Consider This from NPR - Details Emerge On Senate's $2 Trillion Rescue Package

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

It would be the largest such stimulus package in American history. The Governor of New York says it's not nearly enough. Plus, NPR's Ayesha Rascoe reports on the confusion about the Trump administration's use of the Federal Defense Production Act, and how one ER doctor in Seattle is coping on the front lines of the pandemic. More links: Sign up for 'The New Normal' newsletter Find and support your local public radio station Chef Amanda Freitag's pandemic cooking tips and recipesThis 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

The global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic is shifting toward the United States. The World Health Organization says if trends here continue, the number of U.S. cases could overtake those in Europe. A fight has arrived at our shores. We did not seek it. We did not want it. But now we're going to win it. Lawmakers here announced a deal overnight on a $2 trillion coronavirus aid and recovery package. But they continue to struggle over some details in that package throughout the day. Coming up, could the federal government be doing even more?

And an ER doctor in Seattle on what life is like as supplies gross cares. This is Coronavirus Daily from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It is Wednesday, March 25th. President. Majority leader. At around 1.30 this morning, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared on the Senate floor and announced a deal that would be the largest economic rescue package in American history. After days of intense discussions, the Senate has reached a bipartisan agreement on a historic relief package for this pandemic.

But it turns out they aren't quite in agreement yet. First, here are the key parts of this thing. Most American adults will receive around $1,200, though that amount will get lower for people with higher incomes. People can receive up to four months of unemployment instead of the usual three, and at a rate of $600 a week more than current law allows. Now, that extra $600 is the reason, as of Wednesday afternoon when we are recording this, that a small group of Republican senators are threatening to hold up this bill. They say they don't want to encourage people to be unemployed. Aside from that, there is also billions of aid in this package for large and small businesses, and more than $150 billion will go to hospitals, research, and treatment. That brings us to New York, the U.S. epicenter of

this pandemic right now, where there have been more than 30,000 confirmed cases and where nearly 300 people have died. Today, Governor Andrew Cuomo said the rate of hospitalizations actually appears to be slowing, doubling every four or five days instead of every two. Still, he said his state's share of the relief package is not nearly enough. New York City only gets $1.3 billion from this package. That is a drop in the bucket as to need. He said he hoped to see something closer to an amount in an earlier House proposal. We need the House to make adjustments.

In the House bill that went over, New York State got $17 billion. In the Senate bill, we get $3.8 billion. In order to respond to the urgent need for medical supplies, the White House is facing pressure to use a Cold War-era law, one that allows the federal government to order companies to make things that this country needs. President Trump has sent mixed messages about whether using that power is a good idea. Instead, NPR's Aisha Roscoe reports his administration says companies are offering their help voluntarily. New York has been hit hard by the coronavirus, and Governor Andrew Cuomo says he needs help now. I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?

What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? Vice President Pence says thousands of ventilators are headed to New York this week. But Cuomo wants the federal government to take more drastic action. Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. The power that he's talking about is the Defense Production Act. The law gives the executive branch broad authority to direct production and distribution of materials deemed essential to national defense. In this case, President Trump declared last week that ventilators and protective equipment like face masks fit that criteria. We'll be invoking the Defense Production Act just in case we need it.

The law allows the government to jump to the front of the line to buy up goods and ship them where needed. Cuomo and others say Trump opened the toolbox, now it's time to use the tools. But Trump has given conflicting answers on his use of the law. Last Friday, Trump told reporters he was using the law to make companies take action. You haven't actually directed any companies to start making more ventilators or masks, right? I have, I have, yes, I have. How many companies? A lot, a lot. And they're making a lot of ventilators or masks, correct? I have. I have, yes. I have. How many? A lot. A lot. And they're making a lot of ventilators and they're making a lot of masks.

The administration later said the president was not using the law to push production of ventilators. Instead, on Sunday, Trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, said the law is working as leverage. What we've seen with this outpouring of volunteers from private enterprise, we're getting what we need without putting the heavy hand of government down. At that same briefing, Trump compared the law to a government takeover of companies. You know, we're a country not based on nationalizing our business. Call a person over in Venezuela, ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out. Not too well. The concept of nationalizing our business is

not a good concept. Peter Shulman is a history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. He studied the act and says comparisons to socialism don't really add up. The law itself grew out of the preservation of a market economy. It grew out of the preservation of a democratic form of government. While some private companies are stepping up to offer their services like General Motors, Shulman says private industry acting on its own won't be able to get the goods to where they're needed most. This is the kind of crisis that has to be met with centralized leadership, only for the duration of the crisis. But absent that, it's just a recipe for chaos. The White House says it's working with private companies to deliver supplies. The question for New York is, what's on the way? That was NPR's Aisha Roscoe.

