COVID-19 Daily Rundown for Thursday, June 11, 2020

Former medical reporter Doug Levy's pick of the coronavirus stories that matter most

Good afternoon. A quick note about logistics: I’m trying out a new platform for distribution of these almost-daily emails. If you have any thoughts about this, please let me know. Thanks.

Here are today’s top stories:

• COVID-19 cases surging: The CDC reports that current models estimate between 2,500 and 12,000 new hospitalizations per day by July 1. This is huge jump from the forecast for July 1 that was published on June 1.  In Arizona, cases have doubled in two weeks.

• The private sector keeps moving towards new treatments and maybe a vaccine. Regeneron announced a clinical trial of an antiviral antibody therapy. Moderna says it will begin Phase 3 study of its COVID-19 candidate vaccine in July, and Johnson and Johson says it will begin a Phase 1 vaccine trial, also in July, two months ahead of previous plans. And former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb points out that standardized or common control groups for the vaccine trials would have streamlined the process, but federal officials did not do this.

• The Washington Post reports on people who have been sick with COVID-19 for much longer than the typical two weeks, and scientists do not yet know why this happens.

• In other outbreak news… The World Health Organization says it’s still counting on US participation to confront an Ebola outbreak in Congo and that HHS Secretary Alex Azar has agreed.