First Edition: February 27, 2020

California Healthline: Your School Assignment For The Day: Spelling And Specs
Daisy Leon struggles to sit still and read the letters on the eye chart. Her responses tumble out in a quiet, confused garble. “You know your letters?” asks optometrist Jolly Mamauag-Camat. “Umm, ya,” says Daisy, almost inaudibly. The 6-year-old kindergartner had her eyes examined for the first time on a recent Thursday morning. Although she hadn’t complained about headaches or blurry vision, her grandmother noticed she’d been inching closer to watch television. (De Marco, 2/26)

Kaiser Health News: They Fell In Love Helping Drug Users. But Fear Kept Him From Helping Himself.
She was in medical school. He was just out of prison. Sarah Ziegenhorn and Andy Beeler’s romance grew out of a shared passion to do more about the country’s drug overdose crisis. Ziegenhorn moved back to her home state of Iowa when she was 26. She had been working in Washington, D.C., where she also volunteered at a needle exchange — where drug users can get clean needles. She was ambitious and driven to help those in her community who were overdosing and dying, including people she had grown up with. (Stone, 2/27)

Kaiser Health News: Watch: One Father’s Fight Against ‘Predatory’ Drug Price
Dr. Sudeep Taksali tells “CBS This Morning” about his efforts to get a cheaper version of a drug commonly known as a hormone blocker for his daughter, who has central precocious puberty. The report is the latest collaboration between CBS, NPR and Kaiser Health News on the “Bill of the Month” crowdsourced investigative series. (2/26)

The Associated Press: Trump Urges Calm Even As US Reports Worrisome New Virus Case
President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that a widespread U.S. outbreak of the new respiratory virus sweeping the globe isn’t inevitable even as top health authorities at his side warned Americans that more infections are coming. … At a White House news conference, Trump sought to minimize fears as he insisted the U.S. is “very, very ready” for whatever the COVID-19 outbreak brings. Under fire about the government’s response, he put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of coordinating the efforts. “This will end,” Trump said of the outbreak. “You don’t want to see panic because there’s no reason to be panicked.” (2/27)

The New York Times: Trump Names Mike Pence To Lead Coronavirus Response
The president said he would accept whatever amount of money congressional Democrats wanted to give for the virus response, adding, “We’re ready to adapt and we’re ready to do whatever we have to as the disease spreads, if it spreads.” “We’ll spend whatever is appropriate,” he said. Several top health care experts at the news conference echoed Mr. Trump’s optimism but also offered a more sober assessment of the future risks. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the C.D.C., warned Americans that there would be more infections. (Shear, Weiland and Rogers, 2/26)

CIDRAP: Trump Puts VP Pence In Charge Of COVID-19 Response
“The risk to the American people remain very low; we have the greatest experts in the world right here,” Trump said in the speech, as Pence stood behind him. Trump was flanked by several public health officials, including Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, CDC Director Robert Redfield, MD, CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat, MD, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Anthony Fauci, MD. (Soucheray, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Trump Downplays Risk, Places Pence In Charge Of Coronavirus Outbreak Response
Trump’s positive message was at odds with the statements by top members of his administration in recent days who have warned of an unpredictable virus that could spread into communities and upend Americans’ daily lives.The president was contradicted almost in real time by some of the government experts who flanked him as he stood in the White House press briefing room.“We could be just one or two people over the next short period of time,” Trump said of the virus’s impact in the United States. (Olorunnipa, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 2/26)

Politico: Coronavirus Gets A Trumpian Response
He cracked wise about his germaphobia, recounted a run-in with a sick friend using a stand-up comedian’s patter, waved around colorful graphs showing America’s superiority on virus containment and listed facts he had just learned about the flu. It was a performance that had kept White House staffers on edge all day, ever since the president unexpectedly tweeted his plans for a news conference after deplaning at sunrise from Air Force One. Just hours before his appearance was expected to begin, communications staffers were uncertain about how — or where — the news conference would take place, and whether the president or just the coronavirus task force would take questions. (Cook and McGraw, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: Trump, Seeking To Tamp Down Fears Of Coronavirus, Names Pence To Lead Response
Allies counseled Trump to put his political and economic frustrations aside to focus on the public health threat, arguing that ancillary problems will fix themselves once the public is convinced the administration is prepared for what may prove a significant crisis. “This is not a garden-variety routine event,” said Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, who saw his popularity plummet after a botched response to Hurricane Katrina’s battering of New Orleans in 2005. “This can grow into people being legitimately scared into wondering what to do to protect their health, to protect their family’s health.” (Bierman, Haberkorn and Levey, 2/26)

