What A Day - Letters From The War On Covid-19

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Equipment shortages, exposure, and empathy: we hear from healthcare workers who are fighting Covid-19 on the front lines. Plus, what Democrats are fighting for in the government coronavirus relief package and what Republicans are willing to concede. And how authorities are handling things in New York now that it’s become the epicenter of the US coronavirus outbreak. And in headlines: Liberty University re-opens its doors, Colorado abolishes the death penalty, and YouTube goes low rez.

It's Wednesday, March 25th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is what a day where we're now discovering parts of our apartments we never knew existed. Yeah, I've now sat on every chair in here for at least 12 hours and starting the cycle all over again. I found a new cabinet this morning, and I can't wait to fill it with garbage. Great. On today's show, we hear from health care workers about their experience dealing with the pandemic, then some headlines. But first, the latest. The leader who knows the reality better than any other right now, at least in New York,

is the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, of course, my brother. Thank you for coming back to the show. Mom told me I had to. Okay, so that was everyone's favorite CNN comedy duo, the Cuomo brothers. I can't with this bit. I don't get it. I think they're kind of creepy. They remind me of like meerkats. Okay. Anyway, let's start with our favorite topic of the last few episodes, the stimulus package. You know, we left off with some late night Senate negotiations that were ongoing to reach a deal. Gideon, have they been successful? It kind of sounds like it. But by the time we're recording about 10 p.m. on the East Coast, nothing has passed just yet. So successful as far as the conversations are still happening. But by yesterday morning, everyone was acting much more optimistic.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was saying he was looking forward to a deal getting done. It very much sounded like the two sides were getting closer instead of farther away. There were some key conditions made by Republicans. Here's what we know about that. As we discussed, Democrats had significant issues with the massive bailout fund for companies that is in the legislation, as well as the lack of oversight therein. That was one of, if not the major sticking point for getting this deal done. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview on Tuesday that part of this new deal that appeared to have been reached would include installing an inspector general to monitor that bailout fund and an additional congressional panel for oversight. A couple of other important details that we know, though,

remember, things are pretty fluid here and could change. We believe that Democrats were able to secure an extra $25 billion in funding for hospitals for a total of $130 billion. And there's reporting that Republicans agreed to extend unemployment insurance for another month for a total of four months. This will apply for self-employed and part-time workers and will cover 100% of wages. But any Senate agreement would still have to be voted on in the House, which introduced their own package on Monday, and the House is currently in recess due to some members being sick and or in quarantine. Wow. All right. Well, that's, you know, legislation and relief that may or may not be soon on its way,

but what else is happening around the country? Yeah, so today let's zero in on New York for just a bit. It's quickly emerging as a growing hotspot in the country with over 25,000 cases as of Tuesday. There is an unfortunate expectation that that is only going to get worse and fast. The state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the rate of infection is doubling about every three days and that the peak of it, the infection that is, could be as soon as two or three weeks away. He also said that New York is anticipating needing as many as 140,000 hospital beds. And at this point, according to Cuomo, only 53,000 are available.

So a big shortfall there. Cuomo also criticized the Trump administration for only sending 400 ventilators to New York so far, saying the state needs something like 30,000. Jesus. Yeah. Meanwhile, the coronavirus response coordinator in the White House, Dr. Deborah Birx, now says that people who have passed through or visited New York City recently should place themselves in a 14-day quarantine out of precaution. But despite all of this foreboding, clear signs that any normal human being would listen to and adhere to.

During a Foxtown hall, President Trump said he, quote, would love to see the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter, which is less than three weeks away. Yeah, well, I would like a water fountain that sprays seven up and a giraffe, but it's probably not going to fucking happen. Yes, and all that idiocy aside, there was a positive development stateside. There was a report in the Washington Post about scientists studying the genetic code of the novel coronavirus. And so far, they've observed that it is not mutating significantly, which could mean

that it might make things easier to develop a long lasting vaccine when that actually happens. Yeah, that's really great news. What else is going on internationally? Well, in India, the second most populous country in the world, they're having people stay in their homes for three weeks due to the coronavirus. Then in China, authorities are set to reopen the cordon that was put up around the Hubei province to prevent people from leaving. That comes after nearly two months of lockdown. Kind of crazy, because that's sort of where a lot of the conversation around the story even started. Though Wuhan, the city that was hardest hit by the virus, is expected to remain sealed off until April 8th.

