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The U.S. reported fewer than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time in five days, while cases remained elevated in several states, particularly in the Midwest. In Wisconsin, the seven-day average of new coronavirus cases hit 2,510 as of Sunday, the highest level since the pandemic began, according to the state’s Department of Health Services. Wisconsin’s daily tally was more than 2,600, down from a peak of more than 3,000 reached Thursday. (Hall, 10/12)

More than half of US states are seeing an increase in new Covid-19 cases, with five states -- Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont -- reporting a jump of more than 50% in one week. Health experts warned over the weekend that the US could have a surge in coronavirus cases and deaths in the coming months, adding to the more than 7.7 million cases and 214,764 deaths on record. (Holcombe, 10/12)

More than 34,500 Americans are currently hospitalized with Covid-19 in the US, up from less than 30,000 a week ago. Nearly 700 new deaths are being reported on average every day, too — and while that is down from August, when there were often more than 1,000 deaths a day, deaths are going to eventually start increasing if cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. It’s a pattern we have seen before. (Scott, 10/11)

Hospitalizations from COVID-19 have hit their highest points recently throughout the Midwest, where the growth in new cases has been the worst in the nation. But that’s not the message coming from a number of Republican governors in the region, who are working to find silver linings in the ominous health data as outbreaks surge in their states. (DeMillo, 10/11)

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released Friday warned that there is an “urgent need” to address the spread of the coronavirus among young adults. The study found that increases among transmission in younger people are often a precursor to transmission among older, higher-risk people. (Sullivan, 10/9)

The coronavirus infection rate ticked up over the weekend in some New York hot spots where the state has tightened social-distancing restrictions, state officials said Sunday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week closed schools and nonessential businesses, banned mass gatherings and limited houses of worship to no more than 25% of their capacity, or 10 people, in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland and Orange counties where clusters of Covid-19 cases have emerged in recent weeks. (Vielkind, 10/11)

Authorities cracked down this weekend on some of the city’s coronavirus hot spots, issuing more than 60 summonses and tens of thousands of dollars in fines to people, businesses and houses of worship that did not follow newly imposed restrictions on gatherings or mask-wearing and social-distancing requirements. Among those issued a summons by the New York City sheriff were a restaurant and at least five houses of worship in the city’s “red zones,” where coronavirus infection rates are the highest. Each of those locations was given a summons that could result in up to $15,000 in fines, said Sheriff Joseph Fucito. (Watkins, 10/11)

President Trump tweeted on Sunday that he is “immune” to the novel coronavirus and “can’t give it,” even though the White House has not released any negative test results and immunity to the virus remains poorly understood. The tweet was quickly flagged by Twitter, which said it contained “misleading and potentially harmful misinformation” related to the coronavirus. It was the latest example of the social media giant pushing back against the president’s posts on the deadly virus, and it appeared to refer to Trump’s claim to immunity. Some recovered patients with covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, have been reinfected, and experts say many questions remain about immunity, including how long it lasts. (Brulliard and Sonmez, 10/11)

President Donald Trump on Sunday declared he was ready to return to the campaign trail despite unanswered questions about his health on the eve of a Florida rally meant to kick off the stretch run before Election Day. His impending return comes after the White House doctor said he was no longer at risk of transmitting the coronavirus but did not say explicitly whether Trump had tested negative for it. The president insisted he was now “immune” from the virus, a claim that was impossible to prove and added to the unknowns about the president’s health. “I’m immune,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “The president is in very good shape to fight the battles.” (Lemire and Yen, 10/11)

Ask an infectious disease doctor whether the president still has coronavirus, and you quickly realize that "having" the virus is a concept that exists more among laypeople than doctors. "We try to avoid that question," says Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center of Health Security. "It becomes much harder to explain to people, well why is the test positive when you're saying he's not contagious? It's because, that far out, it's not viable virus." (Schwartz, 10/11)

“Now at day 10 from symptom onset, fever-free for well over 24 hours and all symptoms improved, the assortment of advanced diagnostic tests obtained reveal there is no longer evidence of actively replicating virus,” said Dr. Sean Conley in a memo. “Moving forward, I will continue to monitor him clinically as he returns to an active schedule.” Conley added that Trump had demonstrated “decreasing viral loads.” Viral load refers to how much virus is present in any sample taken from a patient, whether it’s blood or — in the case of Covid-19 — secretions collected during a deep nasal swab. (10/10)

A tweet from President Trump claiming that he was now "immune" to COVID-19 after his treatment for the virus last week was tagged by the platform as "misleading" on Sunday. The tweet in question, posted late Sunday morning, stated that the president received a "total and complete sign off from White House Doctors yesterday." "That means I can’t get it (immune), and can’t give it. Very nice to know!!!" he continued. (Bowden, 10/11)

Regeneron chief executive Leonard Schleifer on Sunday said President Donald Trump's treatment with the company's experimental antibody cocktail is "a case of one," but stressed ongoing clinical trials still need to show its efficacy. "The president's case is a case of one, and that's what we call a case report, and it is evidence of what's happening, but it's kind of the weakest evidence that you can get," Schleifer said in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation." (O'Brien, 10/11)

Dr. Leonard Schleifer, the founder and CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which developed the antibody cocktail heralded by President Trump, estimated Sunday that a $450 million contract the company won from the federal government over the summer will secure roughly 300,000 doses of the treatment. "They bought from us several hundred thousand, maybe around 300,000 doses, which they are going to make it for free," Schleifer said in an interview with "Face the Nation." "We can't do this alone. We need the entire industry." (Quinn and Tillett, 10/11)

