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Matt Wuerker
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WE’RE ALL ASTRONAUTS NOW — About 17 minutes before NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley were set to blast into space today from the SpaceX Crew Dragon, their scheduled liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Fla., was delayed until Saturday. For once, you can’t blame coronavirus. The weather postponed, for a few days, the first commercially owned human spaceflight and the first human spaceflight from American soil since 2011.
Behnken and Hurley now have to trudge back to their quarantine, where they’ve been holed up since May 13. This pre-flight protocol isn’t new for the pandemic. For years, astronauts have isolated before launch to keep them from bringing sicknesses into space.
Pre-flight quarantines became a regular part of launch protocol after early space crews developed colds and other illnesses in flight. A nasty head cold almost doomed Apollo 7's 11-day mission , with astronauts refusing to wear helmets during the landing so they could blow their noses. (Turns out that in zero gravity conditions, mucus accumulates in nasal passages.)
Now, the Covid-19 pandemic protocols have transformed us all into space travelers on a months- or even years-long mission.
Even seemingly benign viruses are a huge risk for long space flight, according to Dorit Donoviel, who directs the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine. The institute works on ways to manage health risks that might arise in a cramped spacecraft. Donoviel is focused on preparing for an eventual mission to Mars, a round-trip journey that would take about 900 days. During a Mars mission, if one person got sick, everyone probably would — that’s what happened with Apollo 7.
Viruses are even nastier in space, Donoviel said, because of radiation, zero-gravity conditions and an environment that stresses out the immune system. One 2019 study showed that space travel triggers the reactivation of dormant herpes viruses. Plus, viruses that aren’t dangerous on Earth could mutate into something more potent in space — though that hasn’t happened yet.
“If we had a SARS CoV 2 virus in space it would be worse than today,” Donoviel said. “It’s not something to take lightly.”
Space research is already being tapped during the pandemic response. The FDA granted emergency use authorization to a NASA-developed ventilator that could be used in field hospitals. The agency is also trying to repurpose a technology used to sterilize spacecraft and keep it from spreading Earth germs on Mars — NASA doesn’t want to introduce an invasive species onto another planet — to sterilize schools, prisons and other confined spaces.
One of the biggest worries for astronauts on a multiyear mission to Mars? Quarantine fatigue and isolation. Donoviel says that her group is already looking at virtual reality or other simulations to help, plus devices that improve sleep and ones that monitor and boost brain function under stressful space travel conditions.
“You’re talking about pandemic isolation for three years on a mission to Mars,” she said. “Some people are already going crazy with their husband or wife. So we’re starting to think about what that might be like.”
Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. In case you were wondering, this is how Nancy Pelosi coordinates masks to her pantsuits. Reach out with tips: rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.
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A message from Humana:
At Humana, we’re committed to helping our members – many of whom are at high-risk for coronavirus – stay healthy and safe by connecting them to the resources they need. Learn More
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People relax at a distance on the beach at Botany Bay in Margate, U.K., as the British government continues to ease its coronavirus lockdown. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT — Federal and state officials across the country have altered or hidden public health data crucial to tracking the coronavirus' spread, write health reporters Darius Tahir and Adam Cancryn. The spotty data flow is particularly worrisome to public health officials trying to help Americans make decisions about safely venturing out as the country passes 100,000 Covid deaths.
In at least a dozen states, health departments have inflated testing numbers or deflated death tallies by changing criteria for who counts as a coronavirus victim and what counts as a coronavirus test. Some states have shifted the metrics for a “safe” reopening. Arizona sought to clamp down on bad news by simply shuttering its pandemic modeling. The District of Columbia became the latest jurisdiction to endure scrutiny , with the city using a “community spread” metric — excluding nursing homes, correctional facilities, and others — as a justification for reopening. Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds told reporters that her state will share information about outbreaks at meatpacking plants only upon request. And Georgia has only just begun to differentiate between the two types of coronavirus tests it’s been combining in its testing totals for weeks. About a third of states aren’t even reporting hospital admission data.
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LISTEN UP! Congress is nowhere close to a coronavirus deal. More Americans are applying for unemployment benefits. States across the nation are opening up but trying to avoid a 2nd wave. POLITICO Dispatch is a short, daily podcast that provides critical news and context you need, in 15 minutes or less. Subscribe and listen today.
