Today, Explained - Your coronavirus questions, answered

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

On today's show, we answer listener questions: Why is there no TP? Will we run out of food? Can I get the virus from sex? How can I help? (Transcript here.) An earlier version of this episode featured a section that could have been misconstrued as legal advice. It has been removed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Friday, March 20th, and the person in charge of this crisis is still Donald Trump. I'm Sean Ramos-Verm, and this is your coronavirus update from Today Explained. More than 11,000 people have now died worldwide as a result of COVID-19. We've got well over 250,000 known cases. In his now daily press briefing, President Trump continued to be cagey about whether he'd use something called the Defense Production Act to compel American industries to provide critical medical equipment during this crisis. He then attacked his own State Department, calling it the Deep State Department. Dr. Anthony Fauci from the NIH looked like he

wanted to disappear, but it was a heck of a transition to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who did not defend his employees, but announced the United States borders with Canada and Mexico will officially close to non-essential travelers at midnight on Saturday. Pompeo also reminded Americans abroad to come home or get ready to hunker down for a while. New York's governor told people to stay at home as much as possible. He also told all non-essential businesses to close down. California's governor did the same thing last night, essentially. The nation's now running low on blood. The blood isn't for COVID-19 patients specifically, but the American Red Cross supplies roughly 40% of the nation's

blood and blood drives have been canceled left and right. They're trying to pick up the slack and could use your help. And from the Department of Silver Linings, Americans got an extension on their taxes. You've got until July 15th. Make it a hot tax summer. Get in touch with Today Explained via email todayexplained at vox.com or on Twitter today underscore explained. I'm at Ramos for him. as you're back all season long. From tip-off to the final buzzer, you're always taken care of with a sportsbook born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with BetMGM. And no matter your team, your favorite player, or your style, there's something every NBA fan will love about BetMGM. Download the app today and discover why BetMGM

is your basketball home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year with BetMGM, a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, and authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. We've been explaining COVID-19 wall to wall on the show, and there's still a ton of stuff we haven't explained. So today,

we're going to do something we've never done before, an entire episode dedicated to listener questions, because you all have some really good questions, a lot of them too. We can't get to them all, but we've picked ones that don't overlap too much with the stuff we've already covered and the stuff we'd like to cover in the future. Okay, let's start with something essential, something we've all been thinking about, toilet paper. Why is everyone buying all the gosh darn toilet paper as if COVID-19 were some kind of diuretic? I mean, I get that if you're not planning on leaving the house for a while, you got to have TP, but... A lot of it is also just about seeing empty shelves. The more you see it in stores,

on social media, in the news, that creates a perception of scarcity. So you think that there isn't enough and you want to make sure that you personally have control. Hillary George Parkin writes for The Goods from Vox. Stockpiling in general is really about control and people are really scared right now. This is probably the most uncertainty a lot of people have experienced in their lifetimes. They want to make sure they have everything they need at home no matter what happens in the coming weeks. And so stockpiling toilet paper is one way to do that.

Hilary, I'm on a few text chains that include people from Utah, people from Missouri, and they're saying Costco is out. They're saying the grocery stores are out. Will all these shelves get restocked? So manufacturers are still making toilet paper. They haven't had any issues with the raw materials. They're still delivering it to stores every day. They're running at capacity. They're, in many cases, taking new steps to replenish shelves as quickly as possible,

such as sending trucks directly to and from paper factories and cutting out distribution centers. And based on all the information we have right now, there's no danger of the supply running out. If you do run out, as you may have gathered, Costco probably isn't the place to go unless you want to line up first thing in the morning and wait for a long time in a large crowd of people. But definitely check local retailers. Maybe you have a bodega, a corner store, a small independent grocery. Call ahead for sure. And as far as when it's actually going to go back to normal, it really depends on how we as consumers behave. Because this is more about demand than supply.

If everyone is taking what they need, supply will have a chance to catch up. I guess while we're on supply and demand and essentials, will there be enough food now that every millennial who's like never cooked in their lives is making their own meals at home? So everything we've heard from the federal government, from the agricultural industry, tells us that the U.S. has plenty of food. So the empty shelves, you're seeing a really reflection of this surge in demand that we've seen in recent weeks.

