First Edition: February 28, 2020

Kaiser Health News: New California Coronavirus Case Reveals Problems With U.S. Testing Protocols
Multiple experts interviewed said the case underscores the need for more widespread community testing of the new coronavirus, which has sickened tens of thousands of people in more than 45 nations around the globe. It also highlights how the CDC’s narrow testing protocols, combined with the agency’s continued delays in getting functional coronavirus test kits to state and local public health agencies, have hindered the public health system’s ability to respond to the outbreak. (Barry-Jester and Bluth, 2/27)

Kaiser Health News: Growing Concerns Of Coronavirus Should Spur Plans – Not Panic – In The Workplace
Chances are, if you work for a large company, you received an email like one sent to Volkswagen employees Monday: Coronavirus concerns mean some limits on business travel, everyone should remember to “wash your hands frequently” and stay home if sick. As the viral disease, dubbed COVID-19, continues to spread, some employers are canceling conferences and limiting travel, checking supplies and dusting off their emergency preparedness plans, just as they have for previous outbreaks or for natural disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. (Appleby, 2/28)

Kaiser Health News: Colorado Forges Ahead On A New Model For Health Care While Nation Waits
With the nation’s capital mired in gridlock and the Affordable Care Act facing a dire legal challenge, the prospects of lowering health care costs for Americans this year seem unlikely.Just don’t tell that to Coloradans. Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate and a Democratic governor eager to push aggressive health care measures have turned Colorado into one of the foremost health policy laboratories in the country. (Hawryluk, 2/28)

Kaiser Health News: High Court Revisits Abortion Law Akin To One Struck Down In 2016
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court is set to hear an abortion case that may sound familiar. That’s because the state restriction in question is almost identical to one the court overturned in 2016. At the heart of the current case, June Medical Services LLC et al. v. Russo, is a Louisiana law passed in 2014 that requires doctors who perform abortions in the state to have “admitting privileges” at a hospital no more than 30 miles from the clinic where the abortion is performed. (Rovner, 2/28)

The New York Times: Pence Will Control All Coronavirus Messaging From Health Officials
The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearances with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach. But on a day that the White House sought to display a more disciplined strategy to the administration’s communications about the virus, Mr. Trump used an evening event honoring African-American History Month to rail against the news media, claiming it is overstating the threat, and to congratulate himself for keeping the number of cases low. (Shear and Haberman, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Pence Seizes Control Of Coronavirus Response Amid Criticism Of His Qualifications
Vice President Pence tried to project a sense of steady control over the government’s response to the coronavirus Thursday, even as he faced fresh questions about his qualifications for the role and criticism over his handling of an HIV outbreak while he was governor of Indiana. Pence appointed a doctor, Ambassador Debbie Birx, to serve as White House response coordinator for the virus, enforced tight control of the government’s public communications and added new members to a task force aimed at containing the spread of the outbreak. (Olorunnipa, Dawsey and Abutaleb, 2/27)

Politico: After Fumbled Messaging, Trump Gets A Coronavirus Czar By Another Name
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, Pence said “we are ready for anything” to fight coronavirus. “I promise you, this president, this administration, is going to work with leaders in both parties. We’ll work with leaders across this nation, at the state and local level. And this president will always put the health and safety of America first.” Birx’s appointment marked the latest swerve by the White House in assigning responsibility to tackle the burgeoning public health crisis. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last month, Trump said “we have it totally under control” and maintained “it’s going to be just fine.” The virus has since exploded globally from China to nearly 50 countries, with more worries emerging inside the U.S. (Cancryn, Forgey and Diamond, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: White House Wants Signoff On Coronavirus Messaging
The administration has struggled to provide a consistent message on the coronavirus threat as it tries to improve coordination between federal agencies and states amid growing public concern. On Wednesday, President Trump put Mr. Pence in charge of federal coronavirus-response efforts, and on Thursday, Mr. Pence named Debbie Birx, who currently coordinates America’s global efforts to curb HIV and AIDS, as White House coronavirus-response coordinator. On Thursday, the president praised his administration’s response, saying that the U.S. effort had been “incredible.” He argued imposing travel restrictions was the right thing to do, and suggested it was a miracle only 15 cases had been diagnosed in the U.S. (Restuccia and Armour, 2/27)

