First, though, here’s what you might have missed in the tsunami of news coverage.

There have now been more than 50,000 deaths in the country (, in fact). But, as a shows, that’s likely an undercount. What the NYT team did was look at year-over-year rates to find a percentage of deaths that were either attributed to COVID-19 or related to the pandemic (for example, a patient not having access to care because of an overwhelmed hospital system). New York City is reporting a 300% increase in deaths, which works out to 19,200 “excess deaths.” But only 15,411 have been officially attributed to the coronavirus. That leaves 3,800 that possibly should be included in the totals.

Now take that reasoning and multiply it across the globe. So far, they’ve identified at least 36,000 “missing” deaths.

I’m not sure Lysol PR folks woke up yesterday thinking they’d have to warn people of the fatal consequences of injecting disinfectant into their bodies, but that’s exactly what ended up happening after President Donald Trump floated the suggestion while spitballing coronavirus treatments in his press briefing. that some might take Trump’s words seriously — especially considering a that occurred after Trump championed hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment.

While the disinfectant portion of the briefing grabbed the nation and the Twittersphere’s attention, Trump also touted sunlight as a “cure,” pointing to research that showed the . Trump used the study to bolster even though his own health advisers remain insistent that there will be a second wave in the fall, made worse by a likely overlap with the start of flu season.

(Experts have long warned that we shouldn’t count on the weather to be the silver bullet that ends this crisis, pointing to warm states and humid countries where the pandemic has flourished.)

The topic of whether the virus will have another surge in the fall — as well as the idea that sunlight could be used as a cure in the body — were just two of a handful of examples this week of scientists performing rhetorical contortions to present . The trend was made even more worrisome after a federal official claimed he was ousted from his position because he disagreed about the use of hydroxychloroquine. Scientists are worried the Trump administration’s actions are creating an atmosphere where officials don’t feel free to offer the best information available if it contradicts Trump’s messaging.

Side note: have already seen a rise in accidents with cleaning products, so feel free to spread the word that people should not be dosing themselves with Lysol.

Is “everyone who wants a test can get one” going to become Trump’s version of former President Barack Obama’s promise “if you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep it”? Trump’s advisers are eyeing his bumpy testing rollout as a major vulnerability in the coming election. One even said that testing could be “.” So why is the country still not at full throttle with testing, even after months of scrambling? : It’s extremely expensive to ramp up to the needed level, shortages on the different components are complicating the process, and sometimes fixing one bottleneck creates another.

Meanwhile, the very first stumble all those weeks ago came when the CDC sent out faulty testing kits. say that violations of sound manufacturing practices led to contamination at the CDC facilities.

And the FDA has that will be available with a doctor’s order.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp toward reopening by allowing some nonessential businesses to resume operations Friday. Included in that list are gyms, barbershops, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys (all of which seem like odd choices if you’re still trying to discourage the spread of a highly contagious virus). Even Trump, who has been more eager than other authorities to reopen the country, said he .

The move worried public health experts across the country who look at conditions in the Southern states — — and see for COVID-19. The states were slow to shut down, lag in testing, have rural health systems that are likely to buckle under a surge of patients, and rank among the worst states for medical conditions like obesity that have been linked to poor outcomes in coronavirus patients.

While most states aren’t moving to lift their restrictions yet, they do acknowledge they’ll need to even if there isn’t yet a vaccine or treatment available. In doing so, they’ll have on just how many deaths are acceptable. Considering the economic devastation can lead to a longer-term increase in deaths from despair, hunger and the loss of health coverage, the answer isn’t always easy.

As governors grapple with that question, protesters continue to take to the streets over the shutdown orders. While the rallies may appear to be grassroots gatherings, a well-financed, influential campaign is being waged to stoke the anger driving them. Meanwhile, polls throughout the week that most Americans view the restrictions as worthwhile.

Anyone who was holding onto high hopes about a miracle treatment suffered a crushing blow this week when not one but two front-runners were tripped up by cold, hard data. (caught by Stat! Kudos!) of trial data showed that Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir, which has long been touted as promising, had no benefit for coronavirus patients. The company said the statement misrepresented the results and that more research is needed. But outside experts are not hopeful.

A harsh reality check also came this week for those touting hydroxychloroquine (not long after Trump and Fox News went quiet on the subject). A VA study showed that not only did the drug not benefit patients, it was for those who took it. While the small study might not completely rule out the use of the drug, scientists say it’s a reminder not to rush the use of unproven treatments.

(Ahem, for those scavenger-hunting for the aforementioned Labradoodle headline, you have found it!)

tapped a trusted aide who was inexperienced in public health matters to lead the day-to-day response efforts in the early days of pandemic. The aide, Brian Harrison, had joined the department after running a dog-breeding business for six years. That decision is just one of several missteps that seem to have .

Meanwhile, are shaking any remaining global belief in U.S. exceptionalism. “When people see these pictures of New York City they say, ‘How can this happen? How is this possible?’” said one public policy expert in Germany. “We are all stunned. Look at the jobless lines.”

In how-was-that-not-already-happening news: to report COVID-19 cases to the CDC. Nursing homes have been absolutely ravaged by the pandemic, with at least .

Congress managed to pass the $484 billion stimulus package that will supplement the depleted pot of funds to aid small businesses. Banks say the money allocated in the new measure will be used up in a matter of days, at most. But Democrats did manage to secure money for hospitals and expanded testing.

Although this one did take a bit more time and negotiation, it still managed to eke through. But Capitol Hill watchers say it could be the last measure that gets through before the gloves truly come off and the

Most of the food news is pretty grim (like the fact that a in meat-packaging plants could lead to shortages) but one cool story that emerged this week is on a potential government between farmers with excess food and hungry Americans. Of course, there are hurdles in the path to success — like transportation issues — but it’s heartening they’re at least trying.

And it’s likely the food banks will need all the help they can get as new unemployment numbers push America closer to Great Depression . Another 4.4 million filed for benefits last week, bringing the total number of claims in just five weeks to more than 26 million people.

While the health care industry has long been considered “recession-proof” (e.g., people will always need health care), it’s proving, , not to be “pandemic- proof.”

I think we all know one or two people who are convinced they had COVID-19 sometime over the winter — and emerging data from the first wave of serological testing might prove them right. Small studies in California suggest there could be somewhere between 221,000 to 442,000 (which had fewer than 8,000 confirmed cases at the time). And suggest that 1 in 5 NYC residents have been infected. Those results, in addition to the fact that the happened in early February rather than at the end of that month, hint that the virus may have been here a lot longer than originally thought.

Experts say to take the results with a grain of salt, though. The serological tests can be an important tool in the battle to contain the virus, but they aren’t infallible. They offer advice on how to “” of the research.

