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Inch by inch, since the start of the pandemic, the White House has sought to sabotage the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the political benefit of President Donald Trump. To an alarming extent, it has succeeded. Once globally recognized as “the best science-based, data-driven agency in the world,” in the words of its current director, the CDC is now in danger of losing the public’s trust entirely. The most glaring has been communication. Against the best judgment of its own staffers, the agency has said that reopening schools is crucial even if doing so increases the spread of the coronavirus. It has failed to caution churches to suspend or limit the use of choirs, which have been associated with outbreaks. It has even discouraged testing asymptomatic people, against the advice of nearly all experts — though it eventually reversed itself under a barrage of criticism. In each case, the agency’s scientific staff were ignored or overruled under pressure from the White House or from Trump himself. (9/28)

Science is under attack by the White House. Our war-time president is exploiting the invisibility of the virus to hide it rather than defeat it. He politically weaponized masks – marks of its existence. He rejects testing — proof of its chilling reach. Now, he threatens to override FDA guidance on vaccine safety — promising its false, tainted end. “Warp speed” means Nov. 3. (Dr. Elena M. Lucchetta, 9/28)

The Food and Drug Administration has issued a number of contentious decisions during the Covid-19 pandemic related to investigational products. The controversies that continue to swirl around these decisions stem in part from the agency’s lack of transparency, including its limited explanation and disclosure of the evidence on which it based these decisions. (Liam Bendicksen, Joshua M. Sharfstein and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 9/29)

Since the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the U.S., the effects have been swift and devastating. As sections of the country have shut down to stem transmission of the virus, so have entire economies. The impact goes way beyond businesses and corporations. Cities and counties are suffering budget shortfalls and deficits in the tens of millions of dollars, while some states are reporting shortfalls in the billions. Yet with the pandemic still in full force, there is a greater need for spending on messaging, emergency and preventative health care,  medical and safety equipment, and emergency food, housing and income support. (K.A. Dilday, 9/28)

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this weekend that House Democrats plan to pass a new $2.4 trillion relief bill “that puts money in people’s pockets.” So it’s worth highlighting how the $2.2 trillion Cares Act that passed in March has disproportionately helped blue states that imposed stricter coronavirus lockdowns and have been slower to recover economically. (9/28)

The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has suddenly made the demise of ObamaCare a possibility. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a case challenging the law's constitutionality, California v. Texas, on Nov. 10, just a week after the election. Justice Ginsburg was a sure vote to uphold ObamaCare. Her replacement may not be.What would a world without ObamaCare look like? The law's defenders cry that it would be a public health catastrophe in which 20 million Americans, including many with pre-existing conditions, had their health coverage taken away from them. (Sally Pipes, 9/29)

Our major cities remain stubbornly segregated with some of the highest infant mortality rates for Black babies. Ohio needs a president who recognizes that from slavery to mass incarceration, racism has been used to enrich the very few at all of our expense. Whoever is president next year must leverage the power of the federal government to tackle the pandemic and rebuild the economy. Federal aid ended too soon during the last recession, and it took Ohio more than a decade to regain the jobs it lost. Wages never fully recovered. So far, federal leaders haven’t extended the full $600-a-week emergency payment for unemployed workers, which helped drive consumer spending that supported an estimated 130,000 Ohio jobs. (Hannah Halbert, 9/29)

Kettle Cuisine employs about 500 people in its Lynn plant. And chief executive Liam McClennon has ranked them among the “unsung heroes” of the pandemic, keeping the shelves at big grocery stores stocked with fresh and frozen soups. But McClennon is also deeply concerned for Kettle workers covered by a humanitarian program the Trump administration is threatening to end. (9/25)