The New York Times: What Has Mike Pence Done In Health?
When President Trump announced Wednesday that Vice President Pence would take charge of the nation’s coronavirus response, he repeatedly touted the “great health care” in Indiana during Mr. Pence’s time as governor there, adding, “He’s got a certain talent for this.” So what does Mr. Pence’s record on health care look like? He has no training or expertise in health policy. Paradoxically, the two health initiatives that he got the most attention for in Indiana are actions that many in the Republican Party have strongly opposed. (Goodnough, 2/27)

The Associated Press: Pence’s Handling Of 2015 HIV Outbreak Gets New Scrutiny
President Donald Trump’s choice of Vice President Mike Pence to oversee the nation’s response to the new coronavirus threat is bringing renewed scrutiny to the former governor’s handling of an HIV outbreak in southern Indiana when he was governor. Pence reluctantly agreed to authorize a needle exchange program in Scott County in March 2015 after the epidemic centered there saw the number of people infected with HIV skyrocket, with nearly 200 people eventually testing positive for the virus that year. (2/27)

The Hill: Pence Talks Coronavirus With Cuomo, Newsom, Other Governors 
Vice President Pence on Thursday spoke to Republican and Democratic governors across the country to update them on the White House’s efforts to address the coronavirus. Pence, who a day earlier was tapped to oversee the federal government’s response to the disease, spoke with Govs. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), Greg Abbott (R-Texas), Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), according to an administration official. (Samuels, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Trump Says He Can Bring In Coronavirus Experts Quickly. The Experts Say It Is Not That Simple.
The White House official charged with leading the U.S. response to deadly pandemics left nearly two years ago as his global health security team was disbanded. Federal funding for preventing and mitigating the spread of infectious disease has been repeatedly threatened since President Trump’s election. Despite the mounting threat of a coronavirus outbreak in the United States, Trump said he has no regrets about those actions and that expertise and resources can be quickly ramped up to meet the current needs. (Reinhard, Brown and Satija, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Fact-Checking President Trump’s Coronavirus News Conference
After several mixed — and sometimes inaccurate — messages on the coronavirus, President Trump attempted to reassure Americans with a lengthy news conference Wednesday evening. Here’s a fact check of 13 of the most noteworthy statements the president made. (Kessler and Kelly, 2/28)

The Hill: Ex-Obama Health Adviser Calls Trump Comments On Coronavirus Response ‘Incoherent’ 
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a former health policy adviser in the Obama administration, said late Wednesday that he found President Trump’s remarks during a news conference on his administration’s response to the coronavirus outbreak a “little incoherent.” Speaking on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Emanuel, now a special adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said that Trump’s comments indicated how little the president knew about public health. (Wise, 2/27)

Reuters: Exclusive: U.S. Mulls Using Sweeping Powers To Ramp Up Production Of Coronavirus Protective Gear
President Donald Trump’s administration is considering invoking special powers through a law called the Defense Production Act to rapidly expand domestic manufacturing of protective masks and clothing to combat the coronavirus in the United States, two U.S. officials told Reuters. The use of the law, passed by Congress in 1950 at the outset of the Korean War, would mark an escalation of the administration’s response to the outbreak. The virus first surfaced in China and has since spread to other countries including the United States. (2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Lawmakers Press Health Officials On Coronavirus Preparations
Fearful that more Americans may have coronavirus than is known, senior Trump administration officials told Congress on Thursday they are speeding distribution of testing kits to better assess the risk of a widespread outbreak in the United States. But the assurances from Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, did not quell lawmakers’ criticism that the White House hasn’t adequately prepared for a potential public health crisis. (Levey and Haberkorn, 2/27)

The Hill: Congress Eyes $6 Billion To $8 Billion To Combat Coronavirus 
Congress has approximately 10 working days before it is set to leave for a weeklong recess, giving lawmakers a tight timeframe if they are going to finalize a deal, get it passed by both chambers and get it to President Trump’s desk before leaving town. (Carney, 2/27)

