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With Rachel Roubein
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Quick Fix
— Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris are set to battle over health policy in tonight's vice-presidential debate.
— President Donald Trump appeared to re-open negotiations over a coronavirus relief package and take a shot at his own FDA chief in a flurry of tweets on Tuesday night.
— HHS Alex Azar met with three scientists this week who have backed a herd immunity strategy to beat the coronavirus.
WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — and a big congrats to the POLITICO Nightly crew, our counterparts on the Covid beat who will be sticking around in your inbox for good.
Help us deliver the news day and night; send tips to [email protected] and [email protected].
Driving the Day
PENCE AND HARRIS TAKE THE STAGE — The vice presidential debate, moderated by USA Today's Susan Page and slated for 9 p.m. ET, is expected to be a more … traditional debate, after President Donald Trump broke the format by repeatedly interrupting challenger Joe Biden last week. That could lead to longer, more in-depth colloquies on possible topics like coronavirus and abortion.
It also may be the last in-person debate of the presidential cycle, depending on what happens with the fallout from Trump's recent diagnosis of Covid-19. Biden has said there shouldn't be a second debate if the president is still infected.
— ROBERT REDFIELD clears Pence's participation. The CDC director said that his agency was comfortable with the vice president attending the debate after a "detailed discussion" with a White House physician and Pence's own testing history.
"[T]he CDC concludes from a public health standpoint, it is safe for the Vice President to participate in the upcoming Vice-Presidential debate," Redfield wrote in a memo posted by Pence's office.
— What we'd ask PENCE: As leader of the coronavirus task force for the past seven months, and knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently?
If the Supreme Court strikes down the Affordable Care Act in the coming weeks, what is your administration's specific plan to ensure health coverage, preserve protections and continue the programs begun under the ACA?
— What we'd ask HARRIS: What have you learned about health coverage since the Democratic primary, when your shifting stance opened you to criticism from members of your own party?
If Biden wins and taps you as the new leader of the coronavirus task force, what are the decisions you'll make on Day One?
FLASHBACK: 'HOW MIKE PENCE SLOWED DOWN THE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE' — The vice president was abruptly installed as the new coronavirus task force chair at the end of February, but was slow to act on multiple public health priorities.
FLASHBACK 2: MODERATOR HOSTED 'GIRL's NIGHT' FOR SEEMA VERMA — Page, tonight's moderator, threw a party in 2018 to "honor" Verma, a close ally of Pence. Taxpayers were billed $2,933 to help arrange the evening, a Democratic report revealed.
A USA Today spokesperson last month said that Page was not personally reimbursed for the event or aware that CMS had been billed, and that she paid over $4,000 from her own pocket to cover catering and other costs of the reception.
TRUMP KILLS COVID AID NEGOTIATIONS, FOR NOW — The president on Tuesday afternoon declared an abrupt end to talks with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a coronavirus aid package, appearing to end any chances of a deal until after the election.
But come nightfall, Trump sent multiple tweets that seemed to reverse his stance, calling for the immediate approval of $25 billion in support for the airlines and another $135 billion for small businesses.
— The result: Mass confusion. Trump’s decision to end negotiations stunned lawmakers who had spent weeks seeking new funding to prop up the ailing economy and aid the coronavirus fight, POLITICO’s John Bresnahan, Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris report.
It could also prove a self-inflicted wound for Trump’s re-election bid, with the president taking full responsibility for ending Washington’s efforts to alleviate the impact of a pandemic that’s put millions out of work.
TRUMP ESCALATES VACCINE FEUD WITH HIS OWN FDA — The president is taking fresh aim at FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, after the agency pushed through new guidance that will raise the bar for a vaccine authorization.
“New FDA Rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before Election Day. Just another political hit job!” Trump tweeted late Tuesday.
— The reprimand adds new uncertainty to the vaccine process. The FDA earlier in the day appeared to end a standoff with the White House over the enhanced standards, publishing them as part of a set of instructions to vaccine makers.
The White House, which had held up the guidance for two weeks, approved it hours later for official release. That marked a victory for the FDA’s career scientists, who had pushed for releasing the stricter guidelines in hopes of reassuring the public that authorization of a Covid-19 shot would be guided by science, not politics.
— But the stricter standards mean a vaccine is highly unlikely before Election Day. Trump has fixated on delivering a vaccine by Nov. 3, and spoken repeatedly in recent weeks with frontrunner Pfizer — which continues to predict its candidate could be ready by the end of the month. That could set up another showdown between a White House eager for a pre-election victory and an FDA that has vowed not to buckle to political pressure.
