What A Day - The Amazing Trace

Episode Date: June 18, 2020

COVID-19 cases have plateaued in the US at around 20,000 a day as some states are seeing outbreaks grow. That hasn’t stopped Texas governor Greg Abbot from enforcing his executive order that bans cities from making face coverings mandatory. The police officer who killed Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, Georgia is now facing 11 charges including felony murder. Contact tracers are working around the country to cut off chains of coronavirus transmission. We interview one of them, Alexander Miamen, about what a typical day is like for him and how he speaks to his community’s needs. And in headlines: a price-fixing tuna CEO is going to prison, genetically modified mosquitos in Florida, and why you don’t need to buy John Bolton’s book.

It's Thursday, June 18th. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we tell you what's in John Bolton's book so you don't have to buy it. Yeah, apparently it's boring. He doesn't even talk about Ukraine until like the end, so we just saved you 20 bucks. Yeah, the first two chapters are virtually all mustache. He's virtually all mustache. He's virtually all mustache. On today's show, a day in the life of a COVID-19 contact tracer, and then some headlines.

But first, the latest. We have some updates on the case in Georgia regarding Rayshard Brooks and the officer who killed him. That police officer, Garrett Rolfe, is now facing 11 charges, including felony murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors are saying that Rolfe shot Brooks twice in the back and then kicked him as he was lying on the ground. They also say that Rolfe declared, quote, I got him after firing the shots. If he is convicted of the murder charge he faces, he could then face life in prison or the death penalty, because Georgia still has that. Hopefully, this officer will actually face justice instead of just beating the charges. That's right. And we should note here too that the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, which houses Atlanta, is up for re-election and facing a runoff in two months. So he was certainly facing pressure to act here. Yeah.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation put out a statement saying they were surprised to see the charges so quickly since they also hadn't even finished their investigation yet. So we'll track how this story develops from here, but let's shift gears for a moment to talk about another epidemic, COVID-19. Yeah. So big picture here, the cases in the United States have plateaued at around 20,000 a day, which is not a good place to be in my humble opinion. You see these charts and the US has flattened the curve in a sense, meaning cases aren't going up overall, but we haven't been able to make cases actually go down like other countries in Europe or Asia have. There's more testing now than at the beginning of all of this. So it's possible that the numbers we're seeing now are more complete pictures of what has happened than before.

And some states like New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and others, which got hit hard early, are doing much, much better than a few months ago. Right. But as we've talked about, we're seeing outbreaks in states like Arizona, Texas, and Florida, and they weren't nearly hit as hard earlier in the year. Yeah, that's right. And in Arizona, for instance, it took until June 1st for the state to reach 20,000 confirmed cases. And in just the last three weeks, an additional 20,000 have been added. So not a good situation. And hospitalizations are also at record highs in the state. And the state stay at home order expired on May 15th and things remain open. But the Republican Governor Doug Ducey finally announced yesterday that local governments can implement their own policies on mask wearing. It's a little bit of a different story in Texas, though. So

Texas has also been setting records in cases and hospitalizations are up by over 80% since Memorial Day. Remember, Texas, too, was one of the early states to ditch their stay at home order on April 30. And the governor there, Greg Abbott, has said that the state has plenty of hospital capacity as some kind of means of reassurance. But he's still keeping in place an executive order that he signed earlier, which bans cities from making face coverings mandatory. But then on the other hand, he's also saying that wearing masks and social distancing are important for safe reopening. So pretty confusing if you live there. On Tuesday, the mayors of nine cities in the state wrote him a letter asking for the ability to set local laws on mask wearing.

Yeah, and this is kind of a recurring theme. There was also a story out of Montgomery where the city council decided not to pass a mask requirement even after doctors pleaded with them to do so. Yeah, that's right. So these doctors show up to the city council meeting, talked about how their hospitals are being overrun, talked about particularly problems with black patients in those hospitals. And the council voted mostly along racial lines, meaning in this case, the black members and only one white member voted for the masks. Shocking. I mean, unsurprising, but you know, I'm so shocked. Yeah, right. It's pretty disgusting. And in Oklahoma, officials are still pleading with the Trump campaign to postpone the Tulsa rally that's set for this weekend or at least hold it outside.