ProPublica: Key Missteps At The CDC Have Set Back Its Ability To Detect The Potential Spread Of Coronavirus
As the highly infectious coronavirus jumped from China to country after country in January and February, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lost valuable weeks that could have been used to track its possible spread in the United States because it insisted upon devising its own test. The federal agency shunned the World Health Organization test guidelines used by other countries and set out to create a more complicated test of its own that could identify a range of similar viruses. But when it was sent to labs across the country in the first week of February, it didn’t work as expected. The CDC test correctly identified COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. But in all but a handful of state labs, it falsely flagged the presence of the other viruses in harmless samples. (Chen, Allen, Churchill and Arnsdorf, 2/28)

The New York Times: U.S. Health Workers Responding To Coronavirus Lacked Training And Protective Gear, Whistle-Blower Says
Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower who lawmakers say faced retaliation for reporting concerns. The team was “improperly deployed” to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere, according to a portion of a narrative account shared with Congress and obtained by The New York Times ahead of a formal complaint to the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent government agency that handles federal whistle-blower complaints. (Cochrane, Weiland and Sanger-Katz, 2/27)

The Washington Post: HHS Whistleblower Says Workers Without Protection Or Training Assisted Coronavirus Evacuees On US Military Bases
The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned after raising concerns about the safety of these workers to HHS officials, including those within the office of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She was told Feb. 19 that if she does not accept the new position in 15 days, which is March 5, she would be terminated. (Sun and Abutaleb, 2/27)

The New York Times: Warren, Bloomberg And Rivals Agree: Trump Is ‘Not Ready’ For Coronavirus
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)

The Associated Press: White House Hopefuls Target Trump On Coronavirus Response
Democratic White House hopefuls are seizing on President Donald Trump’s delayed response to the coronavirus outbreak, calling it the latest evidence of his incompetence and warning that the crisis may only deepen as a result. But some experts and Democrats warn that the candidates risk exacerbating a public health crisis if they go too far in politicizing the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness. (Jeffe, 2/27)

The New York Times: Most Coronavirus Cases Are Mild. That’s Good And Bad News.
As a dangerous new coronavirus has ravaged China and spread throughout the rest of the world, the outbreak’s toll has sown fear and anxiety. Nearly 3,000 deaths. More than 82,000 cases. Six continents infected. But government officials and medical experts, in their warnings about the epidemic, have also sounded a note of reassurance: Though the virus can be deadly, the vast majority of those infected so far have only mild symptoms and make full recoveries. It is an important factor to understand, medical experts said, both to avoid an unnecessary global panic and to get a clear picture of the likelihood of transmission. (Wang, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Coronavirus Spreads So Fast: Symptoms Are Mild And People Are Global
The novel coronavirus has quickly hopscotched from a food market in China around the world, to small towns in northern Italy and a major pilgrimage site in Iran. It spread through a megachurch in South Korea and sickened hundreds on a cruise ship docked in Japan. Countries that a few weeks ago never expected to have to combat the new infectious disease are realizing they likely can’t keep it out in today’s connected world. Popping up in disparate places, sometimes with no clear epidemiological links to the original outbreak in China, the virus is now all but impossible to stop, public-health officials and infectious-disease experts say. (McKay and Stancati, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Scientists Warn That Warmer Weather May Not Slow The Coronavirus
Hoping that we make it to warmer weather before the coronavirus possibly arrives in the United States in force? Don’t bother, scientists say. Unlike with the seasonal flu, the change of seasons may not matter much to the coronavirus. While it is possible that this virus, like many other respiratory viruses, will not survive as readily in warm temperatures, it will be encountering a “completely susceptible” U.S. population, said Maciej F. Boni, an associate professor of biology at Penn State University. (Avril, 2/27)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Prepare For The Coronavirus
Face masks? Zinc? Gloves? Americans are grasping for ways to brace for what public health experts say is inevitable: an outbreak of the new coronavirus. Public health experts advise staying calm and following the same precautions recommended for preventing flu or any other respiratory virus. Stick with the basics: Wash your hands, cover your coughs and sneezes, and stay at home from work or school when you’re sick. (Reddy, 2/27)