When President Trump promoted an experimental drug as a “cure” for Covid-19 in a video on Wednesday, it might have seemed that he was at it again: touting a questionable fix for a deadly pandemic, not unlike his earlier enthusiasm for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine or even, at one point, disinfectant. But the treatment that Mr. Trump extolled, which was administered last week after doctors diagnosed Covid-19, is not a fringe product. It’s a promising drug in the final stages of testing developed by a respected biotech company, Regeneron. Infectious disease experts have been closely following the treatment, as well as a similar product from Eli Lilly, in the hopes that the therapies could be a real advance in the fight against Covid-19. (Thomas and Grady, 10/9)

President Trump's public praise for an experimental coronavirus antibody treatment is putting new pressure on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to quickly give emergency clearance to a drug he has touted as a "miracle." Doctors think the drugs show promise as a potential treatment of COVID-19, though Trump has created confusion by quickly elevating them to a cure. (Weixel, 10/10)

President Trump’s son Eric Trump on Sunday called his father’s treatment for COVID-19 a vaccine that he further claimed the president helped create from “day one.” “My father literally started day one creating this vaccine. He worked to push this vaccine, and now my father just took it, and you see how well he got over it,” Eric Trump told Jonathan Karl of ABC's "This Week." (Rahman, 10/11)

President Trump’s long rants and seemingly erratic behavior last week — which some doctors believe might have been fueled by his use of dexamethasone, a steroid, to treat Covid-19 — renewed a long-simmering debate among national security experts about whether it is time to retire one of the early inventions of the Cold War: the unchecked authority of the president to launch nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump has publicly threatened the use of those weapons only once in his presidency, during his first collision with North Korea in 2017. But it was his decision not to invoke the 25th Amendment and turn control over to Vice President Mike Pence last week that has prompted concern inside and outside the government. (Sanger and Broad, 10/11)

In another era, what happened Wednesday might have been viewed simply as good news. Two companies, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly, have independently developed therapeutic drugs, called monoclonal antibodies, that in preliminary testing appear to reduce symptoms for coronavirus patients. They applied for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. The positive development immediately became entangled in election-year politics, with President Trump repeatedly making false and exaggerated claims about the new therapeutics. He called them a cure, which they’re not. He said he was about to approve them — a premature promise given that the FDA’s career scientists are charged with reviewing the applications. (Achenbach and McGinley, 10/11)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials. The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 Americans a day. The officials said that it was drafted under the agency’s “quarantine powers” and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it. (Kaplan, 10/9)

The Pentagon is putting on a show of force as most of its Joint Chiefs of Staff quarantine after two top military officials tested positive for COVID-19 last week and possibly exposed others. Defense Department officials have repeatedly insisted that military readiness has not been affected and that it remains ready to defend the country, a stance it repeated on Thursday. (Mitchell, 10/11)

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been able to leave the hospital a week after testing positive for the coronavirus, he announced Saturday. “I am happy to let you know that this morning I was released from Morristown Medical Center,” Christie tweeted. (Landergan, 10/10)

President Donald Trump signed a bill Saturday aimed at addressing missing and murdered Native Americans. Savanna's Act will establish national law enforcement guidelines between the federal government and American Indian tribes to help track, solve and prevent crimes against Native Americans. The law is named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a pregnant 22-year-old Spirit Lake tribal member from North Dakota who was killed in 2017. ... Murder is the third-leading cause of death for American Indian/Alaska Native women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. (Flores, 10/11)

President Trump has asked his campaign to put him on the road every single day from now until Nov. 3. His team is in the process of scheduling events to make that happen, two sources familiar with the discussions tell Axios. But not everyone thinks this is a good idea. One adviser said, “He’s going to kill himself.” (Treene and Swan, 10/11)

President Donald Trump on Saturday made his first public appearance since returning from a three-day hospitalization due to coronavirus, addressing hundreds of Black and Latino supporters crowded together on the White House lawn. “First of all, I'm feeling great. I don't know about you,” Trump told the estimated audience of 500 who, despite wearing masks, were packed together below the Truman Balcony where he spoke. According to a person familiar with the event, more than 2,000 guests had been invited. (Oprysko, 10/10)

President Donald Trump will try to put his bout with COVID-19 behind him when he returns to the campaign trail on Monday, beginning a three-week sprint to the Nov. 3 election with a rally in the vital battleground state of Florida. The event at an airport in Sanford, Florida, will be Trump’s first campaign rally since he disclosed on Oct. 2 that he tested positive for COVID-19. Trump, who spent three days in the hospital for treatment, said on Sunday he was fully recovered and no longer infectious, but did not say directly whether he had tested negative for the virus. (Whitesides, 10/12)

The mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, said he is worried that President Trump's campaign rally in Des Moines this week could be responsible for spreading COVID-19 in the city. Asked by the Des Moines Register whether he is concerned that the event could accelerate the spread of COVID-19 in Des Moines, Mayor Frank Cownie (D) said he "absolutely" was. (Bowden, 10/11)

The Commission on Presidential Debates on Friday canceled the second pre-election showdown between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the situation. The debate, initially scheduled for Oct. 15 in Miami, was changed to a virtual format following the president's coronavirus diagnosis last week. Trump and his campaign protested against a virtual debate, calling the change a ploy to help Biden. Biden's campaign said it would not partake in the town hall-style debate if Trump did not show. The commission said the format change was to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved. (Forgey, 10/9)

Eric Trump pinned the blame on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for the cancellation of the Oct. 15 presidential debate, after the debate commission made the event a virtual one following President Donald Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis. The president’s son told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on Sunday that Biden “didn't want to stand on the stage with my father, and that should tell you everything you know you need to know about him.” (Bice, 10/11)

