 Welcome to Tuesday's Overnight Health Care. A massive study on hydroxychloroquine is being reviewed, and House Democrats want to know about the administration’s vaccine contracts. Democratic governors tell Congress they’re still having trouble getting supplies from the Trump administration, dealing with delayed shipments, wrong orders and a lack of transparency. But we'll start with the administration's coronavirus response: White House shifts focus from coronavirus The coronavirus is still raging across the country, but the White House is sending signals it is moving on. - The administration's coronavirus task force has scaled back its meetings, and its top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said he hasn't met with President Trump in weeks.
- The White House's designated testing czar, Brett Giroir, said he is set to return to his regular duties this month.
The issue: The virus is still widespread. While new cases, deaths and hospitalizations have decreased from their peak nationally, there are still around 20,000 new cases reported each day, and experts are warning the country needs to be prepared for a renewed surge in the fall. And while testing has improved after the Trump administration faced widespread criticism for an extremely slow initial rollout, experts say it is still not at a level it needs to be. Reacting to the announcement that Giroir is returning to his regular role, Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, tweeted: “The Federal government could not muster up the energy to get Americans the testing they needed. So it feels like we are just throwing in the towel.” Read more here.
House Democrats seek information on coronavirus vaccine contracts House Democrats are demanding details from the Trump administration about the terms of its contracts with drugmakers to fund the development of a potential coronavirus vaccine. In a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar, the chairs of the House Select Coronavirus Committee and House Oversight Committee said they want to know whether the contracts include provisions to ensure the vaccines or therapeutics are affordable. Big picture: There are rising calls among Democrats to make sure that a coronavirus vaccine is affordable, and they say the administration has not provided satisfactory answers. According to Reps. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the Coronavirus Committee, and Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the Oversight Committee, HHS "has shared only limited information to date with Congress and the American people." Read more here. Governors detail frustrations with Trump over COVID-19 supplies Two Democratic governors told lawmakers on Tuesday that their states are still struggling to obtain COVID-19 supplies from the federal government, almost three months into the pandemic. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Jared Polis (D) said they’re facing challenges procuring tests and masks, adding to concerns as they prepare for a potential second wave of the pandemic in the fall. States get inaccurate answers from the federal government about when supplies will be coming and deliveries are often late, if they come at all, the two told members of the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee. “Uncertainty about supplies, however, and the federal government’s role about directing the allocation of these supplies has undermined our ability to coordinate a testing strategy,” said Whitmer, who has sparred with President Trump over his administration’s response to the public health crisis. Read more here. Concerns mount over massive hydroxychloroquine study An influential medical journal publicly acknowledged Tuesday that a massive study on hydroxychloroquine that raised serious health concerns about the anti-malaria drug was potentially flawed. The Lancet issued an "expression of concern" on a study it published last month of nearly 100,000 patients that tied hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to a higher risk of death in hospitalized patients with coronavirus. The journal said "serious scientific questions have been brought to our attention" about the study, and that the authors have commissioned an independent review of the data. Flashback: When it was published in late May, the study of 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across six continents was touted as the most definitive and largest analysis to date on the effects of treating COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. The study found that not only were the drugs largely ineffective at treating or preventing the virus, they were also linked to a higher risk of death. Consequences: Following the study's publication, two major clinical trials of hydroxychloroquine were paused, one from the World Health Organization, and the other in the United Kingdom. France also stopped allowing the use of the drug in hospitals. Read more here. | 
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