Reuters: Recovered Coronavirus Patients Found Not To Be Infectious-Official
Recovered coronavirus patients who were discharged from hospitalization but later tested positive again have been found not to be infectious, an official at China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said on Friday. (2/28)

Reuters: Explainer: Coronavirus Reappears In Discharged Patients, Raising Questions In Containment Fight
A growing number of discharged coronavirus patients in China and elsewhere are testing positive after recovering, sometimes weeks after being allowed to leave the hospital, which could make the epidemic harder to eradicate. On Wednesday, the Osaka prefectural government in Japan said a woman working as a tour-bus guide had tested positive for the coronavirus for a second time. This followed reports in China that discharged patients throughout the country were testing positive after their release from the hospital. (2/28)

The New York Times: China’s Ban On Wildlife Trade A Big Step, But Has Loopholes, Conservationists Say
China this week announced a permanent ban on wildlife trade and consumption that international conservationists greeted as a major step, but one with troublesome loopholes for trade in wild animals for medicinal uses. A wild animal market in Wuhan may have been where the outbreak of Covid-19 began, and pangolins, in particular, have been proposed as a possible host of the virus before it jumped to people. (Gorman, 2/27)

The Washington Post: CDC’s Facial Hair Guide For Health Workers Resurfaces More Than Two Years Later
Mutton chops, chin curtains and the ever-popular beard have to be shaved off the fighters against coronavirus in the United Kingdom, the Press Association reported. Leaders of the University Hospital Southampton National Health Service Foundation Trust sent an organization-wide email about shaving beards so masks can properly fit on their faces, according to the PA. (Beachum, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Key Terms Of Coronavirus Outbreak, Explained
With health officials trying to prevent and prepare for the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, there is much panic and confusion and many questions. Here are some key terms and facts to know. (Wan, 2/27)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Diagnosis In California Highlights Testing Flaws
Already in deep distress, the patient was rushed last week to a hospital in Northern California, severely ill and unable to breathe on her own. Doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, near Sacramento, provided the woman with critical care but also considered an unlikely diagnosis: infection with the coronavirus. Hospital administrators said they immediately requested diagnostic testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the procedure was not carried out because the case did not qualify under strict federal criteria: She had not traveled to China and had not been in contact with anyone known to be infected. (Rabin, Fink and Sheikh, 2/27)

Stat: Single Coronavirus Case Exposes A Bigger Failure To Track Spread
Before Thursday, a perfect storm of problems in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s development of test kits — and the agency’s reluctance to expand its recommendation of who should be tested given the limited availability of kits — meant very little testing has been done in the country. As of Wednesday, the CDC said that 445 people had been tested — a fraction of the number of tests that other countries have run.(Branswell, 2/27)

The Washington Post: Northern California Coronavirus: California Launches Far-Reaching Effort To Trace Anyone Who Came In Contact With Coronavirus Patient
California has launched a far-reaching effort to find anyone who might have come in contact with a new coronavirus patient infected despite having no known link to others with the illness, as federal officials tried Thursday to fix the faulty testing process that has hamstrung their ability to track how widely the disease is spreading. (Fowler, Bernstein and McGinley, 2/27)

Los Angeles Times: Coronavirus Testing Is Under Scrutiny After Delays And Questions Over Its Effectiveness
The kits have come under growing scrutiny. The CDC distributed the test kits to partner laboratories across the country, but many of those campuses ran into problems with one of the ingredients, leading to inconclusive test results. Most public health officials needed to send specimens to the CDC’s central laboratories in Atlanta for testing, a process that can take up to 48 hours, creating a bottleneck. “We’ve only had a handful of labs that can test with it. The rest have been on pause,” said Scott Becker, the executive director of the Assn. of Public Health Laboratories. “When you’re waiting 48 hours to get a response from the CDC, you’re burning through equipment caring for a patient, just waiting to see the results.” (Baumgaertner, Wigglesworth and Shalby, 2/28)

