Axios

House members voted 217-189 on Friday to temporarily allow remote voting, which follows recommended social distancing guidelines to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Why it matters: This marks the first time in history that House members will be able to direct another member to vote on their behalf and attend committees virtually amid the pandemic.

Go deeper: House Rules chair puts forward plan for proxy voting amid coronavirus

Homeschooling students amid the coronavirus pandemic significantly amplifies economic inequities between households.

Why it matters: States across the U.S. have closed schools for the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year. And keeping students remote after summer break brews as an option amid public health officials' concerns for a COVID-19 resurgence in the fall and winter.

Some nursing homes and assisted living facilities have forced residents who are on Medicaid to sign over their federal coronavirus stimulus checks, saying the money must be used to pay for their stays, the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.

The bottom line: These facilities, who are going after their poorest and most vulnerable residents, legally do not have the right to seize these payments.

It's not just restaurants and bars: The reopening of America will be centered around reducing our pre-virus conceptions of how many people can congregate together indoors.

The big picture: Social distancing and spacing is strongly encouraged by the CDC in its new guidelines for reopening various parts of American life.

Attacks on NIAD Director Anthony Fauci are part of a larger trend of "suppressing of the inconvenient scientific voice," Andy Slavitt, former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator, said at a virtual Axios event on Friday.

What he's saying: "Belittling him just keeps us on a track to saying that expertise doesn't matter, it puts us on a track to continue to silence people and to surround our decision-makers only with people who will nod their heads in agreement or at best try to work around something they don't agree with," he said.

Mental health, social services, immunizations and preventative medicine are all key stress points affected by the pandemic, Andy Slavitt, former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator, said at a virtual Axios event on Friday.

What he's saying: The coronavirus risks "exposure to what they call sustained trauma—that is a day-in, day-out level of trauma — has a very significant level of PTSD-type impact," Slavitt said, that would "start with the medical community" as they witness deaths first-hand.

Health care workers in Illinois are still struggling to get the face masks and protective gowns that they need, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.) told Axios' Mike Allen at a virtual event on Friday.

Why it matters: Only New York and New Jersey are reporting more coronavirus cases than Illinois, per Johns Hopkins data. The state has reported almost 4,000 deaths, per the state's health department.

Watch the event.

One-third of deaths caused by the coronavirus in Illinois are African-American, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Ill.), a nurse who assisted the Obama administration in pandemic preparedness, told Mike Allen at an Axios virtual event on Friday.

The big picture: African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic people and other people of color are more likely to become seriously ill from the coronavirus due to chronic health conditions and the effects of economic inequality, several studies have found.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News on Thursday that the Obama administration did leave behind a pandemic playbook after initially criticizing them for failing to do so.

• "I was wrong. They did leave behind a plan. So, I clearly made a mistake in that regard. As to whether or not the plan was followed and who is the critic and all the rest, I don't have any observation about that because I don't know enough about the details of it to comment on it in any detail."

After a 10-week hiatus, NASCAR returns to the racetrack Sunday at South Carolina's Darlington Raceway.

Why it matters: Other sports leagues will be watching closely and hoping that the weekend goes smoothly, as that would give them confidence — and a road map to follow — as they, too, attempt to return in the coming months.

A rolling, living experiment — and preview of coming attractions for the rest of the country — has begun in Wisconsin, after a surprise court ruling made the Badger State the first in the nation where businesses can reopen.

The state of play: Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) warned of “massive confusion” after his stay-at-home order was thrown out Wednesday night by the state's Supreme Court.

Stringent social distancing measures imposed by state and local governments in the U.S. led to slower spread of the coronavirus, according to a new study in Health Affairs.

Why it matters: One of the most effective measures was COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, which many states are lifting before public health experts say is safe.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have declined in many states — another indication that social distancing has been effective at curbing the virus' spread.

Why it matters: Hospitalizations are an important metric to watch to gauge the severity of the outbreak, especially because testing shortfalls have skewed some other measurements. Those numbers aren't falling everywhere, and any approach to reopening needs to be carefully managed to prevent them from spiking yet again.

The FDA has received at least 15 reports that suggest Abbott Labs coronavirus tests are inaccurately telling patients that they do not have the virus, FDA said in a Thursday press release citing early data.

Why it matters: These tests have been widely distributed by the federal government in response to the pandemic. The U.S. deployed over 235,000 tests to public health laboratories in every state across the U.S., Assistant Secretary of Health Adm. Brett Giroir said on Monday.

Protests continued on Thursday against Michigan's stay-at-home order, alongside similar protests in suburban New York and Washington, D.C. Other demonstrations were held this week in North Carolina and Rhode Island.

Why it matters: Leading coronavirus modeling shows the country's collective sacrifice of an economic shutdown — which has resulted in over 30 million jobless claims — has likely prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths, serving as a sign that social distancing is effective.

Kutupalong refugee camps in Bangladesh reported their first coronavirus cases on Thursday, per the humanitarian organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) and U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

Why it matters: Public health experts view a major coronavirus outbreak in a refugee camp as a worst-case scenario, as conditions are overcrowded with residents sharing water and basic hygiene facilities.