So apparently this illness is WEIRD. Every week, doctors are finding out new and strange ways that it’s not acting as it should. The latest revelation: that’s causing younger patients to have strokes and is being seen at such consistent rates that some are wondering whether the standard course of treatment should include blood thinners.

Some other medical developments from the week: more data on severe cases and ; ; and of people who aren’t getting treated for non-coronavirus illnesses.

And in interesting reads for your weekend:

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That’s it from me! Have a safe weekend everyone!

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

First, though … if you are having strangely vivid dreams about bugs or lethal injections or tidal waves, you are not alone! A side effect of this pandemic for a lot of people seems to be . One reason? We’re actually getting more sleep now that we’re not go, go, going. (At least that’s what experts guess.)

At the beginning of the week, there were dire warnings that it was going to be a tough one. The surgeon general went so far as to compare it to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. The warnings have played out with states reporting some of their deadliest days, pushing the country’s death toll . as of 1:30 p.m. ET.

But amid those grim numbers, a glimmer of hope can be found. In New York, the curve seems to be stabilizing, and California even saw a decrease in the number of ICU hospitalizations for the first time. That should not be taken as a sign that the worst of the outbreak is over —  are already bracing to become the next hot spots, while the pandemic . But the glimmers do show that the sweeping shutdown measures in the war against the virus.

Meanwhile, Ohio’s early efforts, partly driven by the influential Cleveland Clinic, — Ohio has fewer than a third the number of people with the novel coronavirus than in three comparably sized states.

And from traveling across state borders are growing in popularity.

So, when will we be able to reopen? It depends on a few factors, but one thing a lot of people can agree on: to take that step. And the United States has yet to conquer that particular white whale.

President Donald Trump leaned heavily on familiar strategies () this week at his daily press briefings, with the World Health Organization being one of his most recent targets. Trump for the global organization because of what he claimed were its early missteps, but he quickly softened the threat.

Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to abruptly fire the head watchdog for the $2.2 trillion stimulus package raised alarm bells on Capitol Hill and throughout the country. at the end of the week to try to add a provision to protect the rest of the watchdog panel assigned to overseeing spending. The removal of Glenn Fine is just one of a series of moves against inspectors general in recent days. Trump also publicly scorned .

And make sure to read of a story that details the 70 days at the beginning of the crisis when the administration knew about the threat (a were monitoring a potential outbreak as early as November) and failed to quickly act.

In other news from the administration: a between HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma reignites; CDC Director Robert Redfield has managed to woo over the skeptical MAGA crowd; and Jared Kushner’s brings up unpleasant memories of the Patriot Act.

It was another brutal week for Americans filing for unemployed benefits. , and experts say we haven’t seen this magnitude of layoffs and economic constriction since the Great Depression.

Congress is trying to pass legislation that would help small businesses, which are struggling to get any money from an . But the swift passage of the bipartisan $2.2 trillion stimulus package is appearing more and more like the anomaly we all guessed it was.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tried to during a procedural session, but Democrats balked at the maneuver they deemed a stunt. (Because it would have required approval of all Democratic senators.) Republicans, on the other hand, balked at Democrats’ push for additional aid for hospitals and health providers.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is pumping billions of dollars of aid back into the economy, but that Democrats fought for are in place to catch fraud, abuse or mistakes. For example, one of the members of a congressional panel to monitor the spending has been appointed. In addition, lets the Federal Reserve set up a $450 billion bailout plan without following key provisions of the federal open-meetings law.

And it could be years and years before a full picture emerges of the economic ramifications of the outbreak and shutdown, but experts agree that it will include .

Wisconsin’s primary to the general election if mail-in voting isn’t enacted. Voters were forced into a choice between their civic duty and their health, standing in long lines and braving terrible weather to cast ballots. The images that came out of the state created new momentum for the mail-in-voting movement. Trump is a vocal opponent of mail-in voting (despite the fact he cast an absentee ballot last month). But his claims that it and is are both false.

“Either be in or out, folks”: Governors grew ever-more frustrated with the federal government, which seemed to be intervening in the distribution of ventilators and other medical supplies . They started turning to one another and private businesses for help — California to other states in need. (Some cynics out there couldn’t help but note that Gov. Gavin Newsom seems to have national political ambitions.)

Speaking of politics, Trump made waves when he granted a request from Republican Sen. Cory Gardner after weeks of ignoring similar pleas for help from the state’s Democratic governor.

And although there’s a lot of attention on ventilators, . Most patients who end up going on them don’t come off. Patients who need ventilators in the first place (for reasons beyond this outbreak) have mid- to poor outcomes — usually about 40%-50% come off them. But for COVID-19, that number plummets to about 20%.

Meanwhile, HHS has announced that its stockpile of personal protective equipment has . (Fun fact: The stockpile was created in 1999 to prevent supply-chain disruptions for the predicted Y2K computer problems.) The U.S. has been trying to acquire gear, but in the demand has created a bit of a “Lord of the Flies” scenario, and let’s just say .

Anyway, all the problems with acquiring PPE from federal resources led California’s Newsom to say “” and use the “purchasing power” of his state to secure 200 million masks a month through a deal with suppliers.

It’s not just health providers who are suffering from the lack of protective gear. Medical personnel in New York are reporting that as they would because they aren’t able to take as many safety precautions with their gowns and masks. That means patients are being seen less, which can have fatal consequences.

The battle over protective gear continues to pit providers against hospitals, who don’t want their images hurt if their health workers speak out. of protective supplies for her colleagues after using GoFundMe, and her hospital suspended her for distributing “unauthorized” gear. Across the country, there’s a growing from doctors and other health professionals at the government’s failure to ensure that front-line workers in this battle are equipped with the gear they need.

Experts working to find a scientifically sound treatment for COVID-19 are frustrated by the (driven in large part by Trump’s optimistic support of the treatment). When patients take such unproven medications, , said Dr. Andre Kalil, a principal investigator in the federal government’s clinical trial of drugs that may treat the coronavirus.

, pumping their considerable resources into cutting down the frustratingly long timeline for a vaccine. that he would pick the seven lead contenders and build factories to develop them, even though likely only one or two will emerge as viable. When compared to the economic loss mounting every day that the country remains closed, what’s a couple of billions of wasted dollars?

The coronavirus outbreak is laying bare in terrible detail all the systemic disparities in the health system, and the country in general, that lead to poorer health outcomes among black Americans. that COVID-19 can be twice as deadly for both black and Latinx Americans. Black Americans have less access to care and more chronic conditions (something that plays a major role in the lethality of the virus) than white Americans do.

“We are watching, in real time, ,” said Michael Blake, an assemblyman from the Bronx.

And other stories to keep you occupied this weekend:

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This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

But first! Take yourself on this journey about how the most (that gray blob with stone-like texture and red crowns and colored flecks) was made. Sometimes when the government is creating informational illustrations it focuses on the vector or the symptoms, but for this coronavirus the CDC’s Alissa Eckert and Dan Higgins went with what’s called a “beauty shot.” It’s a very cool read!