The Hill: Trump Nods At Reputation As Germaphobe During Coronavirus Briefing: ‘I Try To Bail Out As Much As Possible’ After Sneezes 
President Trump referenced his reputation as a germaphobe during a rare press conference about the coronavirus Wednesday. He suggested Americans take the same precautions they would during flu season, including avoiding unnecessary contact with public surfaces and people who are ill, as he always has. (Moreno, 2/26)

The New York Times: Trump Has A Problem As The Coronavirus Threatens The U.S.: His Credibility
When Hurricane Dorian crashed into the Atlantic Coast in September, President Trump assumed a take-charge role in response. But he undermined his own effectiveness after it became apparent that before displaying a map in front of the television cameras in the Oval Office, he had altered it with a Sharpie pen to match his inaccurate forecast of where the storm was headed. For years, experts have warned that Mr. Trump has been squandering the credibility he could need in a moment of national emergency, like a terrorist attack or a public health crisis. (Karni, Crowley and Haberman, 2/26)

Stat: Experts Warn Trump’s Misinformation About Coronavirus Is Dangerous
Mixed messages and misinformation aren’t out of the ordinary in the Trump administration. But at a time when the U.S. faces a looming threat from a novel virus, public health experts warn that the administration’s mixed messages aren’t just confusing — they’re dangerous. (Thielking, 2/26)

Politico: Trump’s Coronavirus Conflict: Science Vs. Politics
The coronavirus battle brewing inside the Trump administration is putting two urgent imperatives in conflict — showing credibility in tackling a global health crisis while calming unsettled investors and voters in an election year. On Monday, one top White House official publicly disputed concerns about a market downturn while President Donald Trump commented directly on it. On Tuesday, health officials broadcast their expertise about the virus while Trump sought to quash such chatter. And on Wednesday, top aides debated publicly whether the administration would need a czar to coordinate a government response as the president announced a rare evening news conference and attacked the media. (McGraw and Cook, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Vice President Pence, Criticized Over Handling Of Indiana HIV Outbreak, Will Lead U.S. Coronavirus Response
When President Trump announced that Vice President Pence would lead federal efforts against the spread of the coronavirus, he said the Pence was the right person for the task because of his experience. “He’s got a certain talent for this,” Trump said at a White House briefing about the virus, which has infected nearly five dozen people in the United States so far. The announcement has cast light on Pence’s record as a lawmaker and his handling of a major public health crisis during his time as governor of Indiana. The worst HIV outbreak in the state’s history happened on his watch in 2015, which critics blamed on Pence’s belated response and his opposition to authorizing a needle-exchange program. (Kornfield, 2/27)

Politico: Trump’s CDC Chief Faces Increasingly Harsh Scrutiny
Robert Redfield was a well-known AIDS researcher and favorite of Christian conservatives when President Donald Trump picked him to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2018, where he has helped implement sweeping plans to fight HIV and opioids in the United States while pushing to tackle Ebola abroad. But confronted by the increasingly global coronavirus outbreak, CDC and Redfield’s actions are now under intense scrutiny — both inside and outside the administration. (Diamond, 2/26)

Politico: U.S. Isn’t Ready To Detect Stealth Coronavirus Spread
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention isn’t yet ready to detect whether the coronavirus is spreading across the country. Just 12 of more than 100 public health labs in the U.S. are currently able to diagnose the coronavirus because of problems with a test developed by the CDC, potentially slowing the response if the virus starts taking hold here. The faulty test has also delayed a plan to widely screen people with symptoms of respiratory illness who have tested negative for influenza to detect whether the coronavirus may be stealthily spreading. (Lim, 2/26)

The New York Times: Democratic Candidates Take Aim At Trump’s Coronavirus Effort
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts called Wednesday for the federal government to redirect money from the construction of President Trump’s border wall and put it toward the containment of the fast-spreading coronavirus. “I’m going to be introducing a plan tomorrow to take every dime that the president is now taking to spend on his racist wall at the southern border and divert it to the coronavirus,” Ms. Warren said on a CNN town hall program from Charleston, S.C., joining her opponents in the Democratic presidential primary in excoriating the Trump administration’s response to the threat. (Ruiz, 2/27)

