move aggressively now to reduce the spread. Like Abbott, we were hopeful that a careful, staged reopening could balance the need to revive business with protecting us from a second surge in coronavirus cases. A spike in infections following widespread failure by individuals to adhere to basic safe practices of masking and social distancing have demonstrated we came up short as a state. (6/26)

After weeks of touting “abundant hospital capacity” as the primary data-driven rationale for reopening Texas, it is time for Gov. Greg Abbott to take immediate action. There is no time to wait a few weeks to see how things play out, as he suggested on Wednesday.News that the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical complex, is at 98 percent of normal capacity and could exceed its limits at any moment, should be a flashing red light for the governor to reverse the dangerous course he has been pursuing. To be clear, Houston is not experiencing the death rates seen in the New York area at its peak, but the leading indicators point to a looming crisis. (6/25)

There is a lot of discussion about reopening the economy, and rightly so. For an economist, however, the argument that favors caution is straightforward. We have made considerable investments, at great expense, and with longer-run benefits in mind. We don’t want to squander those for uncertain short-term gains. Millions of people have filed for unemployment benefits in the past few months in the United States. Probably more than 15% of the labor force is currently unemployed. The International Monetary Fund predicts that U.S. gross domestic product will decrease at least 5.9% in 2020. We are in a deep recession, probably the most severe since the Great Depression. (Peter Debaere, 6/26)

Texas is one of the worst-hit states in the country for COVID-19. On Tuesday, the state broke its record high of 5,000 new infections in a single day. But as we know, everything is bigger in Texas — the next day, the state bested itself by racking up 6,200 new infections. It’s a disaster that Gov. Greg Abbott needs to take full responsibility for. His decision to “temporarily pause” reopening as of Thursday morning, for instance, is meaningless. Texas is already in its last phase of reopening, and Abbott has no desire to reverse the fact that all businesses have been allowed to operate at 50% capacity since early June. (Katherine Hu, 6/25)

The Texas Medical Center in Houston is the largest health care complex in the world, so vast it describes itself, accurately, as a “medical city.” About 106,000 people work there, traversing 50 million square feet of property. If TMC were a stand-alone business district, it would be the eighth largest in the U.S. TMC isn’t a mere business district, however. It’s a conglomeration of more than 50 medical institutions, all nonprofits, including 21 hospitals, eight academic and research centers, four medical schools, seven nursing schools, three public health organizations, two pharmacy schools and a dental school. It is home to the world’s largest children’s hospital and the world’s largest cancer hospital. It treats eight million patients annually. Covid-19 may soon overwhelm TMC. (Timothy L. O'Brien, 6/25)

When Lamar Alexander ran for governor of Tennessee in 1978, his wife confronted him with a question: “Why?” Although there are 55 governors in the U.S. (one for each state and the five populated territories), they tend, as Mr. Alexander discovered, to be visible only as glorified greeters for visiting delegations, as lobbyists in Washington, or “leaping out of helicopters and pulling the cords on those loud guns at the National Guard camps.” That is, until the coronavirus. On March 13, President Trump declared the Covid-19 outbreak a national emergency under the terms of the 1976 National Emergencies Act. But when he claimed “total authority” to determine when emergency measures could be ramped down, he encountered fierce blowback from governors, who insisted Washington doesn’t have absolute power over the states. The day of the governors had arrived. (Allen C. Guelzo, 6/26)

Earlier this year much of America went through hell as the nation struggled to deal with Covid-19. More than 120,000 Americans have now died; more than 20 million have lost their jobs. But it’s looking as if all those sacrifices were in vain. We never really got the coronavirus under control, and now infections, while they have fallen to a quite low level in the New York area, the pandemic’s original epicenter, are surging in much of the rest of the country. And the bad news isn’t just a result of more testing. In new hot spots like Arizona — where testing capacity is being overwhelmed — and Houston the fraction of tests coming up positive is soaring, which shows that the disease is spreading rapidly. It didn’t have to be this way. (Paul Krugman, 6/25)

