What A Day - The Gig Short

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

At the Biden team's first public health briefing, officials noted that the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations in the US is on a downward trend, and they also emphasized the importance of genomic sequencing for detecting coronavirus variants.Over 10 million people are still out of work due to the pandemic, and recent data suggest that the economy isn't getting any better. We spoke to people who have lost their jobs about what they are going through right now, months and months into the crisis.And in headlines: a Seattle Seahawks player arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence, Biden signs executive orders directed at climate change, and another banner day for stonks.

It's Thursday, January 28th. I'm Keely Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we are constantly working out our veins to get them ready for the vaccine. Yeah, I have a bunch of stretches and exercise I do to get my veins super open and flowy, and they're doing great. That's good. I honestly mean when I say this, my blood tubes have never been stronger. I've heard people say that about you. And they're doing great. That's good. I honestly mean when I say this, my blood tubes have never been stronger. I've heard people say that about you.

On today's show, we hear from people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic and how they are coping, then some headlines. But first, the latest. Our case rates remain extraordinarily high. And now is the time to remain vigilant. If we continue on the current trajectory, the CDC most recent National Ensemble forecast predicts that 479,000 to 514,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by February 20, 2021. I know this is not news we all want to hear, but this is something we must say so we are all aware. That was CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky

speaking during the first public health briefing from the Biden White House. While that clip was grim, Walensky also noted that recently the number of COVID cases and hospitalizations in the U.S. has been on a downward trend. These briefings are supposed to be happening multiple times a week and are part of the Biden strategy to let, quote, science speak again. And we learned a few new things about how the federal government plans to fight the pandemic. So for starters, what did they have to say about the overall vaccine supply? Yeah, so we can begin this story by kind of backing up to earlier this week. On Tuesday, Biden said that the administration was close to finalizing a deal with Pfizer and Moderna to get 600 million doses in total by the end of the summer, which would be enough for 300 million people. Awesome. This

reportedly solidifies the contracts that the Trump administration initially reached with these companies, and it's not going to speed up the vaccinations right away this very moment. But the really important part of this is that it would lock in more supply in the future rather than waiting to re-up later in the spring or the summer. Why leave stuff to chance? And if successful, that's enough doses for a large enough part of the population that we really could be talking about some kind of normal by the end of the summer or early fall if things fall into place. And as we know, Biden started with the promise of 100 million doses in his first 100 days. But the pressure is coming from all sides to execute here, which has led him to recently say that that is only the baseline goal and not the peak.

Yeah. Okay, so that's the long term. But in the short term, what does this mean for distribution to states? Well, per the Washington Post, the manufacturing pace has increased, which is really good. The new administration is now forecasting that they can distribute about 10 million doses a week to states, territories and tribal governments. Before that was around 8.6 million. And most of that, at least in the early going, is going to come primarily from more Moderna doses. And the federal government is going to give states three weeks advance notice of how much supply is in the pipeline, which hopefully will allow for better planning among state and local officials who have complained about being in the dark on that. We've heard Mets stadiums are going to open and then the next day they're not going to

open. Examples like that. The other big piece we are waiting on are the results from Johnson & Johnson's clinical trials, which could come as soon as next week, according to reports. And if those results are good, it could pretty quickly get emergency approval. But unfortunately, we've also been hearing a lot of reporting that the company is having problems with manufacturing delays. We don't know how many they're going to have right away. It's important to note, though, that Johnson & Johnson is not yet part of the Biden calculations because they are only including stuff that can be relied upon at this exact moment.

Okay. Well, to add to all of that, the administration is racing against more contagious variants that are circulating and also trying to beef up the country's ability to find and track those variants. So what did they have to say about that in the briefing? They said the tracking is terrible right now, that the U.S. has a big problem in it. Jeffrey Zients, Biden's new COVID czar, someone we're going to be hearing a lot from in the next days, weeks, and months, said that the country was 43rd in the world in genomic sequencing during the briefing yesterday

to put a finer point on where we are. So that's obviously a big focus, and that's part of why some of the members of the team are pushing for Congress to pass the president's $1.9 trillion COVID legislative package. Walensky said that some of the resources could be used for better scientific surveillance and sequencing, and Zients talked about it for improving vaccination testing and remaining shortages in PPE. So they are making the case for that money for resources to help public health.

Those points, of course, are on top of and in concert with really addressing the very serious economic pain that people are dealing with every day, which brings us to our next story. That's right. I mean, we've been talking on the show pretty regularly about just how many people are struggling right now with unemployment. 22 million people lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Some of those jobs have come back, but over 10 million people are still out of work. And the numbers show that people at the lower end of the income spectrum are being hit the hardest, as are women and women of color in particular, who tend to work in jobs like retail or hospitality that have been gutted. So we wanted to hear from some of those people about what the experience has been like and what they're going through right now, months and months into this crisis. The first person we talked to is Stacey Lewis, who, on top of losing her job, had to deal with a non-COVID related medical emergency.

My name is Stacey Lewis. Right now I'm located in Austin, Texas. My former job was a service dispatcher at a plumbing and HVAC company. I was in the hospital for about nine days with zero health insurance. That's honestly why I procrastinated going. I pretty much almost died because I was scared of the bill. But I was so scared of the bill. And we have a huge bill. Just from one hospital, it's a $50,000 bill that I can't pay.

So we have to figure that out now, along with me being unemployed. My fiance is the only one working in our apartment right now. So it's stressful. My name is Katie. I live in Austin, Texas. And prior to being laid off, I was the summer programs manager at the Paramount Theater in Austin, Texas. It's been rough.

