 Welcome to Thursday’s Overnight Health Care. The death toll from the coronavirus is approaching 63,000 in the U.S., with more than 1 million confirmed cases. The Trump administration is making a push to reach senior citizens and rolled out a handful of initiatives Thursday designed to help nursing homes during the pandemic. Task force member Anthony Fauci also said he's optimistic a vaccine will be ready by the winter and House Democrats want nearly $1 trillion for states in the next stimulus bill. We'll start with the legislative debate: A big number: Pelosi floats almost $1T for states Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that Democrats will push for including almost $1 trillion in the next coronavirus relief package to help states and local governments hit hard by the pandemic. That figure, Pelosi said, would likely be the single largest line-item of the Democrats' next emergency package, known as CARES 2, which is also expected to include hundreds of billions of dollars more to help workers, businesses and families weather the crisis. "We're not going to be able to cover all of it, but to the extent that we can keep the states and localities sustainable, that's our goal," Pelosi told reporters in the basement of the near-deserted Capitol. GOP not thrilled: "That strikes me as a pretty outrageous number, just for state and local support," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters in the Capitol, shortly after Pelosi floated the $1 trillion figure. "We've already provided $150 billion in CARES 1." Read more here. Related: House Democrats push to include primary care workers in coronavirus relief package US intel says it's investigating COVID-19's origins U.S. intelligence agencies issued a rare statement Thursday saying they agreed with "the widespread scientific consensus" that COVID-19 was "not manmade or genetically modified" but also that they are investigating whether it emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. “The Intelligence Community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified," the statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. “As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security. The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan,” the statement concluded. Context: The intelligence statement was released hours after a report in The New York Times that said Trump administration officials were pushing spy agencies to look for evidence on whether a government laboratory in Wuhan was the origin point for the coronavirus. Read more here. New look: Pence wears face mask while touring GM plant Vice President Pence on Thursday donned a face mask as he toured a General Motors plant in Indiana, marking the first time he's worn a mask on camera. It came just days after he defended his decision not to wear one in defiance of the Mayo Clinic's policy on a visit to Minnesota. The vice president was joined by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) on the trip to the GM plant. All wore masks during the tour of the facility, which has been converted to produce ventilators. GM brought employees back to the Kokomo, Ind., plant earlier this month to ramp up production of ventilators needed to help treat those with coronavirus. The facility has already produced thousands of the machines, which have been distributed to hospitals in need. Read more here. Fauci: Hundreds of millions of vaccine doses may be ready by 2021 Some possible hope for a relatively speedy vaccine timeline: Anthony Fauci said Thursday that it is possible that hundreds of millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine could be ready by January as the Trump administration seeks to speed vaccine development. Asked by NBC’s Savannah Guthrie whether it is “in the realm of possibility” for hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to be ready by January, as the administration’s new Operation Warp Speed envisions, Fauci said, “I do.” “We want to go quickly, but we want to make sure it's safe and it's effective,” he added. “I think that is doable if things fall in the right place.” Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, noted that a major step in meeting that timeline is to start manufacturing a potential vaccine even before the trial results showing whether it works are completed. Meeting the January timeline, of course, depends on whether the results of trials end up showing that the vaccine works. “We're going to start ramping up production with the companies involved and you do that at risk, in other words you don't wait until you get an answer before you start manufacturing, you at risk, proactively, start making it, assuming it's going to work,” he said. “And if it does, then you can scale up and hopefully get to that timeline.” Read more here. Trump outlines initiatives to protect nursing homes President Trump on Thursday outlined a handful of new initiatives intended to aid and protect nursing homes as the coronavirus pandemic takes a heavy toll on older Americans. Trump announced the creation of a commission focused on safety in nursing homes composed of industry experts, patient advocates and state and local officials. The group will meet in May and issue recommendations for steps to protect seniors. The federal government will require nursing homes to report cases of COVID-19 to all residents and their families, as well as directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that information will be publicly available, but have not said when that will happen. The context: Nursing homes have been devastated by the virus. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 10,000 people have died in long term care facilities, including nursing homes, in only 23 states that have reported data. The political undertones of Thursday's event were hard to miss, though, as Trump has seen his standing among older voters slip in recent polling. The development has triggered concerns among some advisers given seniors will play an outsized role in key swing states like Arizona and Florida. Read more here. Related: Trump administration to send PPE shipments to nursing homes California governor orders closure of Orange County beaches California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Thursday that the state would temporarily close beaches in Orange County following a weekend in which thousands of people packed the public areas despite social distancing restrictions designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The state government had originally indicated plans to close all public beaches and state parks this weekend, but Newsom said at a news conference that the closures would only apply to Orange County. He said that recent behavior had "raised alarm bells" among health officials and warned that it could help spur future outbreaks. Read more here. What we’re reading How high will it go? As Covid-19 death toll in U.S. blows past 60,000, there are no easy answers (Stat News) Remdesivir drug shows promise -- but it is far from a coronavirus cure (CNN.com) As White House’s social distancing guidelines expire, health experts worry about public complacency (Washington Post) Trump administration draws up plans to punish China over coronavirus outbreak (CNN.com) State by state Gov. Baker details efforts to reopen Mass. economy after coronavirus Shutdown (NBC 10 Boston) Nursing homes stricken as Pennsylvania death toll tops 2,000 (Associated Press) Few new restrictions as Georgia’s shelter-at-home order ends (Online Athens) Reopening America: A state-by-state breakdown of the status of coronavirus restrictions (CNBC) Texas still won’t say which nursing homes have COVID-19 cases. Families are demanding answers (Pro Publica) The Hill op-eds We need to take a cold hard look at the World Health Organization | 
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