Politico: Warren Calls On Trump Admin To Explain Process For Bringing Back Americans Infected By Coronavirus
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) is calling on Trump administration officials to explain its handling of the evacuation of the Diamond Princess cruise ship, after 14 passengers infected with the coronavirus flew on a plane with other travelers despite a warning from the Centers for Disease Control. The infected passengers were among the 300 Americans evacuated from the cruise ship in Japan and flown home earlier this month. (Levine, 2/26)

The New York Times: C.D.C. Confirms Possible Community Transmission Case
A person in California who was not exposed to anyone known to be infected with the coronavirus, and had not traveled to countries in which the virus is circulating, has tested positive for the infection. It may be the first case of community spread in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. “At this point, the patient’s exposure is unknown,” the C.D.C. statement said. “The case was detected through the U.S. public health system and picked up by astute clinicians.” (Rabin, 2/26)

The Associated Press: New US Coronavirus Case May Be 1st From Unknown Origin
California officials said the person is a resident of Solano County, northeast of San Francisco, and is getting medical care in Sacramento County. They said they have begun the process of tracking down people who the patient has been in contact with, a process known as contact tracing. The patient was brought to UC Davis Medical Center from another Northern California hospital on Feb. 19 but it was four days before the CDC heeded a request to test the patient for COVID-19, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday by the hospital’s interim CEO, Brad Simmons, and David Lubarsky, CEO of UC Davis Health. (2/26)

The Washington Post: First Person In U.S. Tests Positive For Coronavirus With No Known Link To Foreign Travel
Community spread would represent a significant turn for the worse in the battle against the virus. To date, the United States has 60 known cases of the infection, with 59 among people who traveled to Asia or were close contacts of people who went there. The vast majority, 42, picked up the virus while quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan. (Bernstein, McGinley and Sun, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: California Coronavirus Case Could Be First Spread Within U.S. Community, CDC Says
The staff at UC Davis requested COVID-19 testing by the CDC, but because the patient didn’t fit the CDC’s existing criteria for the virus, a test wasn’t immediately administered, according to the email. The CDC then ordered the test Sunday, and results were announced Wednesday. Hospital administrators reportedly said in the email that despite these issues, there has been minimal exposure at the hospital because of safety protocols they have in place. (Karlamangla and Cosgrove, 2/26)

Politico: California Coronavirus Patient Hospitalized At Least A Week Before Diagnosis
California health officials stressed that the health risk to the general public is still low and that COVID-19 has a low mortality rate despite spreading quickly. There have been no deaths in the U.S. “We have been anticipating the potential for such a case in the U.S., and given our close familial, social and business relationships with China, it is not unexpected that the first case in the U.S. would be in California,” said Dr. Sonia Angell, director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer. (Colliver, 2/26)

Los Angeles Times: Orange County Declares Emergency Over Coronavirus Outbreak
Orange County has declared a local health emergency in response to the novel coronavirus, which has killed thousands globally, officials announced Wednesday. The move is largely in response to a proposal to move coronavirus patients to a facility in Costa Mesa, which has sparked a bitter court battle, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Michelle Steel and Vice Chairman Andrew Do said at a news conference. (Shalby, 2/26)

The Washington Post: How To Prepare For Coronavirus In The United States
There are the exam gloves, the surgical masks, the dubious supplements and the deceptive disinfectants. If unchecked Internet information is any guide, there’s an inexhaustible list of products you should buy to prepare for the spread of coronavirus in the United States — which, according to U.S. health officials, now appears inevitable. But here’s the thing: The virus may be novel, but you really don’t need to buy anything new or special to brace for it. The Washington Post spoke to epidemiology experts, and they said the most important aspect of preparedness costs nothing at all — calm. (Thebault and Horton, 2/26)

The New York Times: What Would A Coronavirus Outbreak In The U.S. Mean For Schools?
Schools in the United States prepare for all manner of disasters and threats, whether hurricanes, mass shooters, tornadoes, influenza or head lice. But this week, a stark new order came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Get ready for the coronavirus. Around the nation, school officials and parents were flummoxed by the sudden warning that if a coronavirus epidemic hit the United States, school buildings could be shut down for long periods of time, leaving children sequestered at home and schools scrambling to provide remote instruction. (Goldstein and Bosman, 2/27)