Seattle had one of the earliest outbreaks of COVID-19 in the U.S., which means doctors there have been on the front lines of this battle the longest, dealing with things that other parts of the country are just now beginning to see. Flood of contagious patients, anxiety about whether the protective gear and the supplies will last, worries about whether they will spread the virus to their families and communities. Dr. Sachita Shah is an emergency physician at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, and she talked to All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro about her day-to-day and about how she's coping. Can you just start by telling us what the ER is like these days?

It's dramatically changed. We were primarily a level one trauma center before COVID, taking care of a five-state region, including Alaska, of trauma patients. And I just worked yesterday, and pretty much all of my patients are in respiratory and contact precautions now. They are coming in with a... Meaning when a doctor wants to interact with him, you have to put on a full kit? What does that mean exactly? Yes. Yeah, we have to put on a gown, gloves, mask,

eye shield. And do you have enough beds and ventilators for all the patients who need them? We have enough ventilators at our hospital. One of the other hospitals in our region has closed and ran out of ICU and ventilator capacity. Other hospitals are getting full. We do have several patients on the vent with COVID. I think the main problem has been that they are staying on the ventilator for quite some time. So as new patients come in, there just aren't enough for the new patients as well? Right now we have enough, but we have no idea the numbers that are coming. We also know we have supplies, but we don't know when we'll have resupplies. Yeah, I was just going to ask about protective gear. You describe everything that

you have to wear when you interact with those patients. Do you have enough of that? Here in America, we're used to using things once and throwing them away. That is no longer happening. We're wiping things down and reusing the things that are safe to reuse. And we still have enough as of today, but it's being strictly controlled. I just got off a two-hour phone call meeting with 50 colleagues and our infection control leadership about PPE, which is personal protective equipment. They have to control it to make sure we have enough. We don't want to run out, but also we're holding our breath, walking by curtained rooms where patients are in

precautions with masks that are under their chin. You are holding your breath as you walk by a room with a COVID-19 patient in it. How afraid are you of catching this disease? I think our colleagues are afraid for our patients. We're afraid for each other. I'm afraid for myself. I'm a single mom. I'm afraid to leave my kids without a parent. This week we started taking care of our own. Some of our residents are sick. Some of our nurses. We've all been trading stories of our post-work ritual and I'm pretty meticulous. I change once at work into other scrubs that are clean. I don't leave my shoes in the house at all. I strip pretty much naked, run straight to the washing machine, throw everything in, and then run

straight to the shower and do a head-to-toe before I interact with my family. And pretty much all of us are doing that. Do you see your hospital heading toward a breaking point, or do you think you've passed the peak of cases? Where do you think you are? We absolutely have not passed the peak. I think we're just beginning to see who got infected two weeks ago. All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro talking to Dr. Sachita Shah. Before we go today, with restaurants closing and grocery store shelves looking pretty bare these days, chef and Food Network star Amanda Freitag has some advice on how to make the most of what you have at home. To add some flavor to something you might be cooking, she suggests

using things you might already have. Something like green and black olives, capers are something that I always have in my fridge, bacon, cured meats, or pickles. Those are all great briny things to just sort of brighten up any meal. Freytag says it's a good idea to separate meat into portions before putting it in the freezer so you don't have to defrost the whole package, especially if you don't want to use it all at once. And if you run out of eggs, try chickpeas. Chickpeas, the liquid that they're in is called aquafaba, and that's actually an amazing egg substitute. Aquafaba, if you were to whip it in, you know, by hand or in a stand mixer, whips up just like meringue. It doesn't give off bean flavor and it really works.

Amanda Freitag talked to Morning Edition host Noelle King. A full list of advice and recipes from her cookbook, including a corn and black bean salad, are linked in our episode notes. You can stay up to date with more NPR news on your local public radio station. You can also subscribe to NPR's newsletter, The New Normal, for daily coronavirus updates. Links to that and to find your local station are in our episode notes. I'm Kelly McEvers. Thanks for listening. We will be back with more tomorrow.