Inside the Humphrey Building
AZAR HOSTED TRIO OF HERD IMMUNITY ADVOCATES — The three scientists that HHS Secretary Alex Azar met with Monday have all backed the idea of pursuing herd immunity to beat the coronavirus, POLITICO’s Sarah Owermohle and David Lim report.
It’s the latest example of the Trump administration seeking out scientists whose contrarian views justify a pandemic response that’s resulted in 210,000 deaths from Covid-19.
— Who they are: Stanford medical professor Jay Bhattacharya co-authored a study that sought to show the virus was not nearly deadly enough to justify continued lockdowns — findings that were quickly challenged by other scientists.
Oxford epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta argued against U.K. lockdowns imposed in March, and was nicknamed “Professor Reopen” in a June Wall Street Journal editorial. Harvard medical professor Martin Kulldorff has advocated protecting the elderly and vulnerable while allowing other groups to reach some level of herd immunity.
In a tweet, Azar described them as “three distinguished infectious disease experts.”
— The meeting prompted alarm among public health experts, who say such a herd immunity approach could result in hundreds of thousands more deaths. “This is an attempt to cherry pick credentialed people who happen to agree with the administration’s political instincts or political inclinations,” said former Obama administration disaster response official Jeremy Konyndyk.
CMS THREATENS FUNDING FOR HOSPITALS NOT REPORTING COVID DATA — The Trump administration is cracking down on hospitals that aren’t providing updated coronavirus data each day nearly three months after the administration abruptly rolled out a controversial new reporting system, POLITICO's Rachel Roubein reports.
By mid-January, hospitals that don’t regularly report key information face an ultimate penalty of being kicked out of Medicare and Medicaid, their major funding sources, CMS Administrator Seema Verma told reporters Tuesday. The beefed-up reporting requirements come after the troubled roll-out of a new hospital reporting system, which ignited a political firestorm over the summer.
— Hospitals say their Medicare and Medicaid funding shouldn't be at risk. That threat "remains an overly heavy-handed approach that could jeopardize access to hospital care for all Americans," Rick Pollack, the president and CEO of the American Hospital Association, said in a statement.
On the Hill
HOUSE DEMOCRATS TRY TO BLOCK FUNDS FOR 'DEFEAT DESPAIR' ADS — The Defeat Pandemic Propaganda Act is authored by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), joined by Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).
The Democrats' largely symbolic bill would bar HHS from using taxpayer funds on an ad campaign to "positively influence public perception regarding the Covid–19 pandemic," specifically distort any facts or encourage risky behaviors amid the outbreak.
… Asked about the plans for the ad campaign and Democrats' concerns, a spokesperson for the Health and Human Services department on Tuesday said that there was "an urgent and compelling need for consistent and coordinated public health messaging" around Covid-19. Azar also testified to the House Oversight committee last week that he had begun a "strategic review" of the campaign to ensure that it serves a public health purpose.
Public Health
RICK BRIGHT RESIGNS — The ousted BARDA chief stepped down on Tuesday, alleging that he'd been deliberately idled in his new role at NIH and complaining that Director Francis Collins' "timidity" had effectively blocked Bright's new plan for a national testing strategy.
Bright this spring was abruptly transferred to NIH after HHS officials suspected he was the source of a critical media report about the administration's hydroxychloroquine strategy, which Bright later confirmed. Bright subsequently filed a complaint alleging that he was being punished for raising concerns about hydroxychloroquine, the drug favored by Trump to treat the coronavirus despite scant evidence.
Bright also testified to a House panel in May and used other media appearances to speak out against the administration's handling of the pandemic.
HHS has rebuffed his claims, suggesting that the former BARDA chief wasn't aware of the administration's broader efforts and releasing a point-by-point rebuttal of some of his major claims.
… Bright's high-profile perch made him a complicated figure inside the health department. Some officials hailed Bright as an outspoken truth-teller, as a senior career scientist willing to speak out against the administration. But the spotlight also left Bright isolated, and his role at NIH was indeed much smaller than his previous platform at BARDA.
Names in the News
RAE ELLEN BICHELL joins Kaiser Health News as Colorado correspondent. She was previously a reporter for KUNC and the Mountain West News Bureau.
What We're Reading
A renowned former head of the CDC urged current agency director Robert Redfield to openly protest White House interference and orchestrate his own firing, according to a private letter obtained by USA Today’s Brett Murphy and Letitia Stein.
Sweden is introducing new isolation guidelines in hopes of curbing a surge of Covid-19 cases without resorting to a lockdown, The Wall Street Journal’s Bojan Pancevski writes.
In The Atlantic, Olga Khazan contrasts the top-notch care Trump receieved for his Covid-19 diagnosis with the broken and increasingly expensive system most Americans are forced to navigate.
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