Stat: Key Question For Coronavirus Response: What’s Kids’ Role In Spreading It?
Among the many, many unknowns about the new coronavirus: What role do children play in transmission of the virus that causes Covid-19 disease? It’s a question that public health experts would love an answer to. Knowing whether kids are innocent bystanders, getting infected if someone brings the virus into their households, or are in fact a population that is stealthily driving this epidemic, would give response planners critical ammunition to use in the battle against the virus. (Branswell and Thielking, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Canceled Foreign Trips And ‘Palpable’ Anxiety: Schools Prepare For The Coronavirus
Canceled international trips. Extra hand-washing and squirts of disinfectant between classes. Essay-length emails sent to parents, meant to reassure. “A new disease is circulating,” Northern Virginia school officials wrote of the novel coronavirus spreading around the world in a recent message to Fairfax County parents and staff. “It’s natural for people to be concerned.” (Natanson, 2/26)

The New York Times: They Were Infected With The Coronavirus. They Never Showed Signs.
In Anyang, China, five members of a family came down with the coronavirus after hosting a guest from Wuhan in early January. But the visitor, a 20-year-old woman, never got sick herself. Some individuals who are infected with the coronavirus can spread it even though they have no symptoms, studies have shown. Asymptomatic carriers are a well-known phenomenon. But the coronavirus is a new pathogen, and these cases may complicate scientific efforts to detect cases and to curb transmission. (Rabin, 2/26)

Reuters: Gilead Starts Two Late-Stage Studies To Test Drug For Coronavirus
Gilead Sciences Inc said on Wednesday it has started two late-stage studies to test its drug in patients with severe and moderate cases of the illness caused by the coronavirus, sending its shares up 4% in extended trading. Beginning March, the studies will test the experimental antiviral drug, remdesivir, among nearly 1,000 patients at medical centers across Asian countries, as well as in other nations with high numbers of diagnosed cases, the company said. (2/26)

The New York Times: Gilead To Expand Coronavirus Drug Trials To Other Countries
Remdesivir is already being tested in Wuhan, China, the center of the epidemic, and the United States National Institutes of Health announced on Tuesday that the drug would also be studied in some of the patients who contracted the illness overseas and were now being treated in Nebraska. Results from the trials in Wuhan are expected in April, the company said. The drug is still experimental, not yet approved to treat any disease. There are no approved treatments for illnesses caused by coronaviruses, including the new one, known as Covid-19. Studies of infected mice and monkeys have suggested that remdesivir can fight coronaviruses, and it appeared to cause few side effects when it was tested in patients with Ebola, although it did not work well against that virus. (Grady, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Gilead To Kick Off Its Own Studies Of Potential Coronavirus Drug
The studies, if successful, would help contribute to a larger dataset needed to win regulatory approval for the drug. It is too early to say if the two studies alone would be sufficient for regulators, said Diana Brainard, Gilead senior vice president for HIV and emerging viral infections. “Things are moving so quickly, it’s hard for us to gauge what the right approval package would look like in the U.S. or abroad,” Dr. Brainard said in an interview. “We’re in data-collection mode right now.” (Walker, 2/26)

Stat: FDA Official: Coronavirus Vaccines Are Far Off, But Drugs Could Come Sooner
New drugs to treat patients already infected with the novel coronavirus, which has sparked outbreaks across multiple continents, will emerge much more quickly than vaccines to prevent infection, a top Food and Drug Administration official said Wednesday. “The development of a vaccine is not going to prevent a pandemic here,” Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told STAT at the SVB Leerink Global Healthcare Conference, ahead of a keynote presentation there. And getting a vaccine ready for pivotal testing is going to take more than just a few months, he said. (Herper and Garde, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Could Disrupt US Drug Supply
The Food and Drug Administration is stepping up its monitoring of the drug supply for potential shortages, including 20 products that may be at risk due to the coronavirus outbreak that has shut down much of China and is raising concerns about the nation’s convoluted and highly outsourced pharmaceutical supply chain. The crisis highlights a growing vulnerability: Not only are many medications used in the United States manufactured overseas, but critical ingredients — and the chemicals used to make them — also are overwhelmingly made in China and other countries. (McGinley and Johnson, 2/26)