CIDRAP: Feds To Allow State Public Health Labs To Test For COVID-19
As many as 40 state public health labs could begin testing for the COVID-19 virus using parts of the test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as early as this week, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL). “As of now: @CDCgov & @US_FDA developed a new protocol using 2 of 3 components of original test kit. Many public health labs are able to use the original kit w/out problem component to begin testing as soon as this week,” APHL said on its Twitter feed. (Soucheray, 2/27)

The New York Times: Coronavirus In California: What You Need To Know
California officials said this week that they had bolstered efforts to confront the growing threat of the coronavirus, declaring that they were prepared and pursuing aggressive measures to thwart its spread. Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Thursday that the state had pushed for improved and expanded testing, urging federal officials to alter a testing protocol that he considered “inadequate” to address the situation California faces. He also said officials were actively monitoring people who might have come into contact with the pathogen. (Rojas, 2/27)

Reuters: California Monitoring 8,400 People For Possible Coronavirus
California is monitoring more than 8,400 people who arrived on commercial flights for coronavirus symptoms from “points of concern,” but the state lacks test kits and has been held back by federal testing rules, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Thursday. California has only 200 test kits, but has appealed for testing protocols to be expanded to include Americans who may catch the virus as it spreads through U.S. communities, Newsom told a news briefing in Sacramento, the state capital. (2/27)

The Washington Post: Coronavirus Testing Widened As California Case Makes Containment More Urgent
“We have just a few hundred testing kits in the state of California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said Thursday at a news conference. “That’s simply inadequate to do justice to the kind of testing that is required to address this issue head on. . . . Testing protocols have been a point of frustration for many of us.” (Johnson and McGinley, 2/27)

The New York Times: ‘It’s Scary’: Residents Near Mystery Coronavirus Case Worry And Wonder
In the parking lot of a big-box store, Rick Lodwick tossed a jumbo pack of sanitizing wipes into the back of his car. “I’m middling alarmed,” Mr. Lodwick, an engineer, said as he listed the provisions he bought on Thursday after learning that a woman from his county, Solano, was believed to be the first person in the United States to test positive for the coronavirus without having a known connection to others with the illness. (Fuller and Bogel-Burroughs, 2/28)

Politico: Coronavirus Threat Gives Strapped State Health Agencies A New Crisis
The fumbled response to the first coronavirus case potentially contracted within a U.S. community, in California, shows how health professionals on the front lines can be quickly overmatched by the stealthy disease. And the prospect of more widespread outbreaks could put major stress on state and local health departments that are underfunded and already grappling with a bad flu season, vaping-related illnesses and the ravages of the opioid epidemic. (Roubein, Ehley and Goldberg, 2/27)

The Associated Press: States Ramp Up Virus Preparations, Try To Reassure Public
As worries about the new coronavirus grow in the U.S., state officials are ramping up efforts to prepare for a possible outbreak while simultaneously trying to assure the public that they are well-positioned to handle it. Governors and legislators in several states have proposed pumping millions of dollars into programs to combat the virus that causes the COVID-19 illness. State health officials are checking on stockpiles of supplies such as face masks and respirators and arranging potential isolation sites for sick patients. (2/27)

The Associated Press: US Schools Start Planning For Possible Spread Of Coronavirus
Schools across the United States are canceling trips abroad, preparing online lessons and even rethinking “perfect attendance” awards as they brace for the possibility that the new coronavirus could begin spreading in their communities. Districts have been rushing to update emergency plans this week after federal officials warned that the virus, which started in China, is almost certain to begin spreading in the U.S. Many are preparing for possible school closures that could stretch weeks or longer, even as they work to tamp down panic among students, parents and teachers. (Binkley, 2/28)

The New York Times: Coronavirus Is Coming. Should New Yorkers Panic Or Shrug?
This past week saw New Yorkers fully absorbing, with varying degrees of fright or indifference, that the coronavirus was destined to arrive in the nation’s biggest city, with eight million potential victims. Would the past serve as any guide to how it might be handled? Last spring, health officials from New York and New Jersey conducted an exercise in disease preparedness that involved 70 people and a pretend Ebola patient who was transported 41 miles to Bellevue Hospital on the east side of Manhattan. (Bellafante, 2/28)

