Consider This from NPR - Numbers Steady, Hundreds More Dead Each Day; The Cost Of Opening Schools

Episode Date: June 10, 2020

The numbers aren't really changing. 20,000 new cases a day, and more than 800 dead. Experts warn that by fall, in America, the death count could rise to 200,000.Some members of the National Guard who were sent to Washington D.C. during the protests over the death of George Floyd have tested positive for the coronavirus. Dr. Anthony Fauci is concerned — but not surprised. Many nursing homes banned all visitors and nonessential workers from their facilities to stop the spread of COVID-19. Some advocates and families say they want that ban to end.A big unanswered question is whether it will be safe for public K-12 schools to reopen safely in the fall. The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on the topic Wednesday.Plus, the Mall of America reopened after nearly three months.Sign up for 'The New Normal' newsletter. Find and support your local public radio station.This 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

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org Here are the numbers. Numbers that aren't really changing. 20,000 new cases and 800 to 1,000 people dying every day in the United States. And that is, to me, unconscionable. Ashish Jha at Harvard's Global Health Institute.

Scientists now worry 200,000 people could die in the U.S. by the fall. It's stunning to me that we have just decided it's okay for tens of thousands of Americans to die, and we aren't going to do what we know we can do to prevent those deaths. Coming up, the only thing anyone knows for sure about returning to school in the fall is if it happens, it's going to be expensive. This is Coronavirus Daily from NPR.

I'm Kelly McEvers. It's Wednesday, June 10th. mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. Some members of the National Guard who were sent from nearly a dozen states to Washington, D.C. during protests have tested positive for the virus. Officials won't say how many, and let's just be very clear here, there is no way to know if they got the virus at the protests or they brought the virus to the protests. We do know at least two guard units were not wearing masks. The report of the National Guardsmen being infected is certainly disturbing, but is not surprising. Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that public health officials expected the virus to be there and at protests in other major cities this past week because the virus can be anywhere.

And people are more likely to contract the virus at big gatherings than bring it back into their own communities. When you get congregations like we saw with the demonstrations, as we have said, myself and other health officials, that's taking a risk. And unfortunately, what we're seeing now is just an example of the kinds of things we were concerned about. Dr. Birx, why don't you catch people up on the phone? Fauci is not the only one who is concerned.

Great. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. The Daily Beast obtained audio of a conference call with governors on Monday where Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force said she's worried the protests could cause a spike in new cases. It does worry me because not everyone was in a mask and some people were shouting. And we don't know the efficacy of masks with shouting. We just have to be honest with one another. We don't know the efficacy of masks with shouting.

That is something Birx has not yet said in public. And it's worth pointing out that Birx, Anthony Fauci, and others from the task force have been a lot less visible over the last month. In fact, it was six weeks ago today that Fauci last spoke publicly from the White House. He has been giving interviews here and there. He's usually asked when a vaccine will be ready. He generally says, like he did on Good Morning America today, that he's optimistic that it could be next year.

But then there's the caveat. OK, so let me just clarify one thing. When you're developing vaccines, there's never a guarantee that you're going to have a safe and effective vaccine. What I'm confident about... Early testing on animals and humans is looking good, he said. And it looks likely at least one,

maybe three vaccine candidates will start advanced clinical trials this summer. Every night except Tuesday, when she has Bible study, Luann Thibodeau brings her husband Jeff dinner at the nursing home where he lives in Texas. Like in a lot of nursing homes, visitors have been banned since mid-March. So Luann and Jeff had to have their 40th anniversary dinner, Olive Garden takeout, separated by a window. A nursing assistant sat with Jeff inside. And she fed him, and I ate mine, and that was it.

So that was our 40th wedding anniversary. It's been months since these rules were put in place, and now relatives are worrying it's getting harder for residents to be alone. So some advocates want nursing homes to reconsider the rules. Luanne says there are just some things she can't do for her husband when she's not next to him. NPR's Ina Jaffe picks up the story from there. She says as his multiple sclerosis got worse, he became increasingly disinterested in food. And I bully him into finishing a meal. And I'll say to him, Jeff, you know, this is what an

adult man eats. So you need to eat this. But a staff member can't do that. Nursing home residents have rights. So if Jeff tells a nursing assistant that he's done eating after three bites, she has to abide by his wishes. A family member like Luanne can push. The impact of her absence is striking. I'm pretty sure he's lost significant weight. Nursing homes do allow what are called compassionate care visits, but that usually is interpreted narrowly as end-of-life visits. That interpretation needs to be broadened, says Robin Grant, director of public policy for the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care. Residents are declining mentally, physically, and we think that those situations are times when family

members should be permitted. If that were the case, Sky Gonzalez might still be able to visit his mother, Eva, at her nursing home in Southern California. She probably feels like we've abandoned her. Eva Gonzalez is 98 and lived on her own until about 18 months ago. Then she started having falls and symptoms of dementia. When I called, she always seems to be dehydrated, you know, and they say they keep going in there to check on her. But how do I know what's going on or not going on? Yet calling his mom directly just seemed to make things worse.