The coronavirus pandemic has made voting by mail one of the election’s most contentious issues. More than 25 states have expanded access to universal mail voting, a move President Trump has repeatedly, and erroneously, equated with a fraudulent election. Already, there have been breakdowns. Last month, a vendor error led to nearly 100,000 voters in Brooklyn, N.Y., receiving security envelopes belonging to someone else. During Michigan’s primary, more than 2,200 ballots were rejected because they hadn’t been signed by the voter. (Bracker and Eaton, 10/11)

Dr. Anthony Fauci did not consent to being featured in a new advertisement from the Trump campaign touting President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the nation's leading infectious disease expert told CNN his words were taken out of context. "In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials," Fauci said in a statement provided exclusively to CNN when asked if he agreed to be featured in the ad. (Collins, 10/11)

The new ad, titled “Carefully,” was released after Trump’s discharge from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he was being treated for coronavirus last weekend. The ad touts the strength of Trump’s leadership in response to the pandemic. An edited clip of Fauci shows him saying, “I can’t imagine that … anybody could be doing more.” (Cohen, 10/11)

The comment from Fauci was in reference to the White House coronavirus task force and the broader government response, not to Trump. It's also almost seven months old. ... The ad also flashes clips of Trump wearing masks — a measure he has repeatedly criticized and taken sparingly in public settings since his first time wearing one in public in July. (McCarthy, 10/11)

Public officials will need to determine who receives the first coronavirus vaccines once they become available, Dr. Anthony Fauci told a virtual gathering of the nonprofit Berkeley Forum. A “good vaccine” might mean a gradual return to a sense of normalcy toward the end of next year, Fauci said Thursday evening. At the same time, the highly regarded director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases cautioned that such a return will not be as easy as “turning a light switch on and off.” A coronavirus vaccine will not be 99% effective, and the majority of people likely will not be vaccinated, he said. (Arredondo, 10/9)

The White House again pivoted its approach to stimulus negotiations on Sunday, with the president’s aides pushing for immediate action on a narrow measure after the administration’s $1.8 trillion proposal was rebuffed by members of both parties. In a letter to Congress sent Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked lawmakers to first pass legislation allowing the Trump administration to redirect about $130 billion in unused funding from the Paycheck Protection Program intended for small businesses while negotiations continue on a broader relief effort. (Stein and Werner, 10/11)

Top Trump administration officials are calling on lawmakers to pass legislation to redirect unused funding from a small-business lifeline, the latest salvo in a week of twists and turns in talks between the White House and congressional leaders on a new round of coronavirus stimulus. “Now is the time for us to come together and immediately vote on a bill to allow us to spend the unused Paycheck Protection Program funds while we continue to work toward a comprehensive package,” White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote in a letter on Sunday to members of the House and Senate. “The all-or-nothing approach is an unacceptable response to the American people.” (O'Brien, 10/11)

A potentially dire housing crisis could erupt if the Trump administration and Congress fail to reach a deal on further coronavirus relief that includes eviction protections and substantial rent assistance, experts warn. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a sweeping eviction ban last month in an unprecedented flex of its emergency authorities, but the moratorium stands on shaky legal ground — and only runs through the end of the year. (Lane, 10/11)

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings this week offer President Trump and Senate Republicans one of their final chances before the election to shift the fall agenda away from the coronavirus pandemic and toward an issue they believe is more politically beneficial: solidifying a conservative majority on the nation’s high court. But reminders of covid-19 will be inescapable. (Min Kim, 10/11)

Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett vows to be a justice “fearless of criticism” as the split Senate charges ahead with confirmation hearings on President Donald Trump’s pick to cement a conservative court majority before Election Day. Barrett, a federal appeals court judge, draws on faith and family in her prepared opening remarks for the hearings, which begin Monday as the country is in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic. She says courts “should not try” to make policy, and believes she would bring “a few new perspectives” as the first mother of school-age children on the nine-member court. (Sherman, Mascaro, Jalonick and Balsamo, 10/11)

Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, will attend Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings remotely, according to her Senate office. “Due to Judiciary Committee Republicans’ refusal to take common sense steps to protect members, aides, Capitol complex workers, and members of the media, Senator Harris plans to participate in this week’s hearings remotely from her Senate office in the Hart building,” a spokesperson for the California Democrat said in a statement on Sunday. (Levine, 10/11)

Amy Coney Barrett, the supreme court nominee, was a member of a “right to life” organization in 2016 that promoted a local South Bend, Indiana, crisis pregnancy center, a clinic that has been criticised for misleading vulnerable women who were seeking abortions and pressuring them to keep their pregnancies. Barrett, whose confirmation hearing before the Senate judiciary committee is set to begin on Monday, was a member of the University Faculty for Life at Notre Dame from 2010 to 2016. Online records show that the group began promoting South Bend’s Women’s Care Center in 2016 on its website, adding a link to the group under a section called “Pro-Life Links”. (Kirchgaessner, 10/11)

Lawmakers continued to press for widespread testing in the Capitol complex Friday as another member announced they had contracted COVID-19. Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters on a press call that he had not heard any reports of progress on Senate-wide testing and called it “an abomination.” Murphy, the ranking Democrat on the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, said, “The cost is likely negligible in the grand scheme of things. So the issue here is not, is not, cost. The issue is a Republican Senate majority that just doesn’t want to let people know the extent of the spread in the White House, and in their caucus.” Murphy’s call for more testing comes as another member of Congress, Illinois Republican Rep. Mike Bost, said the COVID-19 test he sought after experiencing symptoms was positive. (Cioffi, 10/9)