But public transportation is still going to start running there again in the next day, according to the government. Reportedly, though, a doctor in Wuhan tested positive for the virus after days of reporting zero new local infections, which is raising some concerns. All right. Well, that's the update for the day. If you want to and are able to help out with the crisis, Crooked has an easy way for you to do that through our coronavirus relief fund. So go donate at crooked.com slash coronavirus. We really appreciate it and you're doing great work. All across America, healthcare workers are feeling the impact of this pandemic, not only on our fragile system, but on their daily lives and mental and physical health.

And as more and more patients need treatment for COVID-19, dedicated health care workers, doctors, nurses, EMTs, custodial staff, cafeteria staff, everyone is continuing to work hard day and night to keep us safe while inherently putting themselves at risk. We asked a few to call in with their stories, and here's some of what they had to say. Hello. I'm calling from Phoenix, Arizona. I am an intensive care unit nurse who works in one of the busiest hospitals in the state. Hey guys, my name is Allison. I am a nurse in Iowa. So I'm not a medical worker, but my boyfriend is. He's working tonight as a paramedic. Right now, every day we're walking into work, holding our breath, kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is intense and it's very, very scary, but it's also why a lot of us do what we do. I've been away from the bedside for about seven years working in my specialty, which is advanced heart failure, heart transplant

and VAD, which is a heart failure device. So I'm pretty specialized, but specialties aren't much good at the moment. So I'm redeploying to the inpatient side shortly. It's very intimidating. It's very scary, but they need us. They need us to toughen up and dust the rust off of our skills and remember how to put IVs in and how to intubate and how to do everything we need to do. So here we go. I wish we had the resources we need. It's very anxiety inducing to think we're all bringing it home. We don't have the equipment that we need. I have a seven month old and I have to kind of assume I'll bring it home with me. He is picking up patients every day that have signs and symptoms of coronavirus. And so he's being exposed every day as well as his coworkers.

Thankfully, Michigan has some fail-safes put into place to protect our first responders. But if they have to go on quarantine, that's going to cause some problems for their department. Because even if five or six of them have to go into quarantine, their department might to cause some problems for their department. Because even if five or six of them have to go into quarantine, their department might have to shut down temporarily because they just don't have the staff to safely staff their department. That was Lindsay Medeiros in Arizona, Allison Ewell in Iowa, and Ashley Thomas in Michigan. Unfortunately, as we all know, and we just heard, there are supply shortages popping up all over the country of essential equipment, masks, gloves, gowns and more. They've all been really hard to come by.

Here's what people working on the front lines had to say about where they're seeing those gaps. Hi, this is Matthew from Cleveland, Ohio. My name is Brian and I am a pharmacist in New England. My wife and I are both nurses here in Baltimore. I work in end of life care and my wife works in labor and delivery. So we got actually our first COVID patient today on the floor and we also got a staff member diagnosed today as well. We don't know where either of them were diagnosed. And the biggest issue we have with shortage of equipment is, you know, testing, testing, testing. Our hospital actually has a very quick test

that we can do in-house now in about two hours. But the problem is that we can only do a couple of these a day because of limited materials. So we're having to pick and choose who to test. This has been a crazy couple of weeks. Specifically today was tough because of the comments yesterday from Trump about Black Whannell. And before I even got to work today, was tough because of the comments yesterday from Trump about Black Whannell.

And before I even got to work today, it was unavailable and gone like magic. So now pharmacies are having to make the horrible ethical decision to decide who can get it and who can't. There's no guidance. There's no direction. There's no direction. There's not much evidence. And just one comment has thrown everything for a loop. Stress is really high in an environment that's stressful at baseline. And even working at one of the world's major institutions, we are already experiencing

shortages of personal protective equipment. And we're getting prepared for potential rationing of ventilators and bed space. You know, as nurses, we have this tendency during crises to say, this is what we're here for, and nurses are strong. But I've been particularly inspired by my wife to remind all nurses out there that it's okay to be scared, It's okay to be anxious. And it's okay to dread going to work right now. So for those who aren't nurses, maybe next time you see a nurse, or if you have one in your family or group of friends, you know, it's nice to hear that you're grateful. Obviously, you know, it means a lot to know that you're grateful, but maybe consider instead of expressing gratitude or expressing that you're impressed, or these things that stress the kind of heroic aspect of it,

maybe just consider saying, I know how terrible things are right now. And maybe ask if the nurse wants to share a story or two. That was Matthew Badgett in Ohio, Brian Hughes in New England, and Ben Roberts in Baltimore. The medicine Brian was talking about is called Plaquenil, and it contains chloroquine, which is meant to treat lupus, arthritis, or prevent and treat malaria. It's being studied, but has not yet been scientifically proven safe and effective against COVID-19, and that is despite speculation from Donald Trump. And there are now several reports of it running low and running out at pharmacies across the country, depriving patients who actually depend on it. Thank you to everyone who sent in recordings.