She became more agitated, wondering, well, where are you? Why aren't you here? It would end up with her sobbing and just... My cause was just creating more stress for her. Banning all non-essential people from nursing homes may have been a wise move at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, but now the policy needs to be reconsidered, says Tony Chikatel, a staff attorney with California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. For one thing, the ban hasn't kept COVID-19 out of nursing homes. The virus finds its way into the building through whoever's coming in, whether it's staff or visitors. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have published guidelines for how nursing

homes might reopen to visitors, but the agency says it will ultimately be up to state and local leaders to set the rules. Tony Chikatel says his organization has a proposal that could work right now. For those family members who provide support to that person's quality of life in ways that the staff probably just can't, those family members should have access to residence as long as they follow the same safety protocols that the staff are following. Nancy Snyder would have given anything for that. Her husband Matt was in a Michigan nursing home for many years with Huntington's disease. Either she or her daughter saw Matt almost every day. Like if we'd go in and his shirt needed changed or if he still had some food from

breakfast on his face, you know, we would do that. And without that help and human contact, his decline was stunning. For Matt, unfortunately, it's too late now. He's actively dying. Nancy Snyder says the ban on visitors cheated her of her time with Matt in his final days. Shortly after we spoke, she moved him to a hospice facility that allowed family visitors. He died a few days later, with his wife and his daughter holding his hands. And PR's Ina Jaffe. When schools can reopen in the fall will probably depend on where those schools are and how many cases there are in each place. For students who do go back, it's not going to be simple or cheap.

At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, senators heard testimony on what it will take and what kids could lose if they stay home. NPR's Corey Turner talked about it with Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered. All right, well, let's start with the safety recommendations that schools are trying to figure out and navigate right now. What is it going to let's start with the safety recommendations that schools are trying to figure out and navigate right now. What is it going to take to reopen in the fall? Sure. They'll need to work with state and local leaders, I think, first and foremost, to make sure that they have

testing in place as well as contact tracing. They're going to need to hire extra nurses, also custodial staff to keep K-12 classrooms clean. There's also been talk of schools hiring aides to take kids' temperatures before they get on school buses. And then there are, of course, the supplies, the masks, the sanitizer, thermometers. It is a very long list. Yeah, it does sound like the back-to-school supply list just got a lot longer. Do we have any idea how much this is all going to cost? And can school districts afford it all? We do, actually. One recent analysis estimated that for the average size district, these extra costs could add up to about $1.8 million per district. But the one thing, Mary

Louise, that we really have to keep in mind here is that these extra costs are coming at the same time as states are having to slash their education spending because of the recession and the recent shutdown. So, you know, several experts told senators today in this hearing, schools are going to need extra federal funding. So what does all this mean? In terms of whether students are actually likely to go back to school come fall? I think it means in many places that they won't, at least not full time. Kids will likely, again, in many places, divide their time between in-person learning at school and remote learning continuing at home. One of the panelists today was Susanna Cordova, the head of Denver's public

schools. Here's what she said. We've shared three draft options that offer a mix of in-person and remote learning with all students having a minimum of 40% in-person learning. So a minimum of 40% in-person learning. She also said, though, that vulnerable students would receive a full extra day of in-person instruction each week. And then Nebraska's education commissioner said that infection rates in a given district are going to play a big role in determining, again, whether or not schools stay online or can resume in person. And the thing about remote learning is it was

cobbled together on the fly so quickly. If it is likely that a lot of districts are going to have to keep doing at least some remote learning, was there talk today of how to make it better, of improving it? This was a huge subject today, Mary Louise. In fact, it kind of overshadowed the talk of the COVID safety precautions. And it was all kind of framed by these ongoing protests over police violence against black Americans. Several lawmakers and experts highlighted recent research that suggests students of color have suffered incredible learning losses that are just going to compound disparities that were already pervasive in our education system. Democratic Senator Tina Smith in Minnesota noted that the difference in academic achievement between black and white students in her state was already unacceptably large. And she said, we have a

moral responsibility to not look away from this. So a lot of work left to be done. NPR's Corey Turner with All Things Considered, Mary Louise Kelly. The music sounds louder in the Mall of America this week because it's open today after being closed for three months, but still there are not a lot of people there. There are plexiglass barriers, floor stickers directing traffic flow, hand sanitizer dispensers around every corner. Sarah Ingram says she's going back soon.

She's been going since she was a kid. It sounds so funny that a mall will bring comfort to someone, but I always go like on my days off or I go looking for something and it's specifically my sister's wedding that's coming up and I haven't been able to find anything online. She won't be able to use a touchscreen to find a store though and the indoor amusement park is still closed. Matt Sepik of Minnesota Public Radio reported on the opening. Other reporting in this episode was from Rob Stein and our colleagues at All Things Considered. For more on the coronavirus, you can stay up to date with all the news on your local public radio station.

I'm Kelly McEvers. We'll be back with more tomorrow. You may have noticed something at all these protests over police violence. There are a lot more white people there than you'd expect. But how long will that last? This awokening among white American voters, how far are they really willing to go beyond dethroning Trump? Adam Serwer on Race and Lessons from History. Listen and subscribe to It's Been a Minute from NPR.