U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois has tested positive for COVID-19, the latest lawmaker now confirmed to have the virus. The Republican whose district covers most of deep southern Illinois tested positive late Thursday, according to a statement from his office Friday. He had experienced “a mild cough and a rapid loss of both taste and smell,” prompting him to take the test. (10/11)

Sen. John Cornyn is running for reelection to his fourth term in the Senate as the nation grapples with a deadly pandemic, making health care policy as important as ever in U.S. history. At a time when testing positive for the coronavirus counts as a preexisting condition and thousands are losing their jobs, many Americans are worried that their access to affordable health care could be at stake right when they need it the most, especially with the Affordable Care Act on the line. (Thompson, 10/9)

KHN: With Senate Control At Stake, Trump And COVID Haunt Ernst’s Fight To Keep Her Seat 

The week that Iowa reported its 90,000th confirmed case of COVID-19, Sen. Joni Ernst sat behind a plexiglass partition and told a debate audience watching from home what she thinks about masks. “Even though they’re homemade, they work,” said Ernst, an Iowa Republican, showing off a mask emblazoned with the logo of Iowa State University, the largest university in the state. But what about requiring people to wear masks when they cannot safely distance themselves? On that, she sided with the state’s Republican governor and President Donald Trump, contradicting evidence that states with mask mandates have seen bigger drops in coronavirus cases than those without: “We know that it doesn’t work,” she asserted about mandates. (Huetteman, 10/12)

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Friday raised concerns around a recent cyberattack on hospital chain Universal Health Services (UHS) that resulted in the data of millions of customers potentially being compromised. In a letter to UHS Chairman and CEO Alan Miller, Warner, who serves as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asked a series of questions in relation to a ransomware attack on UHS last month that crashed systems at hospital facilities across the nation. (Miller, 10/9)

The population on the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA's) exchanges that do not get subsidies declined by 45% from 2016 to 2019, a new report from the Trump administration found. The report, released Friday (PDF) from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), argues that people who don’t qualify for income-based subsidies to lower the cost of insurance are being priced out of the exchanges. (King, 10/9)

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation designed its direct-contracting program to attract providers that didn’t take part in its accountable care models. Experts predicted the model’s financial terms would entice new provider organizations. The Medicare Shared Savings Program “had a core problem: If you did not have an established patient base, you could not be an ACO,” said former CMS official Travis Broome, now senior vice president for policy and economics at consulting firm Aledade. Direct contracting appears to solve that problem. (Brady, 10/10)

Fewer Medicare Advantage plans scored high quality ratings for their 2021 plans than the year before, according to the latest federal data. Of the 400 Advantage plans with prescription drug coverage that received a rating, roughly 49% earned four stars or higher on a scale of one to five stars, with five being the highest. For 2020 plans, 52% scored four stars or more. (Livingston, 10/9)

A Trump administration official leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine starting in January 2021, despite statements from the president that inoculations could begin this month. And a growing, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, experts and public health officials says the country is ill prepared for a projected winter surge of COVID-19. (Mendoza and Linderman, 10/9)

Members of Congress, advocacy groups and a former administration official say Operation Warp Speed should release its vaccine contracts with pharmaceutical companies, following an NPR report that the Trump administration awarded billions of dollars through a third party, bypassing the usual contracting process. "The administration really just seems to be playing a game of hide and seek," Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, told NPR. (Lupkin, 10/10)

The U.S. government paid out $4.4 billion over more than 30 years covering injuries relating to a host of vaccines—from flu to polio—but payouts for potential injuries from Covid-19 vaccines will be covered by a far less-generous program. Covid-19 vaccine injuries will be covered under a program known as the “countermeasures injury” compensation fund, which was set up in 2010 to cover harm resulting from vaccines for a flu pandemic, or drugs to treat an anthrax or Ebola outbreak, for example. (Loftus and Pulliam, 10/11)

The world is racing towards a vaccine in record time, stirring public concerns about safety to the extent that nine leading developers have felt compelled to issue a pledge to uphold scientific standards and testing rigour. Yet, while more than 40 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are being tested on humans, the insurance companies with decades of experience in assessing the risks of clinical trials don’t see anything to be unduly concerned about. Executives at insurer Allianz and brokers Gallagher and Marsh, among the leading players in clinical trials insurance, told Reuters that premiums had only marginally increased so far in the current pandemic. (Hussain, Cohn and Burger, 10/12)

The presidents of two historically Black universities in New Orleans thought they were doing a public service by enrolling in a Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial back in August, so much so they urged their campus communities to consider doing the same. “I said we should inform our communities because I think there’s something about teaching by example,” said Reynold Verret, a biochemist who leads Xavier University of Louisiana. “We’re two Black men who rolled up their sleeves.” (St. Fleur, 10/12)

The U.S. government has awarded $486 million to AstraZeneca Plc to develop and secure supplies of up to 100,000 doses of Covid-19 antibody treatment, a similar class of drug that was used in treating President Donald Trump. The agreement, under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, is for developing a monoclonal antibody cocktail that can prevent Covid-19, especially in high-risk population like those over 80 years old, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said. (10/12)

Two pharmaceutical companies issued voluntary recalls Monday for metformin, an anti-diabetes drug, due to high levels of a cancer-causing compound, according to a release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Metformin is used to treat type 2 diabetes, according to Mayo Clinic, and is distributed under the following brand names: Fortamet, Glucophage, Glucophage XR, Glumetza and Riomet. (Mitchell, 10/9)