Reuters: Amazon Bars One Million Products For False Coronavirus Claims
Amazon.com Inc has barred more than 1 million products from sale in recent weeks that had inaccurately claimed to cure or defend against the coronavirus, the company told Reuters on Thursday. Amazon also removed tens of thousands of deals from merchants merchant offers that it said attempted to price-gouge customers. (2/27)

The New York Times: China Spins Coronavirus Crisis, Hailing Itself As A Global Leader
The Chinese government silenced whistle-blowers, withheld crucial information and played down the threat posed by the new coronavirus, allowing an epidemic that has killed thousands to take hold across the country. Now the ruling Communist Party, facing a storm of anger from the Chinese public over its missteps, is trying to rehabilitate its image by rebranding itself as the unequivocal leader in the global fight against the virus. The state-run news media has hailed China’s response to the outbreak as a model for the world, accusing countries like the United States and South Korea of acting sluggishly to contain the spread. (Hernandez, 2/28)

The New York Times: South Korean Leader Said Coronavirus Would ‘Disappear.’ It Was A Costly Error.
There were 28 cases of the coronavirus in South Korea on Feb. 13. Four days had passed without a new confirmed infection. President Moon Jae-in predicted that the outbreak would “disappear before long,” while the prime minister assured people that it was OK not to wear surgical masks outdoors. As it turns out, the virus had been rapidly spreading at the time through a large, ​secretive ​church in Daegu, where it has since mushroomed into the largest epidemic of the coronavirus outside China, with 2,022 cases, including 13 deaths. (Sang-Hun, 2/27)

Reuters: South Korea Launches ‘Drive-Thru’ Coronavirus Testing Facilities As Demand Soars
From inside his car, a driver is checked for any fever or breathing difficulties by medical staff in protective clothing and goggles who lean in through the window at a new drive-thru coronavirus clinic in South Korea. He drove off after the brief test showed he was clear. (2/27)

The New York Times: Iran Vice President Is One Of 7 Officials To Contract Coronavirus
A senior figure in Iran’s government, who sits just a few seats away from President Hassan Rouhani at cabinet meetings, has fallen ill with coronavirus, making her Iran’s seventh official to test positive, including one prominent cleric who has died. Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, Mr. Rouhani’s deputy for women’s affairs and the highest-ranking woman in the government, has a confirmed coronavirus infection and is quarantined at home, her deputy said Thursday. (Fassihi and Gladstone, 2/27)

The New York Times: Italy, Mired In Politics Over Virus, Asks How Much Testing Is Too Much
On the sixth floor of a skyscraper, two dozen epidemiologists and public health experts form the nerve center of the effort to contain a coronavirus outbreak in Italy that has alarmed Europe and put the wealthy Lombardy region at the center of global concern. They work the phones, pore over digital maps and study computer screens. They update databases with confirmed cases. They track those whom infected people might have had contact with. They coordinate with hospitals and laboratories to verify test results, sometimes for people with no symptoms. (Horowitz, 2/27)

The New York Times: At A Locked Down Spanish Resort, Many Questions, Little Information
Among the hundreds of guests who remained stranded in a hotel in the Canary Islands on Thursday, after four guests were found to have the coronavirus early this week, an overriding question loomed: “What’s going on?” Romane Guilloux, 20, a guest from France, asked about the lockdown imposed on patrons of the hotel, the H10 Costa Adeje Palace, a four-star resort in the south of Tenerife, the largest of the islands. (Peltier, 2/27)

The Associated Press: First Virus-Free Guests Abandon Blocked Spanish Island Hotel
Some guests have started to leave a locked-down hotel in Spain’s Tenerife island after undergoing screening for a new virus that is infecting hundreds worldwide. Reporters at the scene saw several families and couples being screened for their temperatures on Thursday morning by what appeared to be medical personnel wearing protective outfits. (2/28)

