The Anti-Science: The doctor who led the federal agency developing a coronavirus vaccine says he was removed from the job after he pressed for a rigorous vetting of malaria drugs pushed by President Trump as a treatment for the disease. Dr. Rick Bright told The NY Times that science, not “politics and cronyism” must lead the way.

  Bright was abruptly dismissed this week as the director of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA.  He was sent to a different job at the National Institutes of Health. 

  The news of Bright’s firing came just a day after a study in veterans hospitals found no benefit to the use of hydroxychloroquine and that the drug might even cause greater risk of death.

  Bright, a career employee, not a political appointee, told the Times he was fired for adhering to medical science. “Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit.” 

  At his briefing yesterday, Trump said he had never heard of Bright and didn’t know about his firing.

  The NY Times  notes that Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who spent a month hawking hydroxychloroquine as a “game changer” and “miracle cure,”  has suddenly stopped talking about it.

The Covid Trail: The first coronavirus deaths in the US were believed to have occurred February 26^thin a Seattle nursing home, but  suspicious deaths in California in early February are now confirmed as the first such deaths in the US, changing the picture of how long the virus has been in the country and how it circulated.

  A 57-year-old woman in San Jose developed flu-like symptoms and died suddenly in her kitchen on February 6^th. An autopsy found no evidence of flu, but now it is confirmed to have been the coronavirus. That means the virus was circulating in northern California in January.

  Researchers at say the disease was silently spreading through major cities — New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle — long before testing revealed a major problem. 

  Also yesterday, President Trump claimed that the director of the Centers for Disease Control was misquoted by The Washington Post saying “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through.”

  President Trump trotted out CDC Director Robert Redfield to either retract or clarify, but Redfield danced around it until he was pinned down by ABC’s Jonathan Karl and then admitted he was quoted accurately.

It’s Scary: The more doctors and scientists learn about the coronavirus, the scarier it gets. Depending on the patient, the virus attacks the kidney, heart, lungs, intestines, liver, and even the brain. Doctors are also seeing multiple cases in which the coronavirus causes blood clots.

  They’ve also seen things that make no medical sense. Some patients with oxygen levels so low they should be unconscious or nearly death are talking n their phones. They’ve seen a pregnant woman with no symptoms go into cardiac arrest and others with apparently mild disease going downhill within minutes and dying at home. 

The Stat Sheet: In the past 24 hours, another 1,710 Americans have died of the coronavirus, bringing the total to 46,785. The epicenter is still New York City, but the numbers there are encouraging. Only 187 people died there in the past 24 hours — they’ve had days when they’ve lost thousands.

The Bulletin Board: In the midst of the worldwide crisis, President Trump is threatening gunplay with Iran, which has had its gunboats buzzing US Navy ships. Trump tweeted yesterday, “I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea.” — The House is set to vote today on another $485 billion relief bill.

Breathing Lessons: One of the silver linings in the paused economy is that suddenly the air quality is great. Highways are empty and factories have cut back. Los Angeles, where once the air was so polluted it made your eyes water, has recently been noted as having some cleanest air in the world for a major city.

  A Swiss organization called IQAir says that, “In many places, the halt of movement and industry has shown a glimpse of a cleaner world, with many reports of exceptional blue skies.” The report says that in seven of 10 major cities around the world, including Delhi, London, Mumbai, New York City, Rome, Seoul and Wuhan, the fine particulate matter of air pollution has been drastically reduced. 

Ready for Some Football: The lead story in any normal week might have been the re-uniting of the New England Patriots championship passing and catching team in Florida. Tight end Rob Gronkowski, a favored receiver of Tom Brady’s and one of the most popular figures in football, came out of retirement to play again with Brady for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

  Gronk retired in 2019 after being ground down by Bill Belichick’s win-at-all-cost coaching. He just wasn’t having fun anymore. “I was not in a good place,” he said. “Football was bringing me down, and I didn’t like it.” 

  He’s back, and hoping to have fun again with Brady.

Making the Rounds: “Spain cancelled the running of the bulls, Germany cancelled Oktoberfest, Georgia opened the massage parlors.”

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