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NATION’S HEALTH
USA TODAY | MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2020 | SECTION DFor more than a year, a 49-year-old
Georgia man allegedly ran a thriving
scheme in which he referred patients
to medical testing facilities in return
for lucrative kickbacks.
Beginning in February, federal pros-
ecutors said, Erik Santos set his sights
on a new potential moneymaker: the
coronavirus.
Santos, according to court docu-
ments filed this week in New Jersey,
arranged to be paid kickbacks for each
COVID-19 test referred when they were
bundled with other, more expensive
respiratory examinations.
“While there are people going
through what they are going through,
you can either go bankrupt or you can
prosper,” Santos allegedly boasted in a
telephone call March 19, referring to
the pandemic. “Everybody has been
chasing the COVID dollar bird.”Indeed, as the virus has spread
across the globe, all manner of crimi-
nal schemes, many of them stoking
fear and panic, have been taking root
in its widening wake.
Authorities in Kentucky have been
investigating drive-up testing sites
promising same-day results for $250.
A Texas-based website was offering a
coronavirus “vaccine” until authorities
won a restraining order against its op-
erators. In Virginia, telephone scam-
mers, posing as local hospital repre-
sentatives, warned residents of possi-
ble virus exposure and sought to lure
them to sham test sites.
“The pandemic is dangerous
enough without wrongdoers seeking
to profit from public panic, and this
sort of conduct cannot be tolerated,”
Attorney General William Barr said in a
memo to federal prosecutors across
the country last month, urging a crack-
down on a constellation of schemes
targeting the public.
As part of the federal effort, the Jus-
tice Department directed all 94 U.S. at-
torneys to appoint a coordinator for vi-
rus-fraud cases in their districts, rais-
ing the prospect that those who threat-
ened or attempted to spread the virusBogus
claims
feed on
real fear
Phony tests, vaccines,
‘cure’ scams abound
Kevin Johnson and Kala Kachmar
USA TODAYNew York Attorney General Letitia
James has urged consumers to be
cautious of marketed coronavirus
treatments. MARY ALTAFFER/APSee FRAUD, Page 3DAs hospitals around the nation are
transformed into coronavirus battle
stations where overwhelmed medical
teams with limited supplies fight a new,
incurable disease, more expectant
mothers are deciding it’s safer to give
birth at home.
Soon-to-be moms aren’t just worried
about themselves and their newborns.
They also want to keep extra beds and
resources free for sick people who need
them.
“Hospitals may soon, like in Italy, run
out of beds, and they are running out of
supplies,” said Erika McBee, a nurse in
Rockville, Maryland, whose first baby is
due in the summer. “They are likely to
soon be crawling with disease, which is
not the best place to bring your newborn
with no immune system into the world.”
In its updated COVID-19 guidance,
the American College of Obstetricians
and Gynecologists maintains that hos-
pitals and accredited birth centers are
safe places for delivery.Many pregnant women
planning on home births
Kathy Peacock, a certified nurse-midwife, examines Star Ulosevich in Peacock’s
basement office. Ulosevich is due in May. JASPER COLT/USA TODAYThey worry about health
and helping hospitals
Mary Nahorniak
USA TODAY
See BIRTHS, Page 2DFor governors, too, the coronavirus
has been a test.
They find themselves rallying an
anxious public, bidding against one an-
other for scarce ventilators on the open
market and sometimes scrapping with
the president over what the federal gov-
ernment should and has delivered.
More than any other elected official,
governors have been making the on-
the-ground decisions that will deter-
mine the lives and, in some cases, the
deaths of Americans during this pan-
demic. They are responsible for decid-
ing when stay-at-home orders are is-
sued to slow the spread of COVID-19 and
have scrambled to try to ensure ade-
quate medical treatment is going to be
available when it does spread.
That has put them in a national spot-
light that has burnished the reputations
of some – Mike DeWine of Ohio, Larry
Hogan of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of
California, Gretchen Whitmer of Michi-
gan – and subjected others to caustic
scrutiny. Some have found themselves
both praised and pilloried.
Whitmer, elected governor in 2018,
has been surprised by the limits of the
federal role in the crisis.
“COVID-19 doesn’t respect state
boundaries; it doesn’t observe partisan
lines,” she said in an interview with USA
TODAY. “Having a more cohesive na-
tional strategy, I think, is something
that I would have expected, and that
(lack) is creating a unique challenge forus to get our arms around COVID-19.”
In responding to crises from hurri-
canes to mass shootings, governors
are typically important figures, but
they have become more central in this
one because the president has chosen
not to exert all the authority he could.
Trump hasn’t imposed a national
shutdown order, leaving a patchwork
of regulations across the country. He
has only reluctantly and narrowly trig-
gered the Defense Production Act that
would order companies to produce
scarce materials. The federal govern-
ment hasn’t taken charge of the med-Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s political stock has risen. Former Vice President Joe Biden has her on his list of possible
running mates as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination. JULIA PICKETT/MICHIGAN OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR VIA AP
Governors find they’re
tested to the extreme
Leadership earns praise
for some, others panned
Susan Page
USA TODAY
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been widely praised for his blunt, measured
updates on the coronavirus outbreak. BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES“It’s like a hurricane hits all
50 states that keeps coming
and keeps increasing
intensity with each and
every day.”
Maryland Gov. Larry HoganSee GOVERNORS, Page 2D