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Split the difference. That’s what Republicans and Democrats should do on Covid-19 relief.Compromise doesn’t always work. If one group wants to build a bridge and another doesn’t, there’s no point in trying to make everyone happy by building half a bridge.In the case of the stalled negotiations over “phase four” of the federal response to the pandemic, though, meeting in the middle is exactly what ought to happen. The biggest sticking points concern unemployment benefits and aid to state and local governments. In both cases, the Republicans are being too stingy and the Democrats too generous. Reaching an agreement should not be beyond their wits. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 8/19)

For the estimated 30 million out-of-work Americans struggling to make ends meet during a virus-fueled economic collapse, Friday will mark four weeks of living on little more than a few hundred dollars a week in state unemployment compensation. That average income of $370 per week falls shamefully short of what the jobless need to survive, and it's why Congress and President Donald Trump agreed in March to add $600 a week in federal benefits.But the federal supplement ended in late July, and Americans — millions of whom lost their health coverage along with their jobs — have started making hard choices on spending for food, rent or medical bills. "It’s just about life or death in some situations," said Melissa Rusk, an unemployed resident of Bradenton, Florida. (8/19)

Amid the deadliest pandemic to afflict America in a century and surging unemployment, Medicaid expansion is having a moment. In recent months, two deeply conservative states— Oklahoma and Missouri — voted to expand Medicaid despite opposition from Republican state leaders. With the majority of voters in both political parties recognizing the value of Medicaid expansion, now is the time for the remaining 12 states to take this action. (Dr. Marisa K Dowling, Dr. Janice Blanchard and Dr. Jennifer Lee, 8/19)

During the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. unemployment rate reached 14.7%, the highest level since the Great Depression. More than 40 million people filed for unemployment insurance between March and May 2020, and official statistics may understate the true extent of job disruptions. Widespread layoffs amid the pandemic threaten to cut off millions of people from their employer-sponsored health insurance plans. Concurrently, health insurance has increased in importance because of the need for coverage of Covid-19 diagnostic testing and treatment. As restrictions are lifted and the economy begins its slow recovery, some people who had been laid off will be able to reclaim their jobs and health benefits. But the economy is unlikely to recover to prepandemic levels in the near future, meaning that the Covid-associated recession will leave many people without jobs and without their usual source of health insurance.Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented, people who lost their jobs had limited choices for health insurance. (Sumit D. Agarwal and Benjamin D. Sommers, 8/19)

A key component to managing the Covid-19 pandemic is frequent, rapid, and routine testing of a large number of Americans — including those without symptoms. With public discussion of this issue has come increased scrutiny of the accuracy of Covid-19 tests, especially the rapid point-of-care tests whose results can come back in a matter of minutes. (Jeffrey L. Schnipper and Paul E. Sax, 8/20)

Ever since this horrible stupid pandemic began, it’s been clear testing was the key to stopping it. Way back in March, the WHO’s director-general said fighting the disease without testing was like trying to “fight a fire blindfolded.” Unlike some other countries that tested aggressively from the start, the U.S. has been wearing blinders for months. Finally, there’s some hope they may come off soon. The FDA just approved a thing called SalivaDirect, which sounds like the world’s worst delivery service but is in fact a cheap, easy, spit-based test for SARS-CoV-2. (Mark Gongloff, 8/19)

First, we need to save lives by preventing mass institutionalization. Placing individuals with disabilities into congregate care facilities where the risks of serious illness and death are high is reckless and unacceptable. Yet the GOP refused to provide the urgently needed 10% increase in funding for Medicaid Home and Community Based Services — despite that we know that Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities are killed at staggering rates when infected with COVID-19, and despite that Republican and Democratic governors alike desperately need us to pass this commonsense policy that would save lives. Second, Senate Republicans must abandon efforts to gut the ADA, once and for all. (Sen. Tammy Duckworth, 8/20)

Wajahat Ali : Democrats revealed their values and policies through the real stories of women: Gabby Giffords, a gun violence survivor, playing “America (My Country, ’Tis of Thee)” on the French horn; and an undocumented mother sitting with her daughters. ... Nicole Hemmer: Gabby Giffords has toiled for years to regain her ability to speak after being shot. As she said in her short, powerful speech, “I struggle to speak, but I have not lost my voice.” Thank god she hasn’t — every word testified to what gun violence took from her and what she’s taken back. (8/19)

No, it’s not the setup of a Saturday Night Live skit. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who recklessly waved guns at protesters marching past their home in June, are actually slated to speak at the Republican National Convention next week. What does it say about today’s GOP that leaders would elevate this couple as representative of Republican values? Once, Republicans cared about things like law and order, and free expression. By putting the McCloskeys on the national stage, convention organizers are embracing a reactionary, armed-vigilante message that even staunch gun-rights activists have called into question. (8/18)

On the day the president made this claim, New Zealand had a “big surge” of nine new coronavirus cases. Maybe Trump was presciently looking ahead to what would happen the next day, when New Zealand would report 13 new cases, but he probably wasn’t thinking of Wednesday, when it reported six new cases. How ridiculous was the president’s assertion? On Wednesday, Pinellas County reported 12 new deaths in a single day, and Hillsborough counted 18. As for cases? Well, Hillsborough had 246 new ones, and Pinellas had 118. It was a sad day for the Sunshine State, as it crossed the threshold of 10,000 deaths. The United States has surpassed 171,000 deaths. How many have died in New Zealand? Twenty-two. Total. (8/19)

Just 10 miles away from a U.S. military base in Syria, 8,000 people are starving to death, besieged on all sides, and cut off from any food or medicine or other aid, in a camp called Rukban. Yet this isolation had one benefit: It protected them from the added calamity of a covid-19 outbreak. Now, however, Jordan is deporting its Syrian refugees directly into Rukban, some of whom could be bringing the virus back to their homeland with them. There are lots of tragic stories in Syria, but few match the sheer horror and hopelessness of the internally displaced civilians in this southeast Syrian camp, which is protected by a nearby U.S. military outpost from the Bashar al-Assad regime as well as Russian and Iranian forces. There are no roads out and no roads in. (Josh Rogin, 8/20)