South Korean drugmaker Celltrion Inc 068270.KS said on Monday it has received regulatory approval for Phase 3 clinical trials of an experimental COVID-19 treatment. The approval comes as the company plans to seek conditional approval for its antibody drug, CT-P59, for emergency use by the end of this year. (Cha, 10/12)

Mallinckrodt filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday, saddled with lawsuits alleging it fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic and after it lost a court battle to avoid paying higher rebates to state Medicaid programs for its top-selling drug. The company listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District Of Delaware. (10/12)

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe — including upending the process of drug development. That has been especially true in clinical trials for oncology, which come with a complex set of considerations. Patients often have to come into the clinic or be hospitalized for treatment. They also have to be protected against possible infections that could devastate a weakened immune system. (Spinelli, 10/9)

When patients sign up for the newest kind of therapy at the Mental Health Center of Denver, here’s what comes in their welcome packet: A biofeedback device that clips to their ear to measure pulse and blood-oxygen levels. A phone stand to prop up a smartphone during therapy sessions. And directions for downloading an app to chat with a therapist. It’s a new era in technology for the community mental health center, a key step toward “preparing for the next generation,” said Alires Almon, the center’s director of innovation. The 12-week, virtual therapy program isn’t meant to replace traditional face-to-face counseling — it’s a contemporary option for people who would rather work on their mental health at home with their smartphone than walk into a mental health center. (Brown, 10/11)

HCA Healthcare will return approximately $6 billion in federal provider relief funds and Medicare advance payments, the company said Thursday, as earnings are expected to remain steady in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. While hospitals nationwide reported dips in patient visits and revenues early in the pandemic, those numbers have since bounced back as patients returned for elective procedures and check-ups. (Wu, 10/9)

Sutter Health, California's Attorney General and several health plans are headed back to the drawing board in their search for a watchdog to oversee the health system's compliance with the terms of its antitrust settlement. Not-for-profit Sutter and the plaintiffs, which also include UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust, will submit a new formal plan for selecting a monitor by Oct. 15, with a hearing Oct. 19 on the proposed plan. After that, the selection process is expected to take 3 months. (Bannow, 10/9)

On the heels of a flurry of mergers, acquisitions and shifts in North Carolina’s health care environment in recent months, two large systems have announced Friday their intent to more closely affiliate. The Charlotte-based Atrium Health has agreed to form a new “enterprise,” Atrium Health Inc. with the Winston-Salem based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and its medical school. (Engel-Smith and Hoban, 10/12)

People are deferring many routine medical treatments during the coronavirus pandemic, creating unexpected savings for some employers, while making it harder for companies to forecast health-benefit costs in the year ahead. As U.S. companies prepare to open their enrollment periods for health-care plans, many are uncertain about how much medical care their employees will consume in the year ahead. Health benefits typically account for a large portion of a company’s personnel costs. (Broughton, 10/11)

COVID-19 can do more than torment patients physically. It also clobbers some financially. Even though many insurers and the U.S. government have offered to pick up or waive costs tied to the virus, holes remain for big bills to slip through and surprise patients. People who weren’t able to get a test showing they had the virus and those who receive care outside their insurance network are particularly vulnerable. Who provides the coverage and how hard a patient fights to lower a bill also can matter. (Murphy, 10/11)

Unlike the vast majority of Americans who get sick, President Trump is reaping the benefits of single-payer, single-provider health care. He doesn’t have to deal with networks, deductibles, or co-pays at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The president will not face the familiar onslaught of paperwork, the confusing “explanations of benefit,” or the ongoing bills that distract so many Americans as they attempt to recuperate from their illnesses. (Givan, 10/10)

Substance-use disorders in July emerged as one of the top five telehealth diagnoses in the Northeast, ranking fifth, according to new data from Midtown-based nonprofit Fair Health. The finding is the first time the diagnosis breached the top five this year, Fair Health noted. It's consistent with an increase in substance-use disorders that has been noted during the pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies as well as a trend toward using telehealth to treat a wider variety of conditions. (Henderson, 10/11)

As Jefferson Health in Philadelphia saw its telehealth platform volumes skyrocket during the first few months of COVID-19, technical glitches started occurring. In mid-March, complaints from providers and patients about technical problems kept cropping up. They cited video and audio issues as visits using Jefferson’s virtual platform rose by up to fiftyfold. (Castellucci, 10/10)

A group of roughly 100 health professionals has sent an open letter to Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte chiding him over various actions regarding COVID-19 precautions. In response, Gianforte’s campaign said the letter was an attempt to politicize public health. The letter was sent Friday to Lee Montana Newspapers and included 111 names of nurses, doctors, caregivers and public health professionals. (Tollefson, 10/11)

One nurse has a message for President Donald Trump: The coronavirus pandemic is still something people should care about. Cristina Hops, who works on the frontlines helping patients fighting coronavirus, said she was upset after reading the President's tweet on Monday, in which he told Americans "don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life." "When I read that and I got home, I was just so angry about it that I felt like I needed to say something," Hops, who is based in Seattle, Washington, told CNN. (Smith, 10/8)

The coronavirus isn’t sticking to its schedule. The deadly pathogen was always expected to make a comeback this winter, but an autumn rebound in infections across Europe and North America could make the colder months even more daunting than public health officials had anticipated. (Lauerman, Ring and Levin, 10/10)

The virus that causes COVID-19 can survive on banknotes, glass and stainless steel for up to 28 days, much longer than the flu virus, Australian researchers said on Monday, highlighting the need for cleaning and handwashing to combat the virus. ... By comparison, Influenza A virus has been found to survive on surfaces for 17 days. (Paul and Nicol Bikes, 10/11)

