Consider This from NPR - 1 Million Confirmed Coronavirus Cases In U.S.; Labs Struggle To Test Faster

Episode Date: April 28, 2020

More than 1 million cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.Nationwide social distancing guidance runs through April 30. After that, what happens is up to individual states. One reason why coronavirus testing has been stymied in the United States is that public health labs in at least 10 states have been underfunded for years, an investigation by APM found.Plus, listeners of It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders share how they are spending their free time. Listen on Apple, Spotify and NPR One.Life Kit's full episode on how to start running with Peter Sagal on Apple, Spotify and NPR One. Find and support your local public radio stationSign up for 'The New Normal' newsletterThis episode was recorded and published as part of this podcast's former 'Coronavirus Daily' format.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

At this point, national social distancing guidance is supposed to end on Thursday. So what happens after that? We have to coordinate as a region. Governor Andrew Cuomo says in New York, local leaders will play a role within the states and states will have to work together. So everybody in that region has to have the same policy when it comes to schools, when it comes to transportation, when it comes to transportation, when it comes to testing, when it comes to tracing. As of today, the United States has recorded more than 1 million cases of COVID-19. That's according to Johns Hopkins University. Coming up, why it's so hard for

some labs to process tests and know how many cases there actually are. This is Coronavirus Daily from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It's Tuesday, April 28th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. Well, thank you very much. We're with the governor of Florida. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, stopped by the Oval Office on Tuesday. Sort of a little bit of an unplanned meeting. And then we said, well, let's bring in the press. Let's talk to him if you'd like.

The governor seemed to suggest he would announce some kind of limited reopening in his state soon. I've worked with the White House on kind of going to phase one. I'm going to make an announcement tomorrow. Which is something that, on Monday, the president encouraged governors to do. We recommend that they do it as quickly as possible, but safely. We want everyone to be safe. The federal government has given states guidance on how to be safe. That guidance calls for critical levels of testing and contact tracing,

higher levels than most states can currently do. And it's just guidance. In the end, each state can decide on its own how far to go. For instance, in South Carolina, Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Governor Henry McMaster decided that local leaders can decide when to open individual beaches. So we're turning that back over to the mayors and the councils to make their own decision.

Meanwhile, across the country, here in California, Governor Gavin Newsom said a statewide decision is best and urged people to stay off the beaches. I cannot impress upon people more. The only thing that will set us back is our behavior. He also said the state's stay-at-home order might be loosened in a matter of weeks. Just as we united as one state to slow COVID-19. At the same time, in Texas. We must also come together to begin rebuilding the lives and the livelihoods of our fellow Texans. Governor Greg Abbott said stores, restaurants, and theaters can reopen this Friday

at 25 percent occupancy. Across the border, though... Louisiana does not have consistent decreases in both new cases and new hospitalizations. Governor John Bel Edwards extended a stay-at-home order until May 15th. The fact is that we just don't meet the criteria. In some regions, states have teamed up to try to coordinate reopening decisions. New York and New Jersey are part of a group in the Northeast. And then there's California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado and Nevada here in the West.

Midwestern states, including Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, also have banded together. And in part, this reflects different conditions in different parts of the country. But it also adds up to a patchwork system where reopening happens as fast as your governors, local leaders, even your neighbors decide. It'll be weeks before we know if these leaders had enough guidance to make the right call. Thank you, Mr. President. As we have said, more testing is going to be key in a lot of states before they can decide to reopen. And Monday at the White House, Vice President Pence was asked to clarify

something about testing. Mr. Vice President, back in early March, you said we'd be at four million tests by the following week. In reality, it took more than a month for the U.S. to hit 4 million tests. But Pence explained that back in March, he said simply that 4 million tests had been sent out. John, I appreciate the question, but it represents a misunderstanding on your part and frankly a lot of people in the public's part about the difference between having a test versus the ability to actually process the test. So okay, yeah, there's a difference between having testing materials and having the capacity to process the tests.

That gap is one reason it's been so hard for so many states to do more testing. According to an analysis by APM Reports, an investigative unit with American Public Media, years and years of state budget cuts share much of the blame. Here's reporter Tom Scheck. Before Alaska's first coronavirus case was discovered last month, Bernard Gilley was already worrying about the potential impact on his lab. Alaska's public health lab director has struggled with repeated budget cuts. Earlier this month, the lab was doing about 300 tests a day, and Gilly was worried about a testing surge. If we double the amount of testing I have to do, it would get a little bit scary.