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DOCTOR’S ORDERS — Anthony Fauci bucked Trump’s position on two major Covid issues in a CNN interview today. On hydroxychloroquine, Fauci became the first Trump administration official to say definitively that the anti-malarial drug that the president says he is taking prophylactically is not an effective treatment for the coronavirus, based on the available data. “The scientific data is really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy,” he said. Fauci also revealed today he wears a mask while in public partly as a “symbol” of best practices during the coronavirus pandemic — breaking with Trump, who has resisted criticism that he should model similar behavior for Americans. And Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also urged people to take politics out of wearing masks. “There’s no stigma attached to wearing a mask. There’s no stigma attached to staying six feet apart,” McConnell said at an event back in his home state.
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Food waste — An event-planning company that received one of the largest federal contracts to provide produce, meat and dairy to hungry families has yet to deliver the much-needed boxes to food banks across the Southwest, agriculture reporters Helena Bottemiller Evich and Ryan McCrimmon write. The delay has stoked concerns about the Agriculture Department’s new $3 billion “Farmers to Families Food Box Program” — especially multimillion-dollar contracts awarded to several small firms with little experience in food distribution. A small event planner received a huge, $39 million federal contract to serve charities like the San Antonio Food Bank, which has yet to receive a single box from CRE8AD8 (pronounced “Create a Date”), which markets itself as a lavish wedding and corporate event planner. CRE8AD8 was awarded the seventh-largest contract out of nearly 200 companies selected for the program.
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‘THE MOST EFFECTIVE BIOTERRORIST’ — National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told health care reporter Zachary Brennan today that the coronavirus is “absolutely not” man made but also that he could not rule out the idea that it escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. “Whether [the coronavirus] could have been in some way isolated and studied in this laboratory in Wuhan, we have no way of knowing,” Collins said. “Nature created this virus, and has proven once again to be the most effective bioterrorist.”
Collins refused to comment on his agency’s decision to pull funding from researchers studying how coronaviruses spread from bats to people. The NIH told the EcoHealth Alliance, whose collaborators included scientists at the Wuhan virology lab, in late April that its project did not “align with the program goals and agency priorities.” Prominent scientific societies and 77 Nobel laureates have asked the administration to investigate why the nonprofit group’s grant was terminated, alleging that the decision was made for political, rather than scientific, reasons.
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KINGS OF QUEENS — New York Playbook writer Anna Gronewold emails us about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s visit to Washington:
Cuomo and Trump’s meeting followed a newly established pattern for the two Queens natives — no cameras, no readout, and afterward a vague, but mutual report that their conversation was productive.
But rather than the $60 billion dollars Cuomo has said he needs from the federal government because of the pandemic, the topic this time was infrastructure. Fast federal approval for projects like the proposed Hudson River rail tunnel and an AirTrain from LaGuardia Airport to Manhattan are the spark the New York economy needs right now, Cuomo said.
“He’s a builder, he’s a developer, he gets it," Cuomo said of Trump.
“Gov. Cuomo said the president is doing a fantastic job,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said later in the afternoon.
The self-reported harmony raises questions about just what kind of dealing is going on between two brash New Yorkers with diametrically oppositional politics. In a post-summit interview with MSNBC, Cuomo shot down conjectures of quid pro quo behind closed doors.
Afterward Cuomo rented out the National Press Club, which is not hosting in-person events, and laid into Republican Sens. Rick Scott and McConnell for their opposition to his requests for more aid.
He did not comment on the Republican president’s position on that same request. “I think the president is focused on the reopening, on stimulating the economy and getting the economy back,” Cuomo said. “I think that’s the correct focus.”
Unhealthy politics — National political reporter Holly Otterbein emails us:
A feud broke out today in the Pennsylvania state capitol over coronavirus etiquette.
Rumors swirled in Harrisburg that a few Republican lawmakers had tested positive for Covid-19. So Democratic state Rep. Gerald Mullery wrote an email to legislators imploring them to “man or woman up!” if they were sick. “Let us know who you are so we know what precautionary measures we need to take.”
Minutes later, GOP state Rep. Andrew Lewis became the first House lawmaker to confirm that he had tested positive — last Wednesday, that is. Another Republican member, Rep. Russ Diamond, came forward and said he was on “on day 14 of a 14-day self-quarantine” after coming into contact with a person with coronavirus.
Lewis said he previously contacted everyone he might have gotten sick, and otherwise stayed quiet “out of respect for my family, and those who I may have exposed.” Democrats say they were left in the dark because it was politically inconvenient for Republicans who have been pushing to reopen the state to catch coronavirus.
“I have never been this livid. The Republican leadership risked the lives of our staff,” said Democratic state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta. “They risked the lives of other members. They withheld pertinent information to the health and the safety of their colleagues and the people who operate the capitol.”
Mike Straub, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler, said “the health and privacy of a member and his or her family is not a political narrative” and is “protected by HIPAA law — so the only person who was at liberty to announce their positive test is the member.”
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