Obese Americans are more likely to become dangerously ill if they are infected with the new coronavirus. Now public health officials are warning that a much broader segment of the population also may be at risk: even moderately excess weight may increase the odds of severe disease. The warning, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week, may have serious implications for Americans. While about 40 percent of U.S. adults are obese, another 32 percent are simply overweight, among the highest rates of obesity and overweight in the world. (Rabin, 10/10)

After contracting the coronavirus in March, Michael Reagan lost all memory of his 12-day vacation in Paris, even though the trip was just a few weeks earlier. Several weeks after Erica Taylor recovered from her Covid-19 symptoms of nausea and cough, she became confused and forgetful, failing to even recognize her own car, the only Toyota Prius in her apartment complex’s parking lot. (Belluck, 10/11)

Veronica Richmond is just 15, but she's skipped three grades and is about to graduate from high school in Boise, Idaho. But the self-described photographer, biologist, poet, graphic designer and debater now has a new identity she never wanted. She is a Covid-19 long hauler, along with her sister Audrey and mother Jamie. (Prior, 10/12)

KHN: COVID Takes Challenge Of Tracking Infectious College Students To New Level 

As the return of college students to campuses has fueled as many as 3,000 COVID-19 cases a day, keeping track of them is a logistical nightmare for local health departments and colleges. Some students are putting down their home addresses instead of their college ones on their COVID testing forms — slowing the transfer of case data and hampering contact tracing across state and county lines. (Weber, 10/12)

In the fifth grade, 51 percent of girls in Georgia have healthy aerobic ability. By the 12th grade, the number plummets to 31 percent. What’s causing this drop? And what can be done about it? A group of nonprofits, led by the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation, have decided to focus on the issue — and on middle school girls’ fitness. (Miller, 10/9)

New research has documented a direct correlation between absenteeism among Salt Lake City school students and air pollution levels, even at times when air quality is not particularly bad. An interdisciplinary team led by University of Utah atmospheric scientist Daniel Mendoza examined three years worth of absence data from 36 schools, comparing it with ambient levels of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, and ozone recorded by a network of sensors set up around the city and mounted on TRAX trains. (Maffly, 10/11)

Schools that focus heavily on health fields, including the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Methodist College, Clarkson College and Lincoln’s Bryan College of Health Sciences had enrollment jumps this fall. (Ruggles, 10/11)

More than a million Massachusetts students need a flu shot by New Year’s Eve if they hope to attend classes come January — making the state a national proving ground for battling a feared winter “twindemic" of flu and coronavirus. Protesters have swarmed downtown Boston and the state Capitol in the seven weeks since Republican Gov. Charlie Baker issued the first-of-its-kind requirement for students from preschool through college. As the Massachusetts mandate plays out, other states have weighed similar requirements while colleges throughout the country pile on their own orders to prevent flu patients from clogging doctors offices and emergency rooms alongside people infected with coronavirus this winter. (Perez Jr., 10/9)

Mental health issues affect everyone, but people of color — Black, Latinx, Asian and Native American people — have higher rates of some mental health disorders and face greater disparities in getting help than White people. Those issues are primarily due to lack of access to services resulting from institutional discrimination, interpersonal racism and stigma — which can all harm the psyche of people of color in places where they are not the majority. (Rogers, 10/10)

White House officials have been likening their workplace to a “ghost town” since President Donald Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19. East Wing staffers are under orders to work from home, while many in the West Wing — if they aren’t isolating with their own cases — are also staying away. It’s a smart choice, but not one that’s available to everyone. Out of sight, the White House residence staff, numbering about 90, continues taking care of the daily needs of a contagious president and first lady. The risks are considerable, and they’re not just health-related. (Minter, 10/11)

A mom who followed her instincts is the reason her daughter is now being treated for cancer in her eye. It was July 30, Jasmine Martin told "Good Morning America," when she saw it. Prior to that day, she said, there had been "a small glow" in her daughter Sariyah's eye. "But that day, it was like a moon." (Shaw Brown, 10/12)

A Harris County family is asking Texas Children’s to allow them to provide home-based mechanical support to maintain heart function of their 10-month-old son deemed brain-dead by hospital doctors. The request seeks to resolve a conflict in which parents Mario and Ana Patricia Torres went to court in an attempt to require that Texas Children’s continue treatment to 10-month-old Nick, whom they brought to the hospital after he was found unconscious and unresponsive in a bathtub on Sept. 24. They made the request Friday after a state appeals court agreed with the hospital that the child is deceased and denied the family’s appeal. The ruling allows Texas Children’s to unplug the ventilator Monday. (Ackerman, 10/10)

Under pressure from the federal government, Nevada health officials on Friday rescinded a statewide order directing nursing homes to halt the use of two government-issued rapid coronavirus tests that the state had deemed to be inaccurate. The reversal came shortly after the United States Department of Health and Human Services issued a threatening letter, dated Oct. 8, to Nevada officials. The federal document noted that swift punitive actions could be taken if the state did not promptly revoke its ban, which Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of Health and Human Services, called “unwise, uninformed and unlawful” and a violation of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. (Wu, 10/10)

Millions of rapid tests for COVID-19 will be heading to Georgia soon and the first shipment has already arrived. Rapid results could make up as much as 6% of the state’s positive COVID-19 cases but this can’t be known for sure. As these tests get smaller and more widespread, some experts say that’s not good enough. (Johnson, 10/9)

A federal effort to arm nursing homes with rapid coronavirus tests is stumbling on concern the tests return false positives, putting at least one state at odds with federal officials over the value of the tests. Nevada this month ordered nursing homes to stop using the point-of-care tests after they found more than 20 instances where positive findings were overturned by more precise assays. That was more than half of the positive samples re-tested. Other states are now questioning their accuracy as well. (Tozzi, LaVito and Court, 10/9)

