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Welcome to the latest edition of Investigative Roundup, highlighting some of the best investigative reporting on healthcare each week.

38 Red States

The vast majority of the U.S. map is red -- for COVID-19 at least, , based on the latest White House coronavirus task force report.

A total of 38 states are now in the "red zone" for COVID-19 cases, with the Dakotas and Wisconsin still in the lead in cases per capita. Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all became COVID-19 red states this week.

Recommendations to state and local health officials "took on a frustrated tone this week," according to CPI: "Partial or incomplete mitigation leads to prolonged community spread, hospitalizations, and increased fatalities," the task force told multiple states.

For Idaho, "Given the urgency of the situation, it is critical to pivot from current approach to implementation of tried and true mitigation strategies," the report stated.

For the last several months, CPI has gained access to confidential task force reports, which are not released publicly.

WHO Launches New China Investigation

The World Health Organization (WHO) will begin investigating the source of the novel coronavirus after its efforts to balance science and politics resulted in China blocking international efforts early in the pandemic, .

Key facets of the new investigation will be led by Chinese scientists, though some outside scientists will be allowed, according to documents obtained by the Times. It's not clear if any American scientist will be included.

Investigators will begin by searching for the initial patients and analyzing the Wuhan market supply chain and wildlife sales. Then Chinese and international experts will search for the virus in animal hosts and a possible intermediate host.

The WHO failed to uncover critical information in the weeks after the virus was first reported in Wuhan because the Chinese government repeatedly rebuffed its efforts, according to the Times. Rather than press China, WHO leaders negotiated actions that included allowing Chinese scientists to lead missions and put off declaring an international emergency.

"The best they could negotiate with [Chinese leader] Xi Jinping was an absolute whitewash," said one professor of global health law regarding a February visit to China.

When two American government scientists who had participated in the February visit reported back to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), they could not answer questions about the virus' origins.

The WHO is facing an existential crisis. European countries want to increase funding and strengthen its authority, and the U.S. has privately favored allowing WHO the power to enter nations on its own authority. The WHO is currently hamstrung by having to rely on its member nations' funding and sanctioning, supporters argue.

"The WHO prioritizes access to the country," a former WHO legal counsel said.

Santorum's COVID Treatment?

A small plasma company without an office or credibility -- but with connections to a former Republican senator -- has been awarded potentially millions of dollars more than it requested by the Trump administration to produce antibody therapies for COVID-19 treatment, .

Plasma Technologies LLC is run by Eugene Zurlo, a former pharmaceutical industry executive "and well-connected Republican donor," the newswire reported. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) is a part-owner. The company's address was traced to a condo owned by Zurlo. It purports to turn human plasma into protein-heavy antibody therapies that could treat COVID-19 patients, but its major initiative failed a few years ago.

The administration awarded the company $65 million after Santorum lobbied on its behalf, according to the AP. His initial pitch, to HHS, had been rejected in the spring after experts "didn't see Zurlo's technology as worthy of millions in emergency pandemic funding." So Santorum then lobbied the Department of defense, asking for $51.6 million to construct a plasma facility in Raleigh, N.C.

HHS eventually granted $750,000 in seed money, with as much as $65 million going to a commercial facility. It is unclear where the additional money would come from or why it was needed.

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