Covid-19: Trump announces formal freeze on WHO funding, pending an investigation

President Trump yesterday announced a formal freeze on funding to the WHO, pending an investigation into the global health agency and its response to the Covid-19 outbreak. In prepared remarks, Trump accused the WHO of "severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus.” STAT's Nicholas Florko has more here.

Here's more of what's new:

A new modeling study suggests that some of the social distancing measures that are currently in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus may have to remain until 2022.
STAT's Casey Ross poses five essential questions for tech startups working on tracking Covid-19 cases, including whether apps can really improve contact tracing efforts, and how accurate such tools are.
Uncertainty about many Covid-19-related treatment decisions, coupled with the increasing anxiety about the crisis, is creating an unexpected new problem: rifts among health care workers about the best way to care for patients. Sunny Kung has more in a new First Opinion for STAT.
In another STAT First Opinion, Chandra Bozelko writes that one way to curb the exceptionally high rates of Covid-19 among prisoners is for the U.S. surgeon general to allow the release of those with the lowest risk of reoffending.

Nearly 20% of those sick with Covid-19 are health care workers

Around 19% of the Covid-19 cases reported between mid-February and early April were health care workers, according to new CDC data. The agency analyzed data from the nearly 9,300 medical professionals diagnosed with Covid-19 during that time, and found that almost three-quarters were female. The vast majority of infected workers were also white, and nearly 40% reported having at least one underlying condition. Cough, shortness of breath, and fever were the most common symptoms. More than half of the medical professionals who became ill reported coming in contact with a patient in a health care setting, while about a quarter reported contact with a patient in a household setting. The analysis didn't distinguish between types of health care workers to provide a breakdown in infection by occupation.

People of color are more concerned about being hospitalized with Covid-19, survey shows

A new Pew survey of nearly 5,000 people finds that Black and Hispanic individuals are more concerned about the Covid-19 crisis than white people. Data in recent weeks has shown that communities of color are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, which may partially explain the differences. Here's more from the survey:

Hospitalization: 43% of Hispanic people and 31% of Black individuals were concerned about getting Covid-19 and needing hospitalization. Only 18% of white adults expressed the same worry.
Knowing a Covid-19 patient: More than a quarter of Black respondents reported knowing someone who had been hospitalized or died due to Covid-19. Only 13% of white and Hispanic individuals said the same.
Ventilator supply: The survey respondents as a whole were pretty split on the question of which patients ought to get ventilators if supplies are short, a difficult choice that many hospitals are grappling with. But more people said that patients who need it the most, and not those deemed most likely to recover, ought to get the machines.

Inside STAT: 'We'll be deported': Immigrants fear seeking Covid-19 tests or care

EDGAR CHAVEZ, A FAMILY PRACTITIONER IN LOS ANGELES, SAYS MANY OF HIS PATIENTS ARE AFRAID TO SEEK TESTING OR CARE FOR COVID-19. (JESSICA PONS FOR STAT)

Just as many communities of color are being disproportionately affected by Covid-19, immigrant communities around the U.S. are similarly feeling the strain because of changes brought on by the pandemic. Members of these communities are less likely to be able to work from home or cannot afford to stay home from work and are more likely to risk contracting the virus. In addition, federal rules that tightly limit noncitizens’ use of government programs have many immigrants fearful of seeking medical care. “I have one family where one person is very sick with pneumonia and the whole family has probably been exposed [to the coronavirus], but they say, ‘We’re afraid to get the test. We’ll be deported,’” says Edgar Chavez, a family practitioner who founded and runs a trio of clinics in some of Los Angeles’ poorest neighborhoods. STAT contributor Usha Lee McFarling has more from Los Angeles here.

New data highlight how many fetal deaths have unknown causes

A new report from the CDC finds that there were nearly 42,000 fetal deaths — or miscarriages — between 2015-2017 in the U.S., and the cause was most often unknown. Across 34 states and D.C., there were 41,788 fetal deaths that had occurred at or after 20 weeks of gestation. The cause behind nearly 30% of these deaths was unspecified. However, where the cause was known, the most common reasons were placenta, membrane, and umbilical cord complications; maternal complications including death of the mother; and congenital malformations in the fetus. While these causes were similarly common across racial groups, more Black women experienced miscarriages due to complications in their health than Hispanic or white women. Given the large portion of unspecified fetal deaths, the authors of the report are calling for better and more uniform methods of recording miscarriages.

Few clinics are following up with patients to get a sense of whether treatment worked

Hospitals and insurance companies have increasingly relied on patients reporting how well they are doing after receiving treatment to get a sense of the value of the care provided. But a new analysis of one network of hospitals reveals that such patient-reported outcomes are not collected regularly. Looking at one network of 205 clinics in Massachusetts, researchers found that only around half the facilities collected outcome information from patients — such as whether their symptoms are improving or worsening — a majority of the time. Primary care and internal medicine specialties were most successful at collecting such information. Having at least half the clinicians in a facility trained on patient-reported outcomes was associated with a 20% increase in this data collection. Some caveats: The data is based on only one network in one state, and only represents associations.

One final thing: I'm glad a missing "t" typo on my part in yesterday's item on lung cancer screenings made some of you chuckle, but I meant that one of the potential benefits of such screenings is improved "mortality."

What to read around the web today

Our pandemic summer. The Atlantic
Postal workers say USPS isn’t telling them when colleagues test positive for Covid-19, despite promising to. ProPublica
Coronavirus tests science’s need for speed limits. The New York Times
Bats are a key source of human viruses — but they’re not special. Nature
A desperate scramble as Covid-19 families vie for access to plasma therapy. Kaiser Health News