At a time when public health programs are crucial in order to protect, advise and educate state governments and the people they serve, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services is in the middle of a weighty reorganization. Under the leadership of CEO Dannette Smith and advice of a hired consultant, it is shuffling employees and filling new positions. Tom Safranek, who had been the state epidemiologist for 30 years, was removed last month from that position and given a new role: special assistant to CEO Smith. (Young, 10/11)

As COVID-19 cases surge across Montana, care homes are struggling to keep up with frequently changing regulations, intensifying the pressure they’re under to keep staff and residents safe. Long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and assisted living centers generally serve older adults with underlying medical conditions, and the communal nature of these facilities compounds the risk, according to health experts. (Hall, 10/11)

KHN: COVID Stalks Montana Town Already Saddled With Asbestos Disease

Frank Fahland has spent most days since the pandemic began at the site of his dream house, working to finish a 15-year labor of love while keeping away from town and the people closest to him. Like thousands of people from Libby and Lincoln County in the far northwestern corner of Montana, the 61-year-old Fahland has scarred lungs after years of breathing in asbestos fibers from dust and soil contaminated by the town’s now-defunct plant that produced vermiculite, a mineral used in insulation and gardening. (Hegyi, 10/12)

Among the overwhelming amount of numbers that have come from tracking the COVID-19 pandemic, positivity rate might be the most misunderstood. The math is simple. But identifying the right raw numbers to put into the formula has proved elusive for some popular national tracking websites — creating a “what source do you believe?” situation. (Cripe, 10/9)

The rising costs of prescription drugs and health care could be a potent campaign issue for older voters in Utah ahead of the November elections. And according to a new survey, Utahns age 45 and above expressed support for a number of progressive policies to boost pay and reduce the influence of money in politics. (Schott, 10/10)

Amid continuing coronavirus outbreaks in the California prison system, a group of state lawmakers called Friday for a federal judge to replace the court-appointed receiver who oversees prison health care. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in Oakland, six legislators asked him to remove J. Clark Kelso from the job he has held since 2008 and appoint a new receiver “committed to protect the health and safety of incarcerated persons, staff and the public.” (Koseff, 10/11)

Detroiters must wear a mask at indoor and outdoor gatherings and businesses must maintain social distancing and capacity limits, Detroit city officials announced Friday. Detroit Chief Public Health Officer Denise Fair issued a new COVID-19 public health order which takes effect immediately and reinstates aspects of the emergency declarations previously issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which were undercut by a state Supreme Court ruling. The state health department on Friday issued a sweeping order that largely mirrors those put in place by Whitmer. (Rahman, 10/9)

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and his family have started quarantining after a member of the governor's security detail received a positive test for the virus on Saturday evening, after driving the first family in the afternoon. The governor announced the family’s plans in a video on Twitter on Sunday afternoon. (Coleman, 10/11)

Thousands of military veterans in Georgia who signed up for a program to speed access to medical care are instead waiting longer, a review of internal Veterans Affairs reports shows. A poorly functioning VA appointment department, a surge in veteran requests amid a pandemic and a rocky transition to a private company that manages referrals are contributing to the worsening delays, according to VA employees and veterans. (Quinn, 10/11)

Max Osceola Jr., a longtime Seminole Tribe leader who transformed the tribe by building the Seminole Hard Rock hotel, cafe and casino brand into one of the world’s most successful entertainment enterprises, died Thursday night at the Cleveland Clinic from complications due to COVID-19. He was 70. He had been hospitalized and receiving treatment for the virus for several weeks. (Cetoute, 10/11)

Millions of people in northern England are anxiously waiting to hear how much further virus restrictions will be tightened in coming days as the British government confirmed Sunday that it will be introducing a new system for local lockdowns. In response to the virus’ resurgence, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce in Parliament on Monday a three-tier local lockdown system, formally known as “Local COVID Alert Levels,” for England, his office said. (Pylas, 10/11)

Europe’s second wave of coronavirus infections has struck well before flu season even started, with intensive care wards filling up again and bars shutting down. Making matters worse, authorities say, is a widespread case of “COVID-fatigue.” Record high daily infections in several eastern European countries and sharp rebounds in the hard-hit west have made clear that Europe never really crushed the COVID-19 curve as hoped, after springtime lockdowns. (Winfield, 10/10)

Chinese health authorities will test all 9 million people in the eastern city of Qingdao for the coronavirus this week after nine cases linked to a hospital were found, the government announced Monday. The announcement broke a two-month streak with no virus transmissions within China reported, though China has a practice of not reporting asymptomatic cases. The ruling Communist Party has lifted most curbs on travel and business but still monitors travelers and visitors to public buildings for signs of infection. (10/12)

In parts of Nigeria, it is common to attribute mental illness to supernatural factors such as witchcraft or repercussion for sins against God, according to a report in the Integrative Journal of Global Health. As a result, people with perceived symptoms of disorders are believed to be possessed or in need of unorthodox healing from traditional healing centers, and at Christian and Islamic faith-based facilities. (Salaudeen, 10/10)

The coronavirus pandemic has upended lives and disrupted the global economy. The sooner we can get a vaccine, the sooner we have a chance at returning to normal. That doesn’t mean we should needlessly rush it. (Sam Fazeli, 10/12)