One interesting quote I heard from a supply chain resilience expert at CNA, which is a research organization, was, the more the stock market goes down, the more grocery buying goes up. We got an email this morning from Lori, who's a grocery store employee, and she said, what measures are being taken to protect grocery store workers like me who can't buy hand sanitizer and can only wash our hands on break? Yeah, so along with healthcare workers, right now, grocery store workers, truck drivers, warehouse workers,

they're basically the front line, particularly as cities start imposing stricter rules to help stop the spread of the virus. Delivery services have set up no-contact drop-offs, so drivers can leave orders on a porch or at a front door without having to physically hand off a package. And this is something we actually saw used extensively in China over January and February. And it's been so effective that some experts say that people will probably continue to use it even as these cities are largely returning to normal life. And then in terms of warehouses and grocery stores, what we've heard from companies is that they're following CDC guidelines around making sure workplaces are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, asking employees not to come in if they feel sick, and implementing social distancing between

workers where possible. Still, these aren't really workplaces that are particularly well set up to accommodate some of these health precautions, particularly as they're facing this huge surge in demand, both in online orders and in terms of customers coming to stores. So we're seeing, for instance, Amazon warehouse workers in Seattle, which has been one of the centers of the outbreak in the U.S., complain that the company isn't conducting daily screenings for coronavirus symptoms, which is part of the CDC's recommendations for Seattle specifically. And in Italy, there's actually been a strike at a fulfillment center where two employees

have tested positive for the virus. Hillary George Parkin writes for The Goods from Vox. They're covering the shit out of all this toilet paper stuff and other consumer angles on the coronavirus too. Find them at Vox.com. We got a ton of questions specifically about COVID-19, about the myths, about the conspiracy theories, about the symptoms of the virus.

But one question that felt essential to us was, is this thing really just like the flu? And if so, why don't we care this much about the flu? It felt like a good question for a doctor. My name is Owen Alban. A fancy doctor. I'm an infectious disease doctor at the University of Michigan. So is it just like the flu? Is this just like flu 2, the sequel?

The novel coronavirus that's circulating right now is similar to the flu in the sense that it can cause symptoms that are very similar to the flu. So it causes fevers, it can cause lots of chills and muscle aches, it can cause people to feel really, really crummy and tired. And in a minority of cases, it can cause a bad infection of the lungs, which makes it difficult for people to breathe. The difference between the coronavirus and the flu, though, is that the coronavirus appears to be more lethal. The coronavirus also appears to spread between people more easily than the flu does.

I keep getting texts and emails from my older family members saying that if you keep your throat wet, you can't get COVID-19. They are not doctors. You are. Can you avoid the Rona if you keep your throat wet? And if not, where should people be getting good information in a sea of gross speculation? So for the first part of the question, the answer is no. That's kind of an urban legend. Viruses are kind of like little spaceships. They dock onto the cells in your throat often. And so once they're inside, they start replicating,

and they're going to keep replicating inside of cells. So gargling really anything in the back of your throat is really not going to get rid of the virus that's already inside of your cell. In terms of what the most trusted sources of information are, if you're looking for something online, really anything that the CDC puts out, that's probably the best source of information in the United States. Doc, I asked Hillary how we can keep grocery store workers safe. How are healthcare workers like you staying safe? We've heard a lot of news that it's treacherous out there for y'all.

And we've heard from listeners who want to know too. We're kind of doing the same thing that everyone else is doing. We're trying to be careful about who and how close we get to. That's often not possible in the medical field because you need to be fairly intimate, for lack of a better word, when it comes to examining people and taking care of them. So we're really trying to use appropriate personal protective equipment as much as possible.

Well, thank you for your work, seriously. And I want to let you get back to it. But one last important question before I let you go. And this one might not be appropriate for the kids in the room, parents. It comes from Michael Smith, who emailed us. Can someone explain if you can contract coronavirus through sex? I don't kiss during sex. Parenthetical, I had a bad experience at Burger King. So I was wondering what fluids and organs can catch it. No, not in the traditional sense. There's not evidence right now that the coronavirus can be passed sexually in the way that you might think a sexually transmitted

disease is. However, you know, sexual intercourse often involves very close personal contact. Chances are that you're going to be exchanging respiratory droplets having sexual intercourse. Is there anything sexier than respiratory droplets? I know what you're thinking, though. What happened to Michael Smith at Burger King? I asked him. He did not answer. But the editorial director of Vox Podcasts, Liz Nelson, has a theory.