All right, here we go:

The confirmed number of confirmed cases globally ticked past this week in a grim milestone that experts still say represents only a percentage of the actual cases out there. The U.S. had recorded over as of press time, with more than 6,500 deaths.

President Donald Trump to help manufacturers secure supplies needed to make ventilators and protective face masks, but is it too little, too late? New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whose state has become the epicenter of the nation’s outbreak, said on Thursday it will in less than a week. Meanwhile, FEMA said that most of the ventilators Trump promised to obtain won’t be .

Governors are distraught over their , likening the process of requesting the equipment to eBay auctions. “You now literally will have a company call you up and say, ‘Well, California just outbid you,’” Cuomo said.

Another roadblock is that in the national stockpile are unusable because of a lapse in a contract that left a monthslong gap, during which the machines weren’t being properly maintained.

In the meantime, General Motors has shrugged off Trump’s attacks on the company (he said GM and its chief executive were dragging their feet on the project) and are moving full-throttle ahead at producing the needed equipment. “Every ventilator is a life,” said one GM exec.

With so much focus on ventilators, doctors are being advised on how to ration care and being told that they’ll be supported in their decisions .

One quick note on that front: New York lawmakers are moving on legislation that would grant sweeping civil- and criminal-liability protections to hospitals and health care workers dealing with coronavirus patients.

And even though there’s a ton of attention on ventilators, the survival rate of any patient who requires one is only 20% — meaning that even without a shortage, they

In other important news on the preparedness front:

Trump ahead and that people should be braced for a “bad two weeks,” with the White House projecting that the death toll could be somewhere between 100,000 to 240,000. For what it’s worth, disease forecasters over where the task force got those numbers, mostly because we don’t yet know enough about the virus.

(What helped change Trump’s mind, considering he’d previously mused that the country could return to normal in time to fill the pews on Easter? .)

To help states deal with the crisis, for hospitals, giving them unprecedented flexibility. The changes include what counts as a hospital bed, how closely certain medical professionals need to be supervised and what kinds of health care can be delivered at home.

The administration decided not to follow suit after a handful of states reopened their exchanges, though Trump seemed to hint that the possibility was still on the table “.” Also, to note, if people have lost their insurance because of their jobs, that counts as a qualifying event and they have 60 days to enroll in the federal exchanges, regardless of what Trump does with a special session.

And although Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, along with Vice President Mike Pence, have emerged as the leading voices of the administration’s pandemic response, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has taken charge behind the scenes. Critics say its adding confusion to .

And reports continue to emerge that the Trump administration was in China just months before the outbreak.

In other news on the administration:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be creating a special committee to oversee the implementation of the $2.2 trillion stimulus package and any other coronavirus legislation coming down the pike. “Where there’s money there’s also frequently mischief,” Pelosi said, in perhaps one of my favorite quotes of the week. Meanwhile, , but . At the very least, they say, they want to see how the current stimulus package plays out.

The news came the same day as it was reported that filed for unemployment benefits. That eye-popping number blows past all previous records. And experts say it represents only a the virus is wreaking on the country. There are many affected Americans who remain uncounted — some have lost jobs or income and did not initially qualify for benefits, and others, encountering state unemployment offices that were overwhelmed by the deluge of claimants, were unsuccessful in filing.

In other news about Congress and the economic damage from the outbreak:

The Democratic National Convention, expected to draw as many as 50,000 visitors, in one of the largest disruptions to the 2020 elections so far. On the other hand, Wisconsin is going ahead with its primary on Tuesday, which is causing mixed reactions … including .

More stories on elections:

Much focus this week was on serology tests that serve the dual purpose of finding Americans who can safely return to some normalcy and helping researchers find treatments for COVID-19. Experts are fairly unified on the fact that to get the country back into operation, we need a way to identify those who are now immune to the disease. And using plasma collected from recovered patients is a century-old practice (which, to be clear, has had mixed results in past diseases).

Beyond studies on actually treating the coronavirus illness ( showed a much-touted malaria drug combo had positive results), doctors are also trying to figure out known as “cytokine storm,” in which the body’s own immune system attacks its organs. This is thought to be the cause of some of the severe cases seen in younger patients.

On a side note, the Food and Drug Administration on Sunday issued an emergency-use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, despite scant evidence that they work against COVID-19.

With to issue the stay-at-home order, the vast majority of Americans are now huddled at home. The good news is that the extreme measures seem to be working in California, which was an earlier disciple of flattening the curve.

the government a report on “mobility data” to help states recognize where social-distancing measures are failing, with a specific focus on how foot traffic has increased or declined to six categories of destinations: homes; workplaces; retail and recreation establishments; parks; grocery stores and pharmacies; and transit stations.

Although things might seem a bit grim right now because of these measures, a look at data from the 1918 flu pandemic shows cities that locked down emerged from the crisis stronger economically than those that didn’t. One caveat, though: Because working-age people were harder hit by the 1918 flu (and the coronavirus strikes worse among older generations), any comparisons might not hold.

So, onto some of the stories I find most fascinating … aka the science behind all of this.

I’m going to cut this off here, or else this will no longer be able to be called the Breeze. If you want a more comprehensive roundup, please check out the Morning Briefings from the week, which are chock-full of more stories than you could ever finish reading. Including ones on workers’ protests and the supply chain; the gun store debate; how jails are “ticking time bombs;” ; snapshots from a New York in crisis; health disparities; and a call to arms for medical workers that doesn’t guarantee coverage of potential hospital bills.

Please have a safe and restful weekend, if possible!

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

On that note, though, I’m going to do my very best to give you a quick look at what happened, is happening or could happen with the coronavirus outbreak (with the caveat that it would be impossible to capture the scope of this particular universe).

First, two resources that are very cool: 1) KHN’s map that shows how many ICU beds there are in each county, and 2) and running tally of confirmed cases.

So here we go with the news:

Congress has been working with the administration, namely Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, to put together a package that would help Americans battered economically by the shutdowns. At the core? Sending checks directly to Americans. The amount taxpayers would get, , would be tied to income and number of children. It would also create a $300 billion pot for small businesses and .

The price tag on the plan — $1 trillion — sounds huge, but it’s not enough to make anything but a minor dent. Congress should be thinking more in the $2 trillion-$3 trillion range.

President Donald Trump is with sending checks to Americans, a move similar to what happened during the Great Recession.

While we’re on Capitol Hill news, Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) in February even as they were reassuring the public that the threat was well in hand. Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also three weeks ago about the potential economic impact of the outbreak. One of the stock purchases Loeffler made was in a technology company that .