One thing that we’ve learned about covid-19 is that we still have a lot to learn. Any time we thought we knew everything we needed to about this virus, reality soon disabused us of the notion. Area after area has thought it was keeping the novel coronavirus at bay — that rich Western countries wouldn’t get it, or rural areas; that hard-hit places had herd immunity, or that Sweden had shown you could control the virus without lockdown . . . until, one by one, these theories have been falsified. Most recently, President Trump demonstrated that testing is not, by itself, a covid-19 control strategy, and resurgent outbreaks in Madrid and New York’s Orthodox Jewish community have made it look unlikely that any group has herd immunity yet. Perhaps some undulation is inevitable: as caseloads rise, people get cautious, and as they fall, people take more risks, causing caseloads to rise again. But another possibility is that the undulation might not just be about policy, or even personal attitudes, but something as simple, and uncontrollable, as the weather. (Megan McArdle, 10/11)

President Donald Trump takes his Covid denial tour back to the campaign trail Monday as the tense final stretch of an election now three weeks away gets a fresh jolt with Senate hearings on his Supreme Court pick Amy Coney Barrett. Trump, who announced Sunday, without providing evidence, that he has tested "totally negative" after his bout with the virus, plans to hold his first rally since his diagnosis was publicly disclosed, in Florida, in what risks turning into yet another super spreader event. (Stephen Collinson, 10/12)

In the presidential debate, Joe Biden portrayed the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett as part of a plot by Donald Trump to put an end to the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The Supreme Court has oral arguments scheduled for Nov. 10 in a case challenging Obamacare’s constitutionality. Republicans are marching double-time to get Barrett confirmed before the election, which would enable her to participate in the Obamacare case.According to Democrats, a vote to confirm Barrett is a vote to repeal Obamacare and leave millions of Americans without health insurance.In reality, it is highly unlikely that the conservatives on the court will decide to hold that Obamacare, as currently constituted, is unconstitutional, including Barrett if she is confirmed. (Robert Robb, 10/11)

Instead, the senators should focus on her judicial philosophy. Judge Barrett, like Justice Antonin Scalia before her, has repeatedly described herself as an originalist, saying that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted and can be changed only by constitutional amendment. In this view, it is the intention of the framers that matters, and societal shifts over the centuries should never be considered in rendering an opinion. With that in mind, one line of questioning should be to push Barrett on whether she can identify anyone holding this originalist approach who ever has supported abortion rights or the right of same-sex couples to marry. (Erwin Chemerinsky, 10/12)

As confirmation hearings begin for Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, it’s important to remember what’s at stake. Barrett would shift the balance of the court significantly, tilting what is already a 5-4 right-leaning court to a stronger 6-3 conservative majority. As a Democrat, here’s my view both on this nomination and the fight that will ensue. Barrett’s nomination is loved by many on the right and hated by many on the left. The reasons for those passions boil down to a few key issues: health care, and of course, the big one, abortion. (Leslie Marshall, 10/12)

When I addressed the people of Michigan on Thursday to comment on the unprecedented terrorism, conspiracy and weapons charges against 13 men, some of whom were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me, I said, “Hatred, bigotry and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan.” I meant it. But just moments later, President Trump’s campaign adviser, Jason Miller, appeared on national television accusing me of fostering hatred.I’m not going to waste my time arguing with the president. But I will always hold him accountable. Because when our leaders speak, their words carry weight. (Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, 10/9)

To the outside world, it looks like Michigan had a bad week. When 13 of our fellow Americans  are arrested for plotting to kidnap our governor, well, that’s not an image we want exported to the rest of the world. The fact that some of those men were allegedly part of a militia-backed group doesn’t help, nor does the President speaking out from his COVID-19 battle to personally lambast Gretchen Whitmer.But headlines are just that. Headlines. They don’t tell the whole story. So here’s another thing that happened last week in Michigan. On the same day those alleged kidnappers were rounded up, the small town of Buchanan, tucked along the southwest border of our state, was named by Reader’s Digest as “the nicest place in America.” (Mitch Albom, 10/11)

Pending before the highest court in Massachusetts is Desrosiers v. Baker, a lawsuit challenging the many unilateral orders Governor Charlie Baker has issued since declaring a state of emergency seven months ago. The Supreme Judicial Court heard oral arguments in the case on Sept. 11, but hasn’t yet issued a decision. That delay has a silver lining: It allows the justices to take into account rulings handed down by two other American courts in similar cases in recent weeks. Baker’s orders were intended to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, and affected almost every aspect of life in Massachusetts. On the governor’s say-so, businesses were shuttered, religious services banned, schoolrooms emptied, medical appointments halted, and travel restricted. The economic price was steep: a sudden recession and painfully high unemployment. (Jeff Jacoby, 10/11)

In Massachusetts, 1 in 7 seniors living in elder-care facilities has died of COVID-19. That death rate, as the Globe’s Spotlight Team reported in its recent investigation about death amid the pandemic, is among the highest in the country. But for Governor Charlie Baker’s administration, for too long, aging adults and veterans were not the top priority, the investigation found, even when it was known early on that nursing homes were at high risk of outbreaks. Six months later, the pandemic is more or less under control in the state. The governor deserves credit for that. But we can’t afford any more blind spots. The public needs to keep a close eye on the trends — and hold the state accountable when required. (10/12)

In Irvine, about two-thirds of the school district’s students are back in classrooms, at least to some extent. Others have opted to continue learning remotely. In the elementary schools, families in the Irvine Unified School District have a choice for in-person learning: regular attendance five days a week or a hybrid model for limited hours two days a week. Secondary school students get eight hours a week on campus if they choose. Physical classes are about half their usual size, with masks, plexiglass partitions and other safety measures in place.In Santa Ana, the city next door, there is no in-person instruction. School officials are hoping they might be able to open classrooms next month, but just for their youngest students. (10/12)