The New York Times: Japan Shocks Parents By Moving To Close All Schools Over Coronavirus
After weeks of criticism that Japan was bungling its reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the drastic step on Thursday of asking all the country’s schools to close for about a month. With the number of cases steadily rising and Japan suddenly confronting talk that the Tokyo Olympics may have to be canceled, Mr. Abe is eager to show that he is moving aggressively to control the virus. (Rich, Dooley and Inoue, 2/27)

Reuters: Airlines At Center Of Storm As Coronavirus Spreads
European airlines stepped up their warnings over the coronavirus outbreak on Friday, with British Airways-owner IAG and Finnair flagging a hit to profits and easyJet reporting a big drop in demand into and out of a virus-affected region in Italy. All three airlines also joined rivals in announcing cost cuts to help weather a storm of unknown severity and duration. (2/28)

The New York Times: DeVos Orders U.S.C. To Address ‘Systemic Failures’ Over Arrested Gynecologist
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced Thursday an agreement with the University of Southern California that requires the school to overhaul its processes for responding to sexual assaults after the department found “systemic failures” in its response to abuse allegations against a former gynecologist, George Tyndall. The agreement requires the university to review the actions of current and former employees involved in the Tyndall matter to determine whether they should be disciplined, and to make reasonable efforts to contact and offer remedies to nine patients who may have been harmed over Mr. Tyndall’s 31-year medical career, and possibly to others. (Green, 2/27)

Stat: They Have ‘Alzheimer’s Brains’ But No Symptoms. Why?
For years they were flukes of the Alzheimer’s world: elderly people who died at an advanced age and, according to postmortem examinations, with brains chock-full of amyloid plaques and tau tangles, the protein fragments whose presence in the brain is the hallmark of the disease. Yet these brains were off-script. Although Alzheimer’s orthodoxy says these sticky protein clumps between and inside nerve cells destroy synapses and kill neurons, causing memory loss and cognitive decline, these individuals thought and remembered as well as their amyloid- and tau-free peers. (Begley, 2/27)

Stat: Anti-Vaccine Activists Co-Opt A Populist Slogan To Oppose Immunization Law
The advertisements plastered across city bus stops and flooding television airwaves across Maine make a simple plea to voters: “Reject Big Pharma” by voting yes on a state-wide initiative. But the referendum that Maine voters will decide on Tuesday, known as Question 1, has little to do with drug prices. Instead, approval would overturn a 2019 law that requires all schoolchildren to receive vaccinations unless granted an exemption by a doctor. The advertisements, meanwhile, are funded in large part not by drug pricing activists but by a nationwide network of anti-vaccine groups. (Facher, 2/28)

Stat: Rejected From Five Clinical Trials, A Cancer Patient Waits For One To Say Yes
It’s hard enough for any cancer patient to get into clinical trials. It’s even harder for a patient with a rare cancer like Todd Mercer. Mercer, a 52-year-old defense industry professional, lives in Michigan with his wife and their two teenagers. At age 50, Mercer got a colonoscopy, as is recommended for people his age, and received a clean bill of health. Six weeks later, his appendix burst. (Robbins, Garde and Feuerstein, 2/28)

The Wall Street Journal: Many Miners Die, And It Never Shows Up In Safety Data 
Surat Lal died with seven colleagues in an explosion at a small quarry in India, but like thousands of other casualties at mines in the developing world, his death wasn’t counted as a mining fatality. Around 90% of the world’s miners, according to the World Bank, work in small-scale operations or illegally by trespassing on land controlled by others, including bigger mining companies. Those miners—who dig up materials used in cars and smartphones, among other products—are frequently operating in emerging economies like India, in dangerous conditions with no safety regulations, poor equipment and a culture of risk-taking. (MacDonald and Pokharel, 2/27)

Reuters: Walking May Be Best Treatment For Pain From Clogged Leg Arteries
Discomfort in the calf and upper legs during walking is a hallmark of narrowed blood vessels due to heart disease, but walking more – not less – can help ease the pain, experts say. This type of pain comes from intermittent claudication, when too little blood reaches the muscles, and it is usually a sign that blood vessels in the legs are clogged by atherosclerosis, a condition known as peripheral artery disease. (2/27)