Gilly worried about a lack of testing products and staffing. He says he responded to demand by shifting existing staff, hiring back retirees, and contacting colleges to find experienced faculty and students. While he appreciates the new funding now being rushed to assist labs, it doesn't translate to immediate help. When all of a sudden you have your positions eliminated, you just can't go to the microbiology kiosk and drop your quarter and get another microbiologist. Bernard Gilly isn't the only lab director who's scrambling. Monterey County, California Public Health Lab Director Donna Ferguson says there are six college students working in her lab for free. I worry about these students

because yes, they're skilled and they can perform these techniques, but they don't have the years of training. The testing is complicated. Lab personnel have to collect the specimens and remove the swabs from the tubes. They then remove the RNA from the specimen and mix it with chemicals before putting it into the machine for testing. Ferguson says all of this is done as workers try to avoid becoming infected themselves. Not only do I need staffing to do the testing, but I need staffing to prepare the specimen collection kits to enter all the data that comes in, the patient information, into our computer laboratory information system. But labs aren't just dealing with the staffing crunch. Some are gone altogether. Since 2008, 12 local and regional labs have closed in California,

Florida, Michigan, and Georgia. Those cuts came despite warnings from federal watchdogs that lab capacity was maxed out. We continue to go from crisis to crisis with public health funding. Frances Pouch Downs is a professor at Michigan State University and former director of Michigan's State Lab. She says the government rushes billions of dollars to labs whenever there's a health emergency, only to again cut funding when the crisis abates. It doesn't work for law enforcement. It doesn't work for the military. Why do we think it's going to work for public health? Now, the nation is looking to the public health system to help with efforts to ease restrictions on social distancing to help the country reopen. But years of cuts to labs and public health departments could hold back that effort. Adrienne Casalotti, with the National Association of County and City Health Officials, says that's a real problem.

So that means you have fewer people trying to do the work, and this response is one where we need more than we probably ever needed before. Back in Alaska, at least one lab employee won't be continuing his work once the pandemic is over. Bernard Gilley says he delayed his March retirement to continue managing his lab throughout the crisis. APM reports Tom Scheck. So it has been 43 days since the president's first nationwide social distancing guidance on March 16th. I know, it feels like a lot longer than that. And this week on NPR's talk show, It's Been a Minute, listeners shared how they have been passing the time. My name is Addie. I live in Juneau, Alaska.

Those birds you hear are apparently called oyster catchers, and they're pretty annoying. They've been yelling all morning. This is Emily from Illinois. What's your name? I'm Livy. Livy, and what do you want to play? Hide and seek. Hide and seek? All right, go hide. I'm sitting here in my backyard taking a rest after working all day here on my lawn in Nampa, Idaho.

I really miss travel and I really miss being outside and going out for long walks and being with other people. I'm just missing the reward of an icy and a nice large popcorn with butter and jalapenos. And something I really miss is just hearing all the people in my neighborhood walking around. And I'm just excited for there to be life again. I'm trying to be happy and pretend it's a normal day and it's just a weekend or summer break but I just can't. I have school work to do. I have to deal with my backyard. I have to deal with my baby cousin, Maddie. Hey Sam, it's Ashley from OKC and I'm listening to You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman with my mom. Her favorite song, Say Hi Mom. Hello, how are you doing today? We are here bunking in our house and I make sure she stays good.

She makes sure I stay good. And right now we'll listen to a little Aretha. You want to give it to her mama? I don't need to do more. Cause you make me feel. Yeah. You make me feel. You make me feel like a natural woman.

Oh, give him a baritone lip. Oh, with a sound. This is Erica in Boulder, Colorado. And at eight o'clock at night, people in Boulder are going outside and howling. And I came out onto my balcony to see if I could hear anybody. I could hear a few people. I don't know if you can hear them. They're really far away, but I'm going to join in.

Oh, no, no! Oh. Producer Janae West collected those stories from listeners of NPR's It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. A link to that podcast is in our episode notes. So if you're looking for a way to get some exercise these days, but you absolutely hate running. Yeah, a lot of people do. Here's Peter Sagal. Many of us were brought up to believe that running was punishment.

Peter, of course, is the host of NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. And he is an avid runner. He even wrote a book about it. And he says you can help yourself make it a habit by setting small goals and gradually ramping them up. Gradually means that you have to give yourself enough of a challenge so that you can feel good about meeting it, but not so difficult that it's miserable and you fail. Run or walk just half a mile.

Then do a little more the next day. Work your way up. Don't start with a 10K. There's a saying from, you know, bodybuilding and weightlifting, you know, train to failure. Don't do that because all you'll learn is how to fail. Peter Sagal has more advice in a recent episode of NPR's Life Kit. You can find a link in our episode notes. For more on the coronavirus, you can stay up to date with all the news on your local public radio station and on

npr.org. We'll be back with more tomorrow. I'm Kelly McEvers.