Reuters: Mainland China Reports 433 New Coronavirus Cases, 29 Deaths
Mainland China reported 433 new cases of coronavirus infections on Feb. 26, the National Health Commission said on Thursday, up from 406 on the previous day. The total number of confirmed cases on mainland China has now reached 78,497, the health authority said. (2/27)

The Associated Press: Hardest-Hit China, South Korea Count 767 New Virus Cases
South Korea and China each reported hundreds more virus cases Thursday as the new illness persists in the worst-hit areas and spreads beyond borders. South Korea reported 334 more cases, bringing its total to 1,595. Most of the new cases were in the country’s fourth-biggest city, Daegu, where the outbreak has hit hardest and the national government has mobilized public health tools to assist the region’s overwhelmed medical system. (2/26)

Reuters: China City Offers $1,400 Reward For Virus Patients Who Report To Authorities
A city in China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the global coronavirus epidemic, will pay residents as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,425.96) if they proactively report symptoms of the illness and it is confirmed after testing. Qianjiang, a city of around one million people located about 150 km (90 miles) from the stricken provincial capital of Wuhan, has reported a total of 197 cases so far and is stepping up efforts to ensure its infected people are confined and treated. (2/27)

Reuters: China Aims To Bar Those Infected With Virus From Crossing Borders – Health Official
China will focus on preventing those infected with coronavirus from crossing borders and work to strengthen international cooperation, a spokesman for the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Thursday. The comments by Mi Feng at a news conference come after the number of new infections overseas exceeded those in China for the first time this week, with Italy and Iran emerging as new epicentres. (2/27)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus: China Not Sharing Data On Medical Personnel Cases, WHO Says
Timely information about the health of medical workers is key to understanding transmission patterns and developing strategies aimed at containing outbreaks. But it was not until Feb. 14 — more than a month into the crisis — that China disclosed that about 1,700 front-line medical workers were infected at the time. The figure, which has since grown, was published in a research paper, not reported directly to the World Health Organization. (Rauhala, 2/26)

Reuters: Governments Ramp Up Preparations For Coronavirus Pandemic
Governments ramped up measures on Thursday to battle a looming global pandemic of the coronavirus as the number of infections outside China, the source of the outbreak, for the first time surpassed those appearing inside the country. Australia initiated emergency measures and Taiwan raised its epidemic response level to its highest, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump put his vice president, Mike Pence, in charge of the U.S. response to the looming global health crisis. (2/27)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Live Updates: Fears Grow Of Pandemic, Markets Stumble Again After U.S. Confirms Case Of Unknown Origin
The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus raised the specter of a global pandemic as governments ramped up their emergency responses and financial markets slumped again Thursday, despite signs that the outbreak may be easing in China. Japan on Thursday told all schools to close through the spring break, which for most schools typically ends in early April. Australia’s leader warned a pandemic was a matter of when, not if, and an Iranian lawmaker said he had tested positive for the virus, as new infections and deaths emerged from the Middle East to Europe and South Korea. (Taylor, 2/27)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Nightmare Could Be The End For Europe’s Borderless Dream
For Europe, the coronavirus could not have arrived at a worse time. This was the year — with Britain out, terrorism waning and the migrant crisis at an ebb — that the European Union had hoped to repair and revive its cherished goal of open internal borders. But cases of the virus have emerged nearly daily in new European countries — in Spain, Greece, Croatia, France, Switzerland and, on Wednesday, in Germany. (Stevis-Gridneff, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Coronavirus Creates Dilemma For Europe’s Public Gatherings, Open Borders
The threat of coronavirus spreading across Europe’s open borders has put local authorities and others in a bind over whether to call off fashion shows, soccer games and other major gatherings that define everyday life on the continent. Governments across the European Union have so far declined to reinstate border checks and take other measures to isolate Italy, the site of Europe’s largest outbreak. That is shifting pressure onto local leaders to ward off infection by putting a stop to events that draw people from across the continent. (Rboinson and Dalton, 2/27)

The New York Times: Hundreds Confined To Tenerife Hotel For 14 Days Over Coronavirus Fears
Hundreds of guests at a resort on Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, were told Wednesday that they would be confined to their hotel for 14 days as the authorities tried to prevent the coronavirus from spreading after infections were discovered there this week. News of a quarantine at the resort, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, came as officials in Europe scrambled to contain an outbreak that has spread to at least seven nations on the Continent. Spain, of which the Canary Islands are a part, disclosed additional infections on Wednesday, and France reported its second death. (Peltier and Minder, 2/26)