Something that’s become abundantly clear over the past week is how ill-equipped the country’s health system is to bear the extra weight of a pandemic. Although Trump invoked this week, he seems . (And much of the government’s potential resources .) He also shifted the to figure out medical device and protective gear shortages. “The federal government’s not supposed to be out there buying vast amounts of items and then shipping,” Trump said. “You know, we’re not a shipping clerk.”

Meanwhile, doctors and other health care workers are having to reuse masks, repurpose bandannas and scarves, and take other measures as some hospitals are going through five- to six-months’ worth of supplies in a week. The number of cases is expected to climb across the country and providers are turning to social media to plead for more masks and protective gear. was just one of a flood of quotes from desperate workers.

And protective gear isn’t the only thing that could run out — . The (!) are taking measures to try to address the potential crisis, but hospitals are still preparing to have to make tough about whom to treat.

Although testing in the United States has ramped up, frustration over the — especially since it appears that were able to get tested where others weren’t. South Korea, which identified its first case the same day the U.S. did, serves as a stark contrast. Well over 290,000 people have been tested and over 8,000 infections have been identified in that country, which is also a democracy. .

Yours truly was one of those poor, misguided souls who decided last weekend that watching Contagion was exactly what I needed in the midst of our real-life pandemic. (I immediately regretted the decision, don’t worry.) But in the movie, a scientist tests a vaccine on herself and then — boom! — it’s out in the world.

That’s not how , as we all know, but for many, it’s hard not to hold out hope for a quick miracle cure — either through a vaccine or a treatment.

This week, Trump called chloroquine as a potential game changer. But FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn , saying clinical trials would be needed to test its efficacy. (For a history of how chloroquine popped up on people’s radar, check out this .)

Meanwhile, the only company in the U.S. that makes chloroquine raised the price by almost 100% in January. The company has since reduced the cost.

For a glance at the status of drug and vaccine research, check out .

Many scientists and other experts are grappling with a lot of unanswerable questions, such as: Will the and how long will ? Research is emerging every day on the virus, though, such as a new death rate out of Wuhan, China, that is .

It would be impossible to highlight all the compelling stories that ran this week, so here’s an overview of ones that might make good weekend reads:

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That’s it from me. And before any Shakespeare fans come for my throat, I was just joking! (Though I do prefer his comedies.) Have a safe and restful weekend.

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

On to my best attempt to get you the most important and interesting news about the COVID-19 outbreak. This is one of those stories that’s changing by the minute, however, so I would highly recommend checking out for our coverage and also signing up for the Morning Briefings to get a comprehensive look at what’s going on.

But here we go:

— after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and the lawmakers she tapped to help her) spent yesterday working through partisan complaints together with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been acting as the administration’s point person on the plan. . If President Donald Trump doesn’t embrace the bill, it’s likely to get passed along partisan lines — not a good sign for it getting through the Senate. The president will discuss the coronavirus crisis at a 3 p.m. news conference.

— ? Provisions include unemployment insurance to furloughed workers and hundreds of millions of dollars toward nutrition programs; an additional $500 million to help feed low-income pregnant women or mothers with young children who lose their jobs or are laid off because of the virus outbreak; $400 million to help local food banks meet increased demand; and free coronavirus testing for anyone who requires it, including uninsured people.

— One of the sticking points between the two parties has been paid sick leave. The issue has been thrust into the spotlight as public health experts and doctors say that workers should stay home if they have flu-like symptoms. But because the U.S. has no mandatory sick leave,

— Trump is , which he has been hesitant to announce — despite his propensity of using presidential power in less urgent crises — because it would likely contradict the rosy messaging he’s put forth since the start of the outbreak.

— Meanwhile, the action that the president did take — — was panned by public health experts as a useless distraction. As one said, “This virus is everywhere.” The stock markets seemed to agree with that assessment following Trump’s Oval Office address as they tumbled more sharply than they had previously. It was the , which, for those of us who were paying attention during the 2008 crash, is not exactly reassuring.

— Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had a grim reality check for Congress (and the administration) when he agreed that . He also criticized the government for not providing quick and easy testing, saying that the “” system “is not really geared to what we need right now.” “The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it — ” he said. “Do I think we should be? Yes. But we’re not.”

— On that note, there’s still a slew of anecdotes of people who have symptoms that match the coronavirus, have tested negative for the flu and yet still aren’t receiving tests. A startling shows just how far behind other developed countries the U.S. is in testing. ( for an in-depth look at everything that’s gone wrong, including how a shortage of chemicals used in the kits is hampering scientists’ efforts.)

— So, we know we don’t currently have an accurate snapshot of how many Americans are infected (because of above testing stumbles), but what’s the ? CDC experts have projected that between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. could be infected, while as many as 200,000 to 1.7 million could die. Also, 2.4 million to 21 million people in the U.S. could require hospitalization.

— Which leads to what experts say is the scariest part of the outbreak: Hospitals already stretched thin from a bad flu season and ever-increasing budget cuts . There aren’t enough ventilators or ICU beds, and if the United States follows in Italy’s footsteps, health care providers might have to start making tough choices about who gets treated and who gets left behind.

— ? (Or “” as the cool kids say.) Public health officials and experts are recommending social distancing when possible, which includes working from home and avoiding large social gatherings. Even if the total number of cases were to plateau, taking nationwide measures to slow down the speed of the outbreak could help keep hospitals from being overwhelmed (see above).

— A slew of closures, cancellations and post-postponements this week helped toward that end (and possibly helped drive home the seriousness of the threat). Those include, but are not limited to: basketball, soccer, hockey and baseball games; concerts; Disneyland; colleges (which mostly moved to online classes) and schools; Broadway; any gatherings over 250 people in some states; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian museums, including the National Zoo; St. Patrick’s Day parades across the country; and more. The unified message from private and government organizations alike: .

— Beyond the astronomical economic toll this crisis will take, some observers are also worried it’s going to . As trivial as it might seem, chronic loneliness, especially in the elderly (the population most in danger of a critical reaction to the coronavirus), can produce severe negative health outcomes.

— Speaking of both closures and vulnerable populations, the U.S. Capitol put the kibosh on public tours following an announcement that a Senate staffer tested positive for the virus. , and given how often lawmakers travel and interact with strangers, politicians are particularly susceptible to getting sick during this outbreak.

— In other news from the administration’s response: more freely to help contain the outbreak. In previous emergencies, including the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the H1N1 flu outbreak, both Republican and Democratic administrations loosened Medicaid rules to empower states to meet surging needs.

— And it turns out , traced to CMS, created a snafu for health officials right as the crisis was heating up.

— Oh, you might have noticed that we’ve started calling this thing a pandemic. That’s because , after weeks and weeks of hesitating to make that call. “We have rung the alarm bell loud and clear,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

So, those are the bigger highlights you need to know. But here are some interesting and compelling stories that also appeared this week:

— ? Many insurers have waived testing fees, but they haven’t gone as far as to make promises about treatment costs.