President Trump says there’s too much coronavirus testing, that testing is a “double-edged sword,” and that it makes the United States “look bad” because more testing reveals more cases. If he really believes that, he should walk the walk and “slow down” testing exactly where it’s happening most vigorously: within the White House. (Catherine Rampell, 6/25)

The situation inside the nation’s jails and prisons amid the Covid-19 pandemic has become the stuff of nightmares. Overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, shortages of personal protective equipment (not to mention soap) and restrictions on hygiene products such as hand sanitizer have turned detention facilities into a playground for the virus and a death trap for inmates — many of whom, because of age or pre-existing conditions, are at elevated risk for complications. And the threat extends far beyond the facilities themselves, endangering the families and communities that surround prison guards, nurses and other staff members. Currently, the nation’s top five Covid-19 hot spots are all correctional facilities, according to data collected by The Times. (6/25)

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the need for health care reforms that promote universal access to affordable care. Although all aspects of U.S. health care will face incredible challenges in the coming months, the patchwork way we govern and pay for health care is unraveling in this time of crisis, leaving millions of people vulnerable and requiring swift, coordinated political action to ensure access to affordable care. About half of Americans receive health coverage through their employer, and with record numbers filing for unemployment insurance, millions find themselves without health insurance in the midst of the largest pandemic in a century. Even those who maintain insurance coverage may find care unaffordable. (Jaime S. King, 6/25)

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the inherent flaws in fee-for-service medicine. Congress should use healthcare’s current financial crisis to institute 
far-reaching changes in the reimbursement system. Over the past several months, lawmakers have spent hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out hospitals and physician practices reeling from the decline in elective surgeries and office visits. The perverse incentives in FFS—do more and you earn more—are reversed when patients are too scared to arrange office visits or facilities are on lockdown. (Merrill Goozner, 6/25)

The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed telehealth — the remote provision of health care resources, tools, and consultation, usually via digital technologies — from the backwaters of medicine to its leading edge. Though novel to some health care providers, and considered impractical by others, telehealth will likely endure — and become even more appealing — after the Covid-19 pandemic has faded away. We are concerned that this crisis-driven acceleration in the adoption of virtual visits and use of algorithmic tools will have uncertain implications for the equitable distribution of health resources and will widen racial and class-based disparities in health. (Matthew Clair, Brian W. Clair and Walter K. Clair, 6/26)

As the healthcare industry grapples with this global pandemic, leaders could not be blamed for focusing on today's crisis and wanting to set any long-term implications aside. The short-term operational impact of the pandemic has been all-consuming. And across the board, providers have been hit by staggering financial impacts. (Joseph J. Fifer, 6/24)

The development of a Covid-19 vaccine is progressing at an incredible pace, breaking down barriers to the invention, manufacture, and testing of potential vaccine candidates. The Department of Health and Human Services says it aims to have “substantial quantities of a safe and effective vaccine available for Americans by January 2021.” To achieve this goal, each of the five leading Covid-19 vaccine candidates will need to be tested in approximately 30,000 people — a total of 150,000 research participants in the next six months. This will be a massive and unprecedented undertaking. (Kathryn Stephenson and Bisola Ojikutu, 6/26)

Words cannot express how we all are beyond indebted to the health workers around the world. You are putting your lives at risk for the sake of saving all of us. You have given a new, profound meaning to the term "the ultimate sacrifice." Within the cancer community, health providers and patients alike have undoubtedly suffered the worst of the coronavirus's double burden. (Princess Dina Mired, 6/25)

Perhaps the urgency of national and global crises means that just showing up to do a good job, as Oliver Wendell Holmes advocated, is not nearly enough. The selflessness of those who put themselves on the front lines in the streets emboldens us to commit to weaving anti-racism into our work, shining an honest light on our own practices and institutions. (Michael Bierer. 6/25)