Nothing happened to Michael Smith at Burger King. He was just making a reference to the Humpty Dance by Digital Underground. In my defense, I was five when this song came out, so I'm going to give myself a pass for missing the reference. More of your questions after the break. Come on. Do me, baby. I'll do the Humpty Hump. Come on. I'll do the Humpty Hump. Check me out, y'all. I'll do the Humpty Hump. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp.

Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. Thank you. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. yesterday. So now it's even more so officially three super old guys running for the big job, which begs the question, what happens if one of them gets COVID-19? Listener Linda emailed to ask, what if one of them dies? Ellen Nelson at Vox has been thinking about that one too, Linda. So the answer is much clearer on the Republican side than the Democratic side, because obviously we already have a Republican incumbent president as well as a vice president who are already in place. So in the event that, say, Trump got coronavirus or otherwise became unable to accept the Republican nomination, it could theoretically go to Mike Pence. And the Democrats? If a nominee were to get coronavirus before the Democratic

National Convention takes place and the convention proceeds as normal, you know, delegates aren't necessarily bound to any particular candidate. So the delegates at the convention could potentially negotiate and debate over potential alternative nominees. And then the majority at the convention could sort of choose who they want as the nominee going forward. But if a nominated candidate is to die after a convention, the DNC would consult with high-level members of Congress. They would consult with other high-level members of the Democratic Party, like governors, the Democratic Governors Association, and there would be a group that would come together within the DNC to sort of choose who the nominee would be going forward. And it's really important to note that this wouldn't

necessarily be the Democratic vice presidential pick. It certainly could be, but the DNC would have sort of more latitude to get together, kind of confer among everybody, and then ultimately choose a replacement nominee. Another related question we got from Ray in Australia was, should the presidential election even really go ahead? He wrote about concerns about community spread at the polls in November and a concern that Russia could get even more hacky if we all went e-voting? I think at this point it's way too far off to say that the election is going to be canceled. And I think that if people were putting that out there, you know, it could be, you know, a big kind of constitutional crisis or a crisis of democracy. I think that instead people are focusing on ways that we can make sure that the election continues, but to have contingencies in place like vote by mail so that people can still cast their ballots, but not necessarily have to do it in a physical polling place.

Katie from the Bronx tweeted with a question that didn't used to be political, but has become so recently. How is the coronavirus outbreak going to affect the collection of the census? For the answer, we reach out to an old friend of the show. This is Hansi Luong. I'm a national correspondent for NPR covering the people, power, and money behind the 2020 census. And the coronavirus outbreak is definitely affecting the national headcount. The Census Bureau has postponed until April 1st all field operations, meaning that training sessions for door knockers is postponed, the count of people experiencing homelessness and living in shelters or living outdoors, that has been postponed. So has door knocking in some American

Indian tribal territories, as well as an operation that would involve workers leaving paper forms outside of homes in Puerto Rico and other areas recovering from natural disasters. All that in-person activity on hold for the next two weeks. And that does resolve uncertainty about how the Bureau is protecting its workers, but it throws off a very tight schedule to try to meet this constitutional mandate to get every person living in the U.S. counted this year. And the Bureau right now is emphasizing that it needs the public's help. It needs as many people as possible to fill out a census form on their own, either online at my2020census.gov by calling a toll-free

number or mailing back a paper form if they receive one. Because the key here is that the more households that fill out to form themselves now, the less pressure on the Bureau to try to bring on board hundreds of thousands of workers during a public health crisis. The census already had a host of challenges to getting a good count. The coronavirus exacerbates a lot of those challenges. That toll-free number for the census, by the way, is 844-330-2020. Again, 844-330-2020. If you go to the site, you can find numbers in about 15 other languages, too. Hours of operation are 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern.