— Trump and other Republicans continue to frame the coronavirus using racist and xenophobic language, despite public health experts saying that’s dangerous and irresponsible.

— One area in which scientists are hoping the coronavirus mirrors the flu is that it tends to . But we simply do not know enough about the virus to say hot temperatures are its kryptonite — yet.

— A series of high-profile people (including and the ) have tested positive for the virus, driving home how seriously people should be taking the threat. As an aside on the Tom Hanks story, his case highlights .

— The pandemic highlights how. It has supposed to act as a global coordinator, but when no one is trying to work together, the organization’s efforts can fall flat.

— ?

— A in China shows just how cruelly random this virus can be.

— including diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer and more, that can often exacerbate the virus’s toll on the body. on how the coronavirus actually infiltrates your cells.

— And immigration groups call on the government to release from facilities where they’re worried the virus will spread like wildfire.

I think other things happened in the world, but I’ve already forgotten them. Remember, wash your hands, don’t create mask shortages for health care workers who actually need them, practice social distancing when you can to flatten the curve and realize but you don’t let it have to consume you.

Please have a safe, healthy weekend. See you next week!

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

More seriously, here’s what you need to know about the outbreak dominating global attention, sending stocks plunging and creating a booming demand for hand sanitizer. I can tell you one common thread running through coverage about experts’ advice: .

President Donald Trump cracked jokes about his germophobia and downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at a press conference this week, in which he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the country’s coronavirus response. This raised immediate eyebrows, considering that under Pence’s watch Indiana weathered a major HIV outbreak largely attributed to decisions he made as governor.

By contrast, you have the CDC’s Dr. Nancy Messonnier, who has become a leading player in the crisis, saying it’s not a question of if but when the coronavirus will sweep into the U.S. She also said that she’s been talking with her kids about how to prepare and that “the disruption to everyday life might be severe.”

Not surprisingly, after all that whiplash, the administration decided all information released to the public must first get the OK from Pence.

Meanwhile, a new case out of California put a harsh spotlight on the deep flaws of the CDC’s original testing parameters. The patient — who may be the first in the U.S. with no link to traveling abroad — was in the hospital for more than 10 days before the CDC approved a coronavirus test. The delay exposed about 100 health workers to the virus as well as set back any attempts to contain people she’d been in contact with.

If a whistleblower is to be believed, those testing missteps weren’t the only ones made by the government in the early days of the response: New allegations have come to light that HHS workers who were sent to help with the U.S. evacuees weren’t given proper medical training or gear before being exposed to the patients.

Meanwhile, for a president who has tied his fate to the health of the stock markets, the global financial turmoil is more worrisome than ever.

One of the few good things about the coronavirus is that the vast majority of cases are mild. However, that’s also one of the things that might tip it into a pandemic. For more extreme illnesses (like Ebola), it’s far easier to isolate patients. But for those with symptoms that are essentially presenting as a mild cold, it’s harder to contain the spread.

On that note, it’s hard to tell just how lethal the disease is (and anyone who tells you otherwise, question their motives). Because so many cases are mild, some experts say we’re seeing only the tip of the iceberg, and the mortality rate would drop if we had a better sense of how many people are actually infected. Others argue that there’s no evidence that officials don’t have an accurate count.

Right now, from what’s available, it seems the death rate outside the epicenter in China was 0.7%. That’s still soberingly high, but also a long way away from SARS’ 10%.

As someone who has little kiddos in their life (and who affectionately calls them Typhoid Marys), I can’t help but include this story. Are kids innocent bystanders in this outbreak, getting infected if someone brings the virus into their households? Or are they, in fact, a population that is stealthily driving this epidemic, as they can do with the flu?

Globally, cases are climbing, with patients showing up in Lithuania, the Netherlands, Iran, Kuwait, the United Kingdom … you get the gist. Although we’re not really seeing it yet in Latin or South American countries beyond a Brazilian patient who had traveled to Italy, where cases skyrocketed 45% in one day.

In China, officials are tapping their tried-and-true propaganda playbook, but the anger that has boiled up over the government’s handling of the outbreak may be cracking the party’s stronghold. Meanwhile, authorities, in an ongoing attempt to contain the spread, are offering people more than $1,400 to self-report if they have coronavirus symptoms.

And South Korea gets a shoutout for implementing a very cool idea to create “drive-thru” testing for potential patients.

Remember, there are plenty more stories were those came from. If you’re interested in the full scope of coronavirus coverage, check out all our Morning Briefings from the week.

Believe it or not, there was other news this week! Democrats held a rowdy debate in South Carolina ahead of Super Tuesday, where Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) fielded the inevitable attacks that come with being a front-runner. He was put on the hot spot about topics ranging from the cost of his “Medicare for All” plan to his past stance on guns.

Sanders (after on how he was going to pay for his ambitious agenda) said that “‘Medicare for All’ will lower health care costs in this country by $450 billion a year and save the lives of 68,000 people who would otherwise have died.” But experts are skeptical of the findings.

KHN: Sanders Embraces New Study That Lowers ‘Medicare For All’s’ Cost, But Skepticism Abounds

A federal appeals court upheld a Trump administration ban on federally funded family planning centers referring women for abortions, arguing that the rule is slightly less restrictive than a 1988 version upheld by the Supreme Court. What’s interesting to note is that the court was the California-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Trump has now named 10 judges to the 9th Circuit — more than one-third of its active judges — compared with seven appointed by President Barack Obama over eight years.

Beyond fighting for survival in the courts, abortion clinics are often faced with so many fees and unexpected costs that they can face closure from their financial burdens alone. Among those are: security to protect staff and patients; airfare to get doctors to areas lacking trained physicians willing to perform abortions; higher rates for contractors concerned about protesters and boycotts; more stringent loan terms; insurance that can be canceled unexpectedly; and, for some clinic owners, legal fees for defending the constitutionality of the procedure.

Vocal opposition continues to pour in about the arcane Medicaid rule change that could reduce Medicaid spending by 6% to 8%, or $37 billion to $49 billion, a year. The Trump administration says the change would increase transparency and prevent abuses that enable states to draw down more federal money than they’re entitled to. But, so far, more than 4,200 organizations or individuals from both parties are sounding alarm bells about it.

In the miscellaneous file for the week:

— The Sacklers, under fire over allegations about their role in the opioid crisis, turned to Mike Bloomberg to help them manage their reputation. Will that haunt him in his presidential bid?

— Are some people immune to Alzheimer’s? Scientists studying donated brains have identified patients who have all the markers for the debilitating disease but didn’t seem to have any symptoms when alive. The findings offer hope that the seemingly inherent protection could be replicated by a drug.