The Washington Post: Italy’s Economy Was Scary Enough. Then Came Coronavirus.
On the wall outside Jamaica, a century-old bar-bistro and a Milan institution, a newly hung sign points to the frustration that has accompanied the arrival of coronavirus in northern Italy. “Jamaica did not close under the bombardments, must it close for collective hysteria?” it reads, referring to the cafe’s perseverance through the bombings of World War II. Restrictions imposed to control the virus — and public panic — have transformed Italy’s commercial and financial capital in a way some Milanese fear will result in a deep and lasting economic blow. (Morris and Harlan, 2/26)

Reuters: Secretive Church At Center Of South Korea’s Explosive Coronavirus Outbreak
An So-young had a gut feeling that the 31st person in South Korea to test positive for the coronavirus might be a member of the controversial religious sect she quit four years ago. The person, dubbed “Patient 31,” was the first of an explosive wave of cases that made South Korea’s outbreak the largest outside of China. What caught An’s attention was how health authorities were struggling to track the woman’s movements before she was tested. (2/27)

The Associated Press: Pope Observes Usual Ash Wednesday Customs In Time Of Virus
Pope Francis celebrated the Ash Wednesday ritual that marks the opening of the Catholic Church’s Lenten season in traditional fashion while greeting the public in Rome as other Masses were canceled in northern Italy over fears of the coronavirus outbreak. Francis and a long line of priests, bishops and cardinals walked in a procession through Rome’s Aventine hill into the 5th-century Santa Sabina basilica for a late-afternoon Mass. Neither the priests nor the faithful wore face masks, but Rome has largely been spared the virus as Italy’s national case count grew to more than 440. (2/26)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Has Some Religious Leaders Tweaking Rituals For Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday is a chance for clergy to remind Christians of their mortality, often with a swipe of thumb-to-forehead ashes. But this year, the holy day came one day after federal health officials said the country should brace for an “inevitable” spread of coronavirus. Pastors and ministers who already were mulling whether to change practices at weekly church services and struggling to reassure nervous worshipers, especially in immigrant-heavy congregations, found themselves asking: Should we tweak our rituals? (Bailey, 2/26)

The Associated Press: New Coronavirus Reaches Latin America, First Case In Brazil
Latin America saw its first confirmed case of the new coronavirus spreading worldwide when Brazil’s government announced that a 61-year-old man who traveled to Italy this month had the virus. The Brazilian man had spent two weeks in northern Italy’s Lombardy region on a work trip, where he contracted the contagious virus, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. (2/27)

Reuters: Iran Reports 22 Deaths From Coronavirus; 141 Infected-IRNA
Twenty two people have died so far from the new coronavirus in Iran, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported in a chart it published on Thursday. The number of people diagnosed with the disease is 141, the chart showed. It did not specify whether those who have died were included in the tally of those infected. (2/27)

The Washington Post: Iran Struggles To Contain Coronavirus Outbreak, Putting Middle East Countries At Risk
Iran is emerging as the center of an outbreak of the new coronavirus across the Middle East, where cases in at least five countries have been linked to patients who traveled to Iran in recent weeks, authorities said. In Iran, 139 people have contracted the virus, including the deputy health minister and a prominent member of parliament. Nineteen people have died, according to the Health Ministry — the largest death toll from the virus outside China, where it first appeared. (Cunningham and Loveluck, 2/26)

Reuters: Kuwait Has 43 Confirmed Cases Of Coronavirus-Health Ministry
Kuwait now has 43 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to a health ministry official. The official added that all the cases involved people who had been to Iran. (2/27)