While we're exchanging phone numbers, here's another one. We set up a voicemail operation for Today Explained listener questions at 202-688-5944. If you want to get your voice on the show, hit that number and we might feature you in the future. Again, it's 202-688-5944. Keep in touch. This last question's a question that I had, and maybe it's a question that you have too. How can I help? I know people who are losing their jobs. There are many, many more people who are doing even worse than that. People are sick. People are dying. What can one of us do in this moment if we aren't hurting that badly? And I thought I could ask Dylan Matthews because helping people is pretty much his beat at Vox, Dylan. I should say first off that just like we don't know much about how this crisis is going to go

in general, we don't know much about the best ways to help people yet. Yeah, actually, when writing up this sort of prep for this show, I wrote, don't know where we get the answer to this one. God? Question mark? God or Dylan down the hall? Dylan. So yeah, so if you want to help people, I think the main thing to do is stay inside

and obey social distancing rules. I know that sounds really cliche, and you've probably heard it a million times, but it's really, really important. A good rule of thumb is that if you give to really effective charities that do really important health work, you can maybe save a human life for every $2,000 or $3,000 you spend. And that's really good. That's a really good bang for your buck. And with COVID-19, social distancing is cheaper. You can save a human life just by not infecting people. You can save a human life by assuming that you're a passive carrier and staying inside, not being in crowded groups where you're at risk of transmitting

and helping vulnerable people not get infected. But I think a lot of people who are social distancing, like should they be giving blood? Should they be buying groceries and delivering them to the elderly who maybe are incapacitated or maybe are scared to go out right now because they might get sick?

Giving blood's always good. I think if you have community groups in your area, like Meals on Wheels, that are doing grocery delivery or other services for people who can't go out or who might not be physically mobile, that's a great thing that you can be doing. If you're interested in giving to people who are suffering from coronavirus with money, if you're, say, anticipating the checks that the Trump administration is going to be sending out probably in a few weeks, and you think, hey, I don't really need this check, maybe this check

should go to someone who needs it a little more than I do. One thing you can do is donate to the group GiveDirectly. So this is a group I've covered for many years. I think they do great work, and they specialize in giving cash to people who need it. Historically, that's mostly meant people in really desperately poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Now, GiveDirectly is starting to do cash transfers in the United States as coronavirus response. This is a new thing for them, but I think it's inspired by that same intuition

that if you have money and if you get a check and you don't need it, it should go to someone who does need it. Can I add one thing, Dylan? Please do. I just want to stress that kindness can be contagious in these moments where we're all struggling in this thing together.

I mean, I go to the grocery store in D.C. There's a lady behind me with a big hot pizza that she was clearly trying to take to some hungry kids somewhere. So I just said, hey, go ahead of me. You just have one pizza. And then it like had this domino effect where the lady in front of me was like, yeah, go in front of me, too. And then all of a sudden she's at the front of the line and she got to get out and take that pizza to her hungry kids.

Meanwhile, I talked to my friends in New York City and they say the grocery store is a nightmare. People are mean. People are pushy. People are forgetting each other's humanity. I just want to stress that a little act of kindness can go a long way in moments like these. For sure. I always like the David Foster Wallace line that you have a choice when you're on the road to assume that the guy who cut you off is a horrible in the waiting room at an ER, just assume that other people are going through things too. That you have a choice to assume the worst or assume the best of them. And we're all going to get through this better if we assume the best of each other.

You need to stay six feet away, six feet away. Today Explained is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. The team is well over six feet away from each other right now. We're putting this podcast together remotely from our homes in and around Washington, D.C. The team includes Halima Shah, Bridget McCarthy, Amina Alsadi, and Jillian Weinberger, who all did a ton of work to help me answer these questions today. Afim, the dream Shapiro, has the nightmare job of making our show sound good,

even though none of us are using studios anymore. Not me, not any of our guests. Thank you so much, Afim. Cecilia Lay is checking facts from San Francisco and couldn't be more ready for The Weeknd's new album. It dropped today. The Mysterious Breakmaster Cylinder would like all the partying spring breaker bros in Florida to just stop already.

And Noam Hassenfeld wrote Six Feet Away, which is going to win the Grammy. Big, big special thanks to Alison Rocky, Liz Nelson, Lauren Katz, and Joss Fong for all their help with the song. If you're looking for fun quarantine things to do this weekend or in the coming weeks, make a cover or do the dance. Find the original video and song at vox.com slash today explained. And don't forget to share your versions using the hashtag six feet away song. The one you're hearing right now is from Owen Plant who posted it almost immediately after we published the song last night. We were all astonished on the team, Owen. Thank you, we love it. You can find lots of music from Owen on YouTube,

just search for Owen like Owen and Plant like Philodendron.