Consider This from NPR - Some Infection Rates Drop, But U.S. Hasn't Peaked Yet

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

Dr. Deborah Birx said despite signs of progress in New York and elsewhere, the United States hasn't reached the peak of the pandemic yet. Rigorous testing and contact tracing specifically are being called for, but Birx said the White House Task Force is being realistic about "how strategically that very valuable resource can be used" in the U.S.Despite empty grocery store shelves, there's an excess of food other places, like farms. NPR's Dan Charles reports on the struggling supply chain.Chaplain Rocky Walker's full conversation with Morning Edition host David Greene. 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

More than 7,500 people have died of COVID-19 in New York State, and the state has 170,000 confirmed cases. That's more than a third of all cases in the entire country. So now that the rate of new infections in New York appears to be slowing, it means America's curve should start to flatten too. The big question is going to turn to when do we reopen, especially in places like New York. Governor Andrew Cuomo said testing help from the federal government will be key to a long and gradual recovery. We need an unprecedented mobilization where government can produce these tests in the millions. Coming up, problems with the food supply chain

and how one New York City chaplain helps families of the dying. This is Coronavirus Daily from NPR. I'm Kelly McEvers. It is Friday, April 10th. We'll answer questions later. with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. We'll answer questions later. I want to start with Deborah Birx, please. Dr. Birx. So here's a big headline from this week.

Social distancing from New York and New Jersey is working. And across Connecticut and now Rhode Island. Dr. Deborah Birx said Friday the rate of infection is slowing. All through Denver and of course...

In many cities around the country. Through New Orleans. So encouraging signs in several places. But as encouraging as they are, we have not reached the peak. And so every day we need to continue to do what we did yesterday and the week before and the week before that. And on the issue of testing. We know what our volumes are and they increase every day,

but we have to be realistic about what the volumes will be a week, two weeks, three weeks from now. And combine that with strategic surveillance so that we're testing symptomatic people and their contacts very quickly to go back to contact tracing, utilizing our contact tracing. Contact tracing means isolating people who test positive and then rigorously tracking all the people they came in contact with. Right now, Dr. Burke says there are simply too many cases to do that everywhere. And the limited number of tests is just too valuable a resource. And now we're trying to really see how strategically that very valuable resource

can be utilized around the countries to create a mosaic of testing combined with surveillance. Parts of the food supply chain in this country are breaking down. It's not just that some grocery store shelves are empty. It's that there's quite a bit of food that can't get to the people who need it the most. NPR's Dan Charles explains what's happening. In normal times, America's food delivery system is amazing. So much food moving from farm to table so cheaply. And Jay Johnson, a vegetable broker in Immokalee, Florida, is one of the people who makes that system work.

Buying from farmers, selling to stores and restaurants. You're getting text messages and emails and phone calls all day and all night. Like, what's your price on this? How many of this? What's the grade? Can you do a better deal? You know, you're doing all these micro negotiations throughout the day. And then on Tuesday, March 24, the phones stopped ringing. Wednesday the 25th, super quiet. Thursday, now we're getting nervous. His most reliable customers, chain restaurants like Applebee's and TGI Friday's, they closed for now. The companies that make food for schools didn't need it anymore, nor did cruise ships. All the places that people in the industry call food service. And it happened right when

Florida's cucumbers and tomatoes and green beans were ready for harvest. Now you're sitting there with all this production, perfect weather, and everyone's like, oh no. He called up a vegetable growing couple, Kim and Mike Jamerson, near the city of Fort Myers. And that's when Kim Jamerson told workers to stop picking fields of yellow squash, because harvesting takes money. We cannot pick the produce if we cannot sell it, because we cannot afford the payroll every week. In other parts of the country, it's happening with milk. Schools aren't serving milk. Pizza