— America is facing an autopsy crisis: Large swaths of the country don’t have a medical examiner. Bodies are even having to be shipped across state lines if an autopsy is needed. At one point the problem was so bad that Oklahoma’s overloaded medical examiner declined to perform autopsies on people over 40 who died of unexplained causes.

— Colorado is continuing to move forward with plans for its public option, this week unveiling reimbursement rates that officials say would keep hospitals profitable under the system. Hospitals were … uh … a little skeptical of those claims.

— In this terrifying story, a student died after calling 911 because the responders couldn’t locate him.

That’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) came out swinging on Wednesday night in an all-around livelier debate than most we’ve seen this primary season. When it came to health care, few were safe from Warren’s jabs — South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s plan was deemed “paper-thin,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s was so short it could fit on a Post-it note. Even Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (whose plan Warren supports) was criticized as not being realistic or a team player.

Warren wasn’t the only one on the attack. Former Vice President Joe Biden hit at new-comer and billionaire Mike Bloomberg for once upon a time labeling the Affordable Care Act “a disgrace.” But Biden left out some context in that particular attack — such as the fact that Bloomberg was commenting that the law wasn’t enough to fix the deeply flawed health system.

Meanwhile, Midwestern Nice was put to the test as tensions between Buttigieg and Klobuchar boiled over. “You voted to confirm the head of Customs and Border Protection under Trump, who was one of the architects of the family-separation policy,” Buttigieg pointed out. At one point, Klobuchar shot out: “Are you trying to say that I’m dumb? Or are you mocking me here, Pete?”

Buttigieg also tried to get Sanders to take some responsibility for his supporters’ social media behavior. The issue was top of mind this week after a powerful culinary union in Nevada condemned the “vicious attacks” its members were receiving following the union’s criticism of Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan.

The incident between the union and Sanders’ supporters is the tip of the iceberg of a larger Medicare for All civil war roiling organized labor. On one side, you have liberal unions who argue a government-run plan would free them up to refocus and allow them to concentrate on other important matters. The other side of the coin says there’s no way the health care provided under such a system would be as good as the hard-earned plans they have now.

I was overly optimistic last week in everyone’s desire to adopt an official name for the coronavirus outbreak. Sorry scientists, “COVID-19” does not seem to have taken off, and, at least colloquially, you might be stuck with “coronavirus.” But no matter what it’s called, it is still demanding the world’s attention. Here’s a look at some of the more noteworthy and interesting stories from the week:

— The number of cases in China keeps dropping, in a sign that the outbreak might be stabilizing, at least in the epicenter. But that doesn’t mean anyone should be optimistic (heaven forbid!), because it’s likely cases outside China are on the cusp of blooming into a pandemic.

— The Washington Post peels back the curtain on a fight between the State Department and the CDC over whether infected cruise ship passengers should be flown back to America without telling the other people on the plane. Guess who won …

— Who in our cast of characters holds the responsibility of steering the world through this crisis? (All I keep thinking is: “Responders…Assemble!” Anyone else? Or only your resident Marvel geek here?)

— Why is a hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, making news? Because in the early 2000s a group of doctors and scientists came up with the idea of creating a biocontainment unit there. Not everyone was on board at the time, calling it “overkill.” But nearly two decades of epidemics have proved the skeptics wrong.

— Are computers better at spotting an outbreak before humans’ puny minds can? Well, they’re quicker, certainly, but they lack our finesse. AI is more like an overly anxious car alarm, and disease fighters are still needed to come in and tease out the complexities of the situation.

— More men than women are falling victim to the coronavirus, and that might have something to do with smoking rates.

— The prejudice that tagged along with this outbreak is nothing new. Experts warn that there’s a long history of this kind of reaction, and that if we don’t heed warnings about the consequences of such behavior we’ll just be repeating mistakes of the past again.

— The vast majority of coronavirus cases are mild. But in 2% of cases, it’s brutally lethal. So what’s happening?

— Is COVID-19 here to stay or will it disappear like its coronavirus brethren?

— And, something I had not considered, but with the Olympics coming up, experts say the world needs to have a better grip on the virus before countries should think about attending.

As the Trump administration pushes to increase patients’ access to their electronic health records, tech companies wait hungrily in the wings for the data to slip out from under the protection of HIPAA. Supporters of the administration’s moves say that Big Tech will be mindful of their own brands and reputations and treat the potential of (lucrative, sweeping) health data responsibly. Critics are a little less sure about that rose-colored-glasses view of an industry mired in data-privacy scandals.

Covered California enrollment numbers gave health law supporters something to be smug about this week: Thanks to a state-level individual mandate and more subsidies, the marketplace saw a 41% jump in new sign-ups. Covered California officials were pretty much, like, “See what can be done when you support this model?”

Speaking of California, Gov. Gavin Newsom made a big statement by devoting the entirety of his State of the State address to the homelessness crisis. “Let’s call it what it is. It’s a disgrace,” he said. A main focus for Newsom was the intersection of mental health and homelessness, and what the state can be doing to better help those who need it.

In the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Pharma used to rule the roost on Capitol Hill. But those days are looking more and more like a thing of the past. The WSJ dissects the once-ironclad relationship between the industry and Republicans, and what went wrong for the drugmakers.

— These days we’re used to courts demanding scientific evidence, to jurors being presented with experts in the field when having to make a decision about the medical ramifications of something like a pesticide or other chemical. But that wasn’t always the case. Undark looks back on when that changed, and the family that’s cited so often in court cases their name has become a verb.

— Ever wonder why things are priced to the 99 cents? That’s because of the way people perceive numbers and the greater likelihood you’ll buy something priced at $4.99 versus $5.00. When it comes to pennies, that might seem inconsequential. But it turns out the same kind of thinking can be applied to age — and, thus, decisions about where the cutoff should be on procedures like open-heart surgery.

— Everyone went into the opioid lawsuits with high hopes, buzzing about the possibility of the reckoning (and settlement) being akin to that of Big Tobacco’s in the 1990s. But the reality is likely to be a letdown.

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

Now on to what you may have missed this week.

It’s that time of year! President Donald Trump gave his State of the Union address to Congress, where he declared the nation’s future to be “blazing bright.” During his speech he promised to “never let socialism destroy American health care,” encouraged Congress to send him a bill on drug pricing (to which Democrats began chanting the name of the legislation the House has already passed), and touted his administration’s push for price transparency in health care.

He also said that Democrats were trying to provide health coverage for immigrants who are in the country illegally; called for a ban on abortions that are late in term; promised to always protect Medicare; said more than 7 million people have been shifted off food stamps during his term; and took credit for a drop in health insurance premiums. Various outlets fact checked these statements — which range from completely false to misleading to true — so I’ll link to a collection of them.

Fact Checking State Of The Union: Premiums, Pre-existing Conditions, Price Transparency, And More

And now for the coronavirus roundup, where I sifted through hundreds of stories so you don’t have to. Before we dive in, just a reminder that there are still only 12 confirmed cases in the U.S.

