Masks, No, Body Armor, Yes; CDC Nixes Trick-or-Treating; Pandemic Loans Worry Rural Hospitals

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The Pentagon took some of the money meant for spending on masks and swabs for the COVID-19 pandemic and spent it on jet engine parts and body armor instead. (Washington Post)

British prime minister Boris Johnson has ordered a 10 p.m. curfew for bars and restaurants, and urged people to work from home if they can, as the country’s chief medical officer warned that the number of infections was doubling every 7 days. (CNN)

A South Dakota healthcare organization is co-hosting — along with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) — an indoor country music event expected to draw 5,000 people. (Daily Beast)

As of Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. EDT, the unofficial U.S. COVID-19 death toll stood at 200,818, while cases reached 6,897,541 — up 928 and 39,403 from this time a day ago.

The FDA will soon announce tougher standards for emergency use authorization of any vaccine, making a COVID-19 vaccine by Election Day unlikely. (Washington Post)

Johnson & Johnson started phase III testing of its single-dose vaccine candidate, which uses a modified adenovirus; the company expects to enroll 60,000 individuals. (CNBC)

Russian president Vladimir Putin wants a stronger WHO to coordinate the COVID-19 pandemic response and also proposed a world conference on vaccine cooperation. (Reuters)

Walmart and Quest Diagnostics are testing drone delivery of home-based COVID-19 test kits, Walmart official Tom Ward wrote in a blog post.

Hoping to keep one holiday tradition — trick-or-treating — alive during the pandemic? Not so fast, says CDC. (NBC News)

If the Affordable Care Act is struck down by the Supreme Court, what will it mean for Americans besides the millions of people losing their health insurance? (New York Times)

Jared Kushner’s task force to obtain personal protective equipment was “like a family office meets organized crime, melded with ‘Lord of the Flies,’” according to Max Kennedy Jr., grandson of Robert F. Kennedy. (The New Yorker)

The reopening of colleges may account for more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases per day in the U.S., according to a study from researchers at four universities that has not yet been published or peer-reviewed. (Reuters)

Pandemic-related government loans are coming due for rural hospitals, and hospital officials aren’t sure they’ll be able to repay them. (NPR)

And now for some good news: Hollywood unions have reached agreements with major studios for resuming production on movies and TV shows, albeit with pandemic protections in place. (Associated Press)

The ongoing coronavirus vaccine trials may not provide an answer to the most important question about the vaccines, whether they can prevent severe cases, Eric Topol, MD, and Peter Doshi, PhD, write in the New York Times.

In other news:

• President Trump is expected to announce a number of executive orders on healthcare, possibly on Thursday. (Politico)
• The FDA announced a voluntary recall of Perrigo Pharmaceutical’s albuterol inhalers for asthma due to possible clogging of the inhaler.
• Timothy Ray Brown, a.k.a. the “Berlin patient” who was cured of HIV in 2008, is now battling a return of his leukemia, the group defeatHIV said on Twitter.
• The hospital in Georgia where a number of hysterectomies were allegedly performed on ICE detainees says only two such procedures were performed there. (Washington Post)