Hut doesn't need as much cheese. Grocery sales are up, but not enough to fill the gap. So some milk co-ops are refusing to take all the milk that the country's cows are producing. Farmers are just dumping it instead. It's even more extreme for Florida's tomato growers. They sell 80% of their crop to places that are now shut down. So they're plowing up some fields instead of harvesting them. And it's painful for vegetable farmers like Kim Jamerson. We've abandoned some fields. We've just had to walk out of them because we couldn't sell it. Beautiful vegetables that really could go elsewhere. It could go into food banks and hospitals and rest homes. And there are people who need that food. Food banks and pantries are

struggling to get enough food for millions of children who aren't getting meals at schools anymore and the newly unemployed. Claire Babino-Fontenot, CEO of Feeding America, the umbrella organization for food banks, says they're used to receiving lots of donated food from grocery stores, food that didn't sell. But now that supermarket food is selling out. We're seeing as much as a 35% reduction in that donation stream. We're hearing of places in the food service supply chain that are dumping product. Are you getting any of that? We're getting some of it.

We're not getting enough of it. Getting that food means creating new supply chains, getting to know new suppliers, maybe packing the food in different ways so it's easier for food banks to distribute. And it also takes money to pay for all the work involved. And Pierre's Dan Charles. Many people who die of COVID-19 in the hospital die without a family member or a friend at their side.

That's because hospitals cannot allow visitors. The risk of infection is just too high. So for many families, their final connection to a dying relative is through a nurse or a chaplain like Rocky Walker. He talked to Morning Edition host David Green from the ICU at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. For the patient, my role is non-existent in their final hours because the way this virus works, they have been incapacitated usually for at least a day or two before it's the end. However, my role is very normalize their feelings of grief. And then thirdly, I'm spending a lot of time trying to make sense of things that just don't make sense. The fact that you can't be next to your loved one. The fact that so many of our patients that are dying, their family

members are recovering from COVID. So they're actually mourning in isolation because no one can be around them. And having to normalize that or comfort and console them in that time. How do I help a father tell his children, his young children, their mother isn't coming back and walking them through that. Chaplain, I'm just going to make this guess about you. I bet when you are doing your job and it's not this coronavirus, there's a lot of hand-holding and hugging that goes on with people who are dying and their families. That's a really good guess.

There's a lot of that. Physical touch, hugging, that goes a long way. One of the things about this job is sometimes there's no words. Many times there are no words. Well, this time all we have is words. And so, yeah, it's hard not being able to hug or hold hands or just put your arm around somebody. Is there a single family's loss from recent days or something you went through that you just can't shake? The hardest thing for me did not happen in the hospital. I'm not originally from New York. I'm from Kansas City. I've been in New York for 16 years and I had two guys from my church that we

were just like brothers. And one of my brothers, one of these brothers, he and his wife were hospitalized with COVID-19. And I didn't even know about it. I just haven't had time to check my emails. He called me last week, very happy to tell me he had gone home from the hospital. Of course, I was stunned. I didn't know he was in the hospital. He also called me to tell me that his wife was doing better. So I'm like, wow, that's so great. I didn't even know that they were in the hospital, but that's great. He's home and she's getting better.

And that was on Sunday. And on Tuesday, his wife had died. And that brought everything that I'm seeing at work home for me. And made it very hard to go back to work. As you go through all this, I mean, is there like a prayer that helps you deal with, you know, your friend's loss, all the loss you're seeing in the hospital, all of this? There are several prayers. The one that I go to and I use the most when I'm talking to other people is the serenity prayer. But I speak to myself every day. My daughter part that I find the most comforting is when it says that this plague will not come near you. His angels will bear you up

so that you don't even dash your foot against the stone. And that is, I'm living that. I'm not reading that. I'm living that. And it's both beautiful and it's also difficult. It's like, wow, God, thank you for protecting me. But why me? And I got to be honest with you. I ask myself that. I'm thankful and I don't, you know. But my heart just cries for those who are falling to this thing. My heart cries for it. Chaplain Rocky Walker talking to NPR's David Green. For more on the coronavirus over the weekend, you can stay up to date with all the news on your local public radio station.

Tomorrow on this podcast, we will have a special episode with public health experts and NPR journalists answering listener questions about this pandemic. You can also sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter, The New Normal, at npr.org slash newsletters. This podcast is produced by the great Gabriela Saldivia, Anne Lee, and Brent Bachman and edited by Beth Donovan. I'm Kelly McEvers.