— As coronavirus cases in China skyrocket past 30,000 (with 636 deaths), Chinese officials are now performing house-to-house searches in Wuhan, collecting the sick and warehousing them in quarantine centers. In the city, there’s a growing sense that the residents are being sacrificed for the good of the rest of the country. “There must be no deserters, or they will be nailed to the pillar of historical shame forever,” said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

— The death of one of the first Chinese doctors to warn about a coronavirus outbreak sent waves of grief and anger through a nation that’s growing more and more frustrated with how its government is handling the outbreak.

— After a week of cases jumping by double-digit percentages, health officials still say it’s too early to declare that the virus has peaked.

— Hundreds more Americans were evacuated from China and will be quarantined by the U.S. government. But the outrageous fact I learned this week is that those people (and their insurers) are on the hook for any medical costs that arise from being quarantined. For those who are deemed unable to afford health insurance, the government will pick up the tab but it might outsource some of those costs to programs like Medicaid when possible. The evacuees also have to pay for their flight out of China and the cost to get to their final destination when the quarantine is over.

— In what seems a bit like the start of a dystopian reality TV show, thousands of cruise passengers are being quarantined on two ships off the coast of Japan and Hong Kong. A third cruise has been turned away from multiple ports.

— This story is an interesting look at how the first case in the U.S. was discovered, and more broadly showcases local public health officials who are often the ones on the front lines of a new outbreak.

— The majority of human diseases, including the coronavirus, are zoonotic, or passed from animals to humans. If you want a brief summary of some notable ones throughout history, check out this piece from WSJ that includes a shout-out to a 5,300 mummified man who, before he died from an arrow, suffered from Lyme disease.

— Not to be all doom and gloom, it seems to be humans’ lot in life to constantly be at war with pathogens. That means even if we contain the coronavirus, there’s just another deadly pathogen waiting in the wings.

Meanwhile, this year’s strain of the flu is hitting children particularly hard. More than half of the positive flu tests from public health labs this season have been in children and adults under the age of 25.

It might be hard to focus on anything but the results snafu at the Iowa caucuses, but advocates for disabled voters are also reporting back on how the efforts to expand access played out. The Iowa Democratic Party took strides this year to better help disabled voters participate, and for some the experience was positive. Others, however, said that reality looked a lot different than what the party’s messaging promised.

In theory, employers pay their workers less because part of their benefits package includes health insurance. But if the country moved toward a “Medicare for All” model, would workers see their wages increase dollar-by-dollar of what was being spent on coverage? Not necessarily.

Although the Trump administration’s roll-out of the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” program that would encourage states to shift toward a block-grant style of funding drew lots of attention, a little-noticed change that could lead to big cuts flew somewhat under the radar. Governors of both parties, however, are sounding the alarm that an arcane fiscal accountability rule could lead to cuts up to $49 billion a year.

As is often the case with bans, teenagers are already finding a way around the e-cigarette flavor restrictions that went into effect this week. The FDA only regulated reusable vaping products, but disposable pods (with flavors like pink lemonade) are widely available at gas stations and the like.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie abruptly fired his undersecretary, James Byrne, this week in what he called a “simple business decision.” Wilkie was forced to defend the decision because Byrne was well-liked by the veterans community, and the loss was just the latest in a long string of turnovers at the top of the troubled agency. Some also questioned if the dismissal had anything to do with the investigation of sexual assault allegations by Navy veteran Andrea Goldstein.

And in the miscellaneous file for the week:

— Following the recent deaths of 15 inmates, the Justice Department has opened a civil rights investigation into the Mississippi prison system, which seems to be in the grips of a violent crisis.

— Anonymous reporting systems that have been set up to help prevent school shootings have actually been helping combat the epidemic of suicides in teens. Schools and local officials are pouring billions of dollars into preventing the next mass attack, and yet self-harm and suicidal ideation are what students are reporting far more often than any kind of suspicious activity. Public health officials say this should be a wake-up call about the real threat to young people.

— How do you raise kids to prepare them for the projected negative effects of climate change without causing more trauma, anxiety and depression in a generation that’s already struggling to cope with such mental health issues? It’s a fine line to walk, experts say.

And that’s it from me! Have a great weekend.

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

Democrats have asked the Supreme Court to expedite the case on the constitutionality of the health law, pushing for a ruling on the case during this term. This might seem paradoxical — as the lower courts have ruled against the ACA — but, as you Breeze readers know, the move is politically savvy. The health law is more popular than ever, and Democrats have been owning that advantage. If they can keep the Republicans’ attack on the legislation in the front of voters’ minds heading into the 2020 elections, there could be a repeat of the blue-wave midterms.

SCOTUS gave the Trump administration and Republicans until today to respond. (As of press time, they haven’t yet.)

In a pretty harsh reality check, a new study this week found that a popular idea for cutting health spending doesn’t pan out when you look at the data. The strategy is based on identifying the hardest-to-treat, most expensive patients and better coordinating their care. But, despite the hype, the method didn’t cut hospital readmissions for those patients. The study highlights once again what we all know: Health care is complicated. And hyped-up promises to cut costs that sound too good to be true too often are.

Kudos to the evangelists of the method, though, for acknowledging it doesn’t work. “We could have coasted on the publicity we were getting,” said Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, a family physician in New Jersey who founded the program that was studied. “It’s my life’s work. So, of course, you’re upset and sad.”

The administrative costs of running a single-payer system in Canada come in at $551 per person per year. That seems like a lot, right? That’s what I thought, too, until I saw the total for Americans, which is *drum roll* $2,497 per year.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed that California get into the drug-selling business — generic drugs, that is. The theory behind it is to increase competition and drive down prices. But despite generics accounting for 90% of the prescriptions filled in the country, they aren’t really the problem when talking high drug prices. It’s uncommon for those types of meds to only have one player in the marketplace, so pricing already tends to be competitive. For the average person, Newsom’s plan wouldn’t make much of a dent.

But a strategy some people are hoping would make a difference is the VA model. The troubled federal agency might not have many bright spots these days, but patients who get prescriptions through Veterans Affairs are less likely than other insured Americans to skip doses and less likely to delay filling prescriptions because they were unable to afford them. What’s more, the program seems to curb racial disparities in accessing meds.

Mark your calendar: The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference runs through next week, and, as it nears, Stat looks back at the past 20 years of the event and how it has shaped the health care world. What emerges is a story of heroes and villains, booms and busts, sensational scandals, drinks and deals, flaring tempers and foolish predictions, and far more drama than anyone could expect from health care industry executives.

In the latest sign that red-state resistance against Medicaid expansion is fading, Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly fulfilled a campaign promise by reaching a deal with Kansas Senate Republican Leader Jim Denning after a years-long impasse between the state’s two parties. Denning is eyeing a tough reelection race for next year — which could make the decision all the more notable.