Do keep them coming. And if you are a teacher or grocery store employee or delivery person or anyone else with an experience to share, we would love to hear from you. You can text us a voice memo or video at 323-405-9944. It might end up on the show.

That's 323-405-9944. Thank you again. It's Wednesday, WOD Squad. Is hump day still a thing if your work is your home and your home is your work I think it's a philosophical question but we're still checking in and chatting about ways to relax fun systems we're creating to keep our spirits up inside our houses and

trying to recommend ways to maintain a vibe so Gideon there are a lot of ignorant fools on the internet these days, but have you seen anything truly wonderful during your scrolling? All right. Well, on Twitter, at least, I think I may have subjected everybody to this already. There's an insane post with what looks to be a nude Jimmy Neutron. Oh my God.

And the caption is, quote, me going back for a second bowl of some exquisite cinnamon toast crunch at midnight. It's better if you see it. It's harder to describe. Again, not a visual medium, but that's gotten me every time. And then elsewhere, I've been scrolling past various pets to foster, which has also been refreshing and great. Highly recommend that for people that are able. But Akilah, who are you following that's helping and not overall hurting these days? Okay, so a few people. I've also been looking at fostering pets. I'm finding it really difficult, but I think it's because a lot of the shelters are

closed down until at least the end of the month. And so I'm trying to figure it out. If I can't find a pup, maybe it's going to be a bunny. We'll find out. We'll debrief. We'll debrief. Yeah, we'll debrief about this. But I have been loving these Instagram DJ sets. So everybody knows about DJ D-Nice. But there's also just like lots of them popping up. I follow this DJ. It's at Kitty Cash, like the animal kitty in Cash.

And I think that she does a really great DJ set like every evening right after we get done recording. And it's just excellent so I have been using that to just calm down a little bit all right well shout out kitty cash go off kitty cash all right this was a quick temperature check oh see I told you guys I'm gonna switch up the name sometimes if I feel like it it's a segment and we can try stuff uh if you're following someone though that you think is putting good out into the world right now, shout it out to us on Twitter. And stay safe. Keep watching those fingies. And we will catch up again tomorrow.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. theoretically could lead to a peace deal with the Taliban and the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The $1 billion cut represents 5% of Afghanistan's GDP, which is a huge blow for a country dealing with an uptick of COVID-19 cases. The U.S. still plans to send $15 million to help with the outbreak. Colorado became the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty. Democratic Governor Jared Polis signed the repeal into law earlier this week, while also commuting the death sentences of three people. Though the death penalty has been legal in the state since the mid-70s,

Colorado has rarely employed it apart from one execution in 1997. The state joins New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and others who've also abolished the punishment. They represent the turning tide of how Americans feel about the death penalty. Just last year, a Gallup poll found that 42% of the country was opposed to it, which is the highest it has ever been. Yeah, get rid of it. Hundreds of students are returning to Evangelical College Liberty University this week after the school's president, Jerry Falwell Jr., reopened the school's residence halls amid the coronavirus pandemic. Jesus Christ. Falwell had previously shut the campus down to comply with Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's ban on gatherings of 100 or more people.

His reversal of that decision syncs up with his close friend and spiritual leader Donald Trump's calls to reopen businesses and schools earlier than expected. Earlier this month, Falwell went on Fox News to call the pandemic response an overreaction designed to hurt Trump's reelection prospects. If you're at Liberty University, be sure to sign up for Falwell's course, Kissing Father's Ass 101. I hear it's great. He's really good at it. All right. And if you noticed yesterday that your ASMR tingles fell flat and unsatisfying,

it might be because YouTube started displaying all videos in standard definition by default. They're applying internationally a policy they'd already instituted in Europe to limit bandwidth consumption during times of heavy streaming. Same. Yeah. Come get your juice. All right. Those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, unblock us, and tell your friends to listen.

And if you're into reading and not just laundry instructions on tags like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Cricut.com slash subscribe. I'm Hila Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And search half-forgotten but iconic binds on YouTube. That was half-forgotten but iconic binds. Back at it again at Krispy Kreme. What a day is a product of Crooked Media.

It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.