The Washington Post Fact Check: Biden Falsely Attacks Trump Over A Food Stamp Policy Supported By Bloomberg
“First of all, what we’re doing is immoral. I know that’s not a phrase they often use in politics, but it’s immoral. Look what he’s doing right — look what this president’s doing right now. Look what people have done before. They’re going to fingerprint food stamp recipients.” — Former vice president Joe Biden, in an interview with Benjamin F. Chavis at a National Newspaper Publishers Association session Feb. 20, 2020. These remarks puzzled us, as we were unaware of any Trump administration proposal to fingerprint food-stamp recipients. Biden raised the issue in the context of denouncing the president’s budget for “cutting a billion dollars out of the — all the social safety net, this outfit, whether it’s Medicare, Medicaid, whether — across the board.” (Kessler, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Bloomberg Defends Soda, Smoking Restrictions As Mayor
In the past three months, Michael Bloomberg has apologized for a policing program during his mayoral tenure that was deemed unconstitutional and for sexist comments that female employees of his company have said he made. But he isn’t backing down on his past decisions to regulate the health choices of New Yorkers, though he acknowledges he wouldn’t necessarily push for those policies on a national level if he wins the White House. The former New York City mayor prohibited smoking in restaurants and bars, blocked the use of artificial trans fat in restaurants and aggressively pushed for a ban on large sugary drinks, among other public-health measures that were seen by his critics as too far-reaching during his three terms. (Parti, 2/26)

The Wall Street Journal: Growing Immigrant Population To Influence 2020 Election, Report Finds
More than 23 million immigrants will be eligible to vote in the 2020 election, making up a historically high 10% of the electorate, according to a new report by the Pew Research Center. The growing number of eligible immigrant voters could play a significant role in picking the Democratic presidential nominee, as 46% of them live in states with primaries or caucuses taking place on or before March 3. Fourteen states will hold voting that day, known as Super Tuesday, on top of the four coming before it. (Lazo, 2/26)

ProPublica: Trump Endorsed A Risky Antidepressant For Veterans. Lawmakers Want To Know If His Mar-A-Lago Pals Had A Stake In The Drugmaker.
House Democrats are expanding their investigation of outside influence at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, examining whether a push to use a new antidepressant from Johnson & Johnson was advanced by a group of unofficial advisers who convened at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s private club. The chairmen of the House veterans affairs and oversight committees sent letters last week asking for emails and financial records from the three advisers, Marvel Entertainment chairman Ike Perlmutter, physician Bruce Moskowitz and lawyer Marc Sherman. The Democrats are seeking, among other documents, any communications the men had with Johnson & Johnson and financial records showing whether they had any stake in the company. (Arnsdorf, 2/27)

Stat: Senators Threaten To Subpoena Express Scripts For Insulin Documents
The ranking members of the Senate Finance Committee are threatening to issue a subpoena to Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., for failing to produce documents that were requested nearly a year ago concerning the price of insulin. In a pointed letter sent on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) blasted the company over its failure to “even attempt to answer many of the questions” that were posed in a previous letter sent last April. At the time, the committee had begun investigating rising drug prices with a particular focus on insulin, and several PBM executives had just testified at a hearing. (Silverman, 2/26)

Stat: Tracking Drugs In The Supply Chain Still Hampered By Poor Paperwork
As Americans debate whether to import prescription drugs from Canada to relieve rising costs, a new government report finds that 16% of medicines examined could not be traced back to their manufacturers, underscoring ongoing concerns about the security of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Specifically, documentation was lacking or mismatched for six of 44 so-called high-risk prescription drugs, although in one instance, a wholesaler refused to provide paperwork, according to the report from the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, which reviewed Medicare Part D claims that were billed between January and May 2018. (Silverman, 2/26)

Stat: Health Care Event About Conflicts Of Interest Has Conflict Itself, Critics Say
In an effort to better understand how conflicts of interest may affect health care, the New York Academy of Sciences is hosting a high-profile conference this coming June with panels featuring more than two dozen prominent academics and a smattering of people from industry, government, and the nonprofit world who will be encouraged to think big thoughts and parse nuanced scenarios. But the event is generating something of a dustup as a handful of prospective panelists have declined to participate. In their view, the conference will be sullied by corporate sponsorship — Johnson & Johnson is underwriting the gathering — and there is concern the health care giant has a vested interest in managing and influencing how conflicts in the world of medicine are perceived and handled. (Silverman, 2/27)

Stat: Physician Practice Consolidation: It’s Only Just Begun 
Disruption has redefined health care in the past decade. For private practice physicians, the biggest disruptor has been consolidation. The trend of local hospitals merging into massive health systems has significantly affected private practices. According to Avalere Health and the Physicians Advisory Institute, between 2016 and 2018 hospitals acquired 8,000 medical practices and 14,000 physicians left private practice to work in hospitals. (Suthrum, 2/27)