In a rare glimpse of good news, cancer death rates plummeted dramatically over a one-year period in the largest drop ever seen in national cancer statistics dating to 1930. The reason? Advancements in lung cancer treatments.

The back-and-forth over whether baby powder can be linked to ovarian cancer is the debate that launched 1,000 lawsuits (plus a couple of thousand more). A big study, however, tries to put the matter to rest. Research — that was deemed “overall reassuring” — now shows there is no strong connection between the two.

In the never-ending finger-pointing game that signals a reckoning in the opioid crisis, major drugstore chains like CVS and Walgreens are saying, “Nuh-uh, not our fault!” Instead, they say, doctors are to blame. Who are pharmacists to question doctors’ orders? The counter-argument, of course, is that when you’re filling prescriptions that equate to thousands of pain pills per person in a town you’re serving, it might be expected that someone would raise a red flag. Just maybe.

Experts say that by bringing up the doctors and providers, the drugstore chains could also be trying to complicate the case further, in hopes of mitigating some damage to themselves.

In the miscellaneous file for the week:

— You’ve heard of ambulance-chasing lawyers, but what about ambulance-chasing doctors? It’s becoming a growing practice for doctors to promise plaintiffs in personal-injury cases free upfront care with the hope of cashing in when the settlement comes. While the strategy is legal and doesn’t technically violate any ethical rules, it still seems a little off — and can also leave patients with big bills if their lawsuits don’t go as planned.

— Public health experts are warily watching the development of a pneumonia-like illness in China, with echoes of the SARS outbreak not distant enough not to draw comparison and concern.

— As we continue to watch suicide rates skyrocket, experts scramble to figure out what can be done to halt the disturbing rise. Now, research suggests hope could come from an interesting strategy: raising the minimum wage by just $1.

— A truism that has emerged for me over my decade-plus in journalism is that where there’s a catastrophe or disaster, there is someone who stands to gain something. In this case, it’s the windfall that will come to hospitals if the flu season is as bad as predicted.

On that cheerful note, that’s it from me. Have a great weekend!

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .

Speaking of outrageous pace, is everyone doing OK after this news-filled week? If you’re feeling stressed you missed something health-related while distracted by the approximately 13 billion big stories going on simultaneously, relax, I’ve got you covered.

One of those 13 billion big stories was, of course, the latest Democratic debate. But the candidates might be feeling some health care fatigue like the rest of us because, although they hit their talking points, they moved quickly on to subjects beyond “Medicare for All.” That came as a slight surprise, since earlier in the week Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a plan on how to move more gradually into such a system than she’d previously discussed. Warren’s new blueprint would start by offering a more generous, subsidized government plan for some Americans and pass MFA by the end of her third year.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already walked the fine line that the progressive 2020 candidates are attempting when it comes to universal health care. He also ran on the idea of a single-payer system and has been navigating what happens when political slogan meets reality ever since he was elected. Could his experience offer insight to the Warrens of the world?

The White House was left scrambling this week after President Donald Trump made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Medical Center last Saturday. The speculation over Trump’s health spread like wildfire, and the White House’s attempts to frame the trip as Part One of the president’s annual physical were widely mocked by late-night hosts. Officials later shifted the story, saying it was just a routine checkup, but the damage had been done.

Side note (because I was curious, and you might be, too): During his tenure, then-President Barack Obama in 2014 made an unscheduled Saturday trip to Walter Reed, as well. The reason? A sore throat. ()

CMS Administrator Seema Verma has said that the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on outside communications contractors was meant to spread awareness of CMS’ policies. But emails obtained by Politico show that some of the discussions between those contractors and federal officials focused on getting Verma high-profile features in magazines like Glamour, winning recognition for her on “Power Women” lists and getting her invited to attend prestigious events.

In other news, this heartbreaking story takes a look at families of developmentally disabled beneficiaries who are stranded on waitlists because the state slashed its Medicaid funding.

A new Trump administration rule would force hospitals to reveal the prices they negotiate with insurers for all their procedures, as part of a larger strategy to increase transparency in health care. As you might imagine, hospitals and insurers were very much not pleased and have already promised a legal fight. The negotiations have always been shrouded in mystery, and revealing them would be tantamount to exposing trade secrets, they say.

A Wall Street Journal investigation has revealed that 1 in 4 of the doctors involved in the 163 malpractice claims against the Indian Health Service that the government settled or lost since 2006 had a history of medial mistakes and regulatory sanctions that should have raised red flags in the hiring process. At least 66 of the patients died as a result of the alleged malpractice.

The Department of Justice planned to announce a plan Friday to combat chronic and underreported violence against Native American women. The DOJ has faced criticism after past investigations found that thousands of missing-persons cases are missing from the agency’s logs. The proposal includes a plan to hire coordinators across the country who would be responsible for developing protocols for a more coordinated law enforcement response to missing-persons cases.

If you want to get a look at drugmakers’ behavior during the start of the opioid epidemic, look no further than what’s going on in China, apparently. An Associated Press investigation reveals that the tactics being employed there by a Sackler-owned company mirror the ones that spawned a crisis — as well as thousands upon thousands of lawsuits. That includes things like telling doctors that OxyContin is less addictive than other opioids and representing the drug as safe for chronic pain.

Meanwhile, county officials in Ohio struggle with incredibly tough decisions when it comes to reuniting children who were taken away because of a parent’s addiction. If the wrong choice is made it can — and has — ended in the death of a child.

In more lighthearted news: You think your mistakes at work are put on blast? This poor dude’s decimal error made national news.

A big, federal study showed that drugs are just as effective at saving lives as surgeries for blocked arteries. But here’s the thing, other studies have already shown this, and yet doctors still perform them. Why? Hint, hint: It just might have something to do with the fact that those procedures pull in the big bucks (though doctors say it’s because past studies were poorly designed).

In the miscellaneous file for the week:

• South Dakota’s new slogan to combat drug use in the state was thoroughly dragged through the social media wringer this week. “Meth. We’re on it,” was lambasted as both tone-deaf and ridiculous. But, the governor pointed out, it got your attention, didn’t it?

• Who better to take notes from on addiction than Big Tobacco? In the early days, Juul executives were bragging about the “leg up” they got from cigarette research.

• They’re billed as “quiet rooms,” but the isolated timeout spaces found in schools across Illinois seem far more troubling than the name suggests. Children are being kept in these rooms, locked up, alone and terrified — and the practice of doing so is often under-monitored by state officials.

• And so the pendulum swings: As more is discovered about CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) and the neurological damage done by playing football, many youth leagues have been banished. But the cultural roots of the sport run deep, especially in Texas where the game is making a comeback.

Hope everyone has a restful holiday. See you in December!

This article first appeared on ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø News and is republished here under a .