Masks will be available at the event, but not required. Again, this very confusing way that this mask policy is being enforced by everyone. And at the same time, Tulsa is seeing its biggest outbreak since the pandemic began, though it's a little bit smaller compared to some other places, thankfully. Reportedly, the local health department has also tripled its contact tracing team before the Saturday event, which they're going to need for a venue that holds over 19,000 people. Well, I mean, good luck. Jeez. All right. Well, this brings us, like you said, to contact tracing. We've talked about it on the show before, and you've been doing a lot of reporting on it over the last few weeks. It's getting rolled out and beefed up in parts of the country as places are starting to reopen. Yeah. So we've seen this big effort to hire

thousands of people to do this work across the country, though many states and localities say they still need more money from Congress to really get this thing going. But the idea is really simple, right? It's just to reach out to people with COVID-19, get them to isolate themselves, and also figure out who they might have passed it on to. The goal being to slow the spread overall. So when I've talked to health experts, they've really emphasized that it's not about catching every single case and every single contact from those cases, but catching as many as they can to cut off at least some of the chains of transmission here. Massachusetts is one of the states that got started really early on this. And one of their thousand contact tracers is Alexander

Mieman. A lot of the work that he does is over the phone. Here's what he said a typical day is like. First thing in the morning, we have cases that test a positive the night before and send over to our database. My approach is usually the first thing I do when I call them is

to first brief a lot in space because these people have been traumatized by this news and to ask them how they are doing. How are you coping with this new diagnosis? And let that breathe for a while, right? Let them grieve with you, right? Let them talk aloud.

And after that, the first thing I would do is say, you know what, what resources do you need now? Right? And we're going to provide those resources. We're going to do everything we can to tap into community resources to make sure that your needs are met. Boom. Create trust that way. That's my approach.

And then after that, you can come and say, okay, now that you know that we are here to seek your welfare, that's the first thing, we can do the contact tracing work now, right? Would have you been in contact with prolonged exposure over 15 minutes? What's your household looks like? And then they are open now to share information with you. Yeah, so as he's saying, their trust is a really big part of this in terms of just getting people to give that information over the phone and to follow guidance and even before that to even pick up the phone and have this conversation. I also talked to the vice dean at Johns Hopkins Public Health School, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, and he was kind of emphasizing the same thing. This is really meant to be a community-based effort built on these sorts of

human-to-human interactions. And he was saying that sometimes there's this mystique that gets in the way of people's understanding of contact tracing, and they tend to think it's a lot deeper than it really is. Exactly. It's just, you know, trying to make sure people are okay and also making sure the people that they've been in contact with is okay. That's it. Yeah, right. That's as simple as it is. And this isn't the first time that Mieman has had this experience either. He's from Liberia originally and immigrated to the United States over 20 years ago. In 2014, he actually was a contact tracer during the Ebola outbreak in West

Africa. So as part of his efforts to build trust and speak to the needs of the community, he says he draws on that past experience. Yesterday, I was talking to a single mom that was in tears. This was my second interaction with her. So usually after services are provided, I tend to want to call back to confirm delivery and see how a wellness check. How are you doing? Right. So I'm talking to the single mom. She's an immigrant, too, into this country. So the first thing I usually say is when I know they are an immigrant, I'm an immigrant, too.

If I sense that they have an accent like I do, I mean, we all have accents. We come from somewhere. I tend to relate to them. So listen, I'm from Africa. Out of a sudden the walls fall, right? Because we have similar experiences coming into a different environment and the fear, I kind of empathize with the fear they're experiencing, right? So this lady, I was talking to her, and she started just opening up and crying and bawling. Why? For her, it was a taste of joy. Because she said, at that moment that we contacted her and provided food for her, there was no food in the house. She's a mother of three that's tested positive, not working, and is asked to isolate at home.

And she said her daughter was telling her mom, we'll be okay, we'll be okay. And she said right away, we call and within an hour, there was food delivered at her door. Yeah, I mean, that's the kind of work that they're doing. It's really admirable. I checked in with Alexander earlier this week following the protests to see how it's impacted the work that he's doing. It's really admirable. I checked in with Alexander earlier this week following the protest to see how it's impacted the work that he's doing. And he said, as someone who's lived in Minneapolis and whose family has experienced police brutality, the events have been re-traumatizing. And as far as his work goes, he said it's made him redouble his efforts to make sure that people know that he and the health community are looking out for them. And that's the latest for now.

It's Thursday WOD Squad, and it is temp check time. So, you've probably seen lots of brands and companies have been just realizing over the past few weeks that they might be racist. The latest ones are Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben's, which both released statements yesterday saying they'd make changes to their brands in recognition of their clear racist connotations. And you know, Genesis. Aunt Jemima has been around 100 years, so maybe this is something they could have thought about earlier, but whatever. Yeah, this seems extremely late,

to say the least. So, Akilah, do you have any pitches for the Aunt Jemima rebrand we're going to see? Honestly, just be like, worse pancakes. Like, not as good as what you would expect, but you're making it at home, so what did you expect? Like, I don't think that they need to have

some caricature of a person to sell what is already like, not the best thing I've ever eaten. Yeah. It's just like, it's just like simple syrup, right? Like,

it's just like really sweet. Like just, you're just pouring sugar on, you know, a breakfast. Is there anything maple about it? I don't know. I honestly don't know.

