Overnight Health Care: Schumer, Pelosi set to unveil ‘Rooseveltian’ relief package | GOP chairman says nation needs ‘millions’ more tests to safely reopen | Harvard study says only nine states ready to reopen safely
Welcome to Thursday’s Overnight Health Care.
There are 1.25 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., including 75,000 deaths.
Democrats are preparing another relief package but facing pushback from Republicans who say Congress should wait to see the impact of the last stimulus bill first. Meanwhile, testing has improved but still isn’t where it needs to be, according to a Senate Republican chairman and Harvard experts.
Schumer, Pelosi set to unveil ‘Rooseveltian’ relief package
Democrats want to set a big marker for the next round of negotiations over coronavirus relief.
“We need big, bold action,” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in an MSNBC interview with Stephanie Ruhle, adding that he and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “are working very closely together on putting together a very strong plan, which you will hear shortly.”
“We need Franklin Rooseveltian-type action and we hope to take that in the House and Senate in a very big and bold way,” he added.
On the other side: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) said earlier this week that Congress needs to “take a pause” before passing more pandemic relief legislation.
“The people like McConnell and [House Minority Leader Kevin] McCarthy and even [President] Trump who say, ‘Let’s wait and do nothing,’ well, they remind me of the old Herbert Hoovers,” Schumer said. “We had the Great Depression — Hoover said let’s just wait it out. It got worse and worse.”
Meanwhile:
House Democrats probe HHS provider funding
A pair of top House Democrats on Thursday demanded answers from the Trump administration over how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been distributing COVID-19 provider relief funds and loans, and how those loans are being spent.
In a letter to HHS, Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) said the administration has not been transparent about how it is allocating the billions of dollars made available for providers by the CARES Act.
“Currently, despite repeated requests, this Administration has prevented Congress from obtaining the data that the Department has available on funding for our health care system, data that is necessary to inform near future legislation,” the Democrats wrote.
Rewind: Congress set aside $100 billion in the CARES legislation to provide direct financial assistance to hospitals and other health care providers responding to the pandemic.
HHS rushed $30 billion to providers just after the legislation passed, but much of that first wave bypassed hospitals in states on the front lines of the areas hardest hit by the coronavirus.
Next steps unclear: The administration on Wednesday quietly published data on which providers received portions of the $20 billion fund, but this latest round of money was “inexplicably limited to providers who received funding in the first distribution,” Pallone and Neal said. Moreover, funding for providers directly impacted by COVID-19 and who are fighting on the frontlines to treat and contain this crisis “has remained wholly inadequate,” they said.
GOP chairman says nation needs ‘millions’ more tests to reopen safely
Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Thursday that the United States needs “millions more tests” to reopen the economy safely.
“To test every nursing home, and every prison, everyone in an operating room, and some entire classes and campuses and factories, teams at sports events, and to give those tests more than once, we will need millions more tests than we’re producing today,” Alexander said at a hearing examining testing efforts.
Different tune than Trump: President Trump has repeatedly downplayed the need for testing, in contrast with Alexander’s comments.
NIH ‘Shark Tank’ contest on testing: National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said that since the contest to find new testing technologies launched just more than a week ago, more than 1,000 applications have been initiated, with 79 complete, and 20 having been selected to move to the first phase of scrutiny.
Harvard study says only nine states ready to reopen safely
Only nine states are running enough COVID-19 tests to contain their outbreaks and reopen by May 15, according to a Harvard-NPR analysis released Thursday.
Those nine states also would need to be tracing and isolating positive cases and their contacts in order to open safely by May 15, the study said.
The states meeting that criteria are Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Those states have enough capacity to test all infected people and their close contacts who may have been exposed to the virus.
But states with much larger populations and bigger COVID-19 outbreaks, including New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, are running far fewer tests than are needed to lift some physical distancing restrictions by May 15.
While governors in those states are moving more slowly toward reopening, states that are already lifting restrictions, including Georgia, Texas and Colorado, are also far from meeting the minimum testing targets set by Harvard.
Why it matters: If states are reopening without having enough testing, the problem will only be compounded as the rate of cases picks up again, which is expected as people begin leaving their homes and interacting with each other.
Related: Rhode Island to end stay-at-home order starting Saturday
Michigan governor again extends stay-at-home order amid protests
Pelosi calls for federal standard to reopen country
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is calling for the Trump administration to adopt a set of national, science-based standards for reopening the country.
“I do think there should be federal standards, and I think that they should set an example,” Pelosi said.
Pelosi cautioned against a state-by-state patchwork, noting that lines on a map are no barrier to the highly contagious virus.
“Everything should be based on science, and not the state or local — whatever it is,” she said. “And if you’re going to have a standard, you really have to have a federal standard. Because as we know, viruses know no borders, nationally, but they certainly don’t know any state borders.”
What we’re reading
Trump administration rejects CDC guidance on reopening US amid coronavirus (CNN.com)
Admin shelves CDC guide to reopening country (AP)
Will Gilead price its coronavirus drug for public good or company profit? (Reuters)
Amtrak To Require Masks Starting Monday To Avoid Spread Of Coronavirus (NPR)
State by state
California identifies nail salons as source of coronavirus community spread, Gov. Newsom says (CNBC)
Salon owner released from jail after Texas governor changes coronavirus orders (CBS News)
What happened when health officials wanted to close a meatpacking plant, but the governor said no (ProPublica)
Op-Eds in The Hill
Health executives and policymakers must join the battle against preeclampsia
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