Not as far, not as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, I think if you're going to, you know, get syrup, get it from somebody that hasn't made bad corporate choices for years and years and years. But that's just me. Yeah, amen. Well, you know, Gideon, do you have any companies that you think should change it up? Oh, my God, there are probably so many. I think the immediate ones that like come to mind are still just like, they're not company. Well, they're kind of companies like just sports teams that just have openly blatantly racist names and logos. Because like, you know, I think that's a thing that has as much, if not bigger national notoriety than this brand. And it would be great to not have people cheering or, uh, having mascots that resemble any of

these things. Yeah. I think that, uh, that's pretty spot on. I feel like, um, it's amazing because these aren't the first times people have had these conversations. It's just the first time that brands are like, oh, I hear you now. My like my non-racist ear is turned and I can understand that you're telling me that this is messed up. So, you know, while we have their ear.

Yeah. Maybe the Redskins don't need to be a thing anymore. Yeah. Right. And and also, yeah, it's just really ridiculous that I mean, to the point of like, you you know people just listening for the first time now I find it like ridiculous that Roger Goodell recently was like oh yeah maybe Colin Kaepernick should be in the NFL and it's like okay well where you been man yeah anyway well you know hopefully brands can get it together influencers

can get it together but in any case we have checked our temps and we are going to check in with you all again tomorrow stay safe and on the right side of history. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. mass surveillance in the country. Authorities claim they need the database to catch criminals, but human rights advocates argue it could be used to track and prosecute groups of people the government doesn't like, such as activists or Uyghurs. China already has the world's largest collection of genetic samples with over 80 million profiles. The new report also revealed that the

samples were already being used for a government surveillance program in at least one province, where residents were encouraged to report on their neighbors. All of this is a major escalation in the country's efforts to use genetic data to surveil its citizens. Horrifying. Well, excerpts from former national security advisor John Bolton's book, The Room Where It Happened, were released to the press yesterday. Here's some big takeaways. Trump frequently abuses power, like by asking China's President Xi Jinping to buy lots of American agricultural products to help him win over farm states in the 2020 election. Illegal. He also offered to block criminal investigations into foreign companies to suck up to foreign leaders. Bolton's book also contains classic dumb president stuff like Trump asking if Finland was part of

Russia. That might have made me laugh a bunch in 2015, but it's really just depressing now. Bolton also slams the House's approach to Trump's impeachment inquiry, which is pretty rich, considering Bolton himself refused to testify for them. He was only willing to be interviewed by the Senate, and the Republican majority there was able to block him from taking the stand. The Trump administration alleged that the book contains confidential information and sued Bolton to delay its publication. I'm not really sure who to root for here. It's like two people cut me off in traffic and now they're honking at each other. And the ideal thing would be if they both got in a minor accident. Yeah, a fender bender that knocks the mustache off. That's it. Some men are just born on the wrong side of the law. And one of those men is the

former CEO of Bumblebee Foods, who was sentenced to 40 months in prison for fixing the price of canned tuna. Chris Lischewski was found guilty of conspiring with executives from Starkist and Chicken of the Sea to manipulate the price of canned tuna from 2011 to 2013. An outrage. An outrage indeed, Christopher. That's the way things go in the seedy, fast-moving world of supermarket fish. The price-fixing scheme affected over $600 million worth of canned tuna. An attorney from the Justice Department said the crime was even more sinister because it affected

one of the country's most basic necessity foods. Personally, it's not for me, but I'm pissed on everyone else's behalf and their tuna melts. Bumblebee has already been pushed to bankruptcy last year after the company was found guilty for the same crime and fined $25 million. Guys, they're playing God in Florida again. It's not great. Okay, so a British biotech company recently got approved to release 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. What could happen? Those bugs contain a protein that will lower the chance of survival among their female offspring, which could cut down on the spread of diseases like Zika and dengue fever. Importantly, the nearly 1 billion test tube insects are male, so they cannot bite.

They're mosquitoes whose whole purpose in life is to ruin female mosquitoes' lives, which is why their scientific name is Mosquito Fuckboys. The plan has been opposed by environmentalist groups who like their bugs GMO-free. They've called the project a, quote, Jurassic Park experiment and are suing the EPA to stop it. Now I'm thinking of a version of Jurassic Park where they thought out a prehistoric mosquito just to make more mosquitoes. And honestly, I'm so itchy, Gideon. I'm just itchy. It's bad. Life finds a way and it finds a way to make you itchy. And those are the headlines. That is all for today.

If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, give us a fair price on tuna for God's sakes and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just my spec script for a Jurassic Park

bug kingdom like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And your mask looks great on you.

You look beautiful. Yeah, you're rocking it. What a Day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tun 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.