Again, I have two roommates, so like the isolation nature of everything hasn't really hit too bad. But as far as like trying to find another job, it's been near impossible unless I want to expose myself and my roommates, because it's not just me that I'm thinking of. It's my two roommates who, like, like, I, as much as I would love to take a job working at a grocery store, I have two other people that I have to think about and their exposure, which, I mean, that's something that everybody's experiencing, unless, like, you live alone, but it's definitely made it very difficult to try to find something, And the job market is just so incredibly saturated right now. I mean, I'm applying to up to 10 jobs a week and every week

I'll get a response back. That's something to the effect of we've had 200 people apply to this job. And unfortunately we are not able to move forward with your application. It's just kind of the standard response because so many people are applying to the same jobs. My name is Jenna Paris. I am currently stuck in my home just outside of Philadelphia, Bucks County, northern suburbs of Philadelphia. I have been a chef for about 11 years now and have been on and off out of work since March of last year. There's the worst part of it has been that it's not been solidly steady unemployment. So there's no way to even file in Pennsylvania for like a, I had a job last week, but I don't have a job this week.

And I have a job this week, but it's a third of what I'm used to making. And you can't, once the COVID protections ended, there was no way to, to kind of file unemployment that way. So it's just kind of been a mess. I picked up a second office job for a couple hours a week, just so I can continue to pay the mortgage on the house I bought when I got this job. And that's been also touch and go. It's really, so for a while, I was able to get some. And then for a while after that, I was able to get some partial. And now Pennsylvania isn't even honoring partial unemployment. So I can't file and say, hey, I'm working 10 hours a week when I should be working 55. So there's really no room, no allowance room in there. Heather Oldham.

I am in the Chicago suburbs. And I was the retail manager at L'Occitane in Woodfield Mall. I have thankfully been able to build up a savings. So I do have savings. So I'm very grateful for that. So that will help me for a while. But like my rent, my lease, I just had to sign my lease, my rent went up like $30. And, you know, so all that happens. And then my my business, I'm in retail, which it was kind of bleeding out anyway, like it's a dying industry anyway. And then COVID happened. You don't know when you're going back to work. You don't know. You really it was just terrifying. You didn't know if you were going to go back to work. And then the idea of going back to work because we're in such a I'm in such a public facing role was terrifying. So it was it was terrifying to not be working. It was terrifying to think about going back. And then this time it's terrifying because I don't know where my next job is. Thanks to our producer, Sonia Tun, for putting that together. And we'll have more on the unemployment crisis and the government response in the coming days.

But that's the latest for now. It's Thursday, WOD Squad, and today we're celebrating an overnight success. The poet Amanda Gorman, who stole the show at the inauguration last week, was just announced as a performer at the Super Bowl 55 pre-show in February. Not the halftime show, so, you know, doesn't have to come up with some songs really quickly, but she'll be reading an original poem before the game, which will be in Tampa, Florida. Gorman also signed with IMG Models this week, which represents people like Kate Moss and Chrissy Teigen. So giddy. I just want to make an observation here. I feel like we didn't have breakout celebrities like this under Trump, but can you think of any?

We didn't have breakout celebrities like this, but we certainly had some breakout celebrities. One guy, Mike Lindell of MyPillow, Dan Bongino of Facebook, and whatever else he does. There were some. They weren't of the, how shall we say, caliber of Amanda Gorman. But I think there definitely were new celebs, as it were, that we had to contend with, perhaps.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think that there's people who popped up for a variety of different reasons, but not necessarily because we were all like, this is good and they are good like the situations even when there were good people i feel like the situations around them were not necessarily the best so just yeah i all right i guess i'll take dan bongino as an answer the guy who i i'm assuming he has a podcast because who doesn't he? He's an angry white man. I feel like that's like top hobbies for that type. Correct, correct. Yeah, I think he does.

And, you know, to me, the real gauge of Amanda's success is going to be when she beats his Facebook posts. Like when she starts, when we look at those weekly Facebook posts and it's not all Dan 1 through 10, then we'll know that she's made it. I'm, I'm. Or that she's like aged terribly. It is now like much, much older and cares about Facebook. Right, right, right.

Yes. I'm happy that she's probably not there because I think that's for the best for her and everybody else, frankly. But same question for you, Akilah. What sort of celebrities were there? Like, can you think of any? Here's the thing. I mean, you've got me thinking now.

You know, we could say, in effect, that AOC would be somebody. Oh, interesting. You know, showed up in that same era, even though I, you know, this is a public servant versus like a talented teenager. But they're both looking forward, you know? So I feel like they're great. There were a lot of, you know, unfortunately, kids who survived school shootings, who became activists, who we all learned about. And I think that, you know,

we were all really inspired by their bravery and their, you know, just ability to speak to large groups of people and organize like they have. But generally speaking, yeah, I feel like we were just in a weird wormhole. Like it was like Lil Nas X and nobody. Right, right. There wasn't the space, I guess,

to process and watch somebody like an Amanda Gorman because I think that there was such a crazy, like short attention span. And at least, you know, knock on wood for right now, we have the opportunity and ability to watch somebody really, you know, knock on wood for right now, we have the opportunity and ability to watch somebody really, you know, kick ass. And that's cool. I love it. I've just been rewatching that poem over and over again. So I'm glad she's going to drop another hit. Maybe one day she will do a halftime show of just poems. We'll find out. But just like that, we've checked

our temps. Stay safe. Why not rewatch that video of Amanda Gorman at the inauguration? I guarantee you it will make you smile. And we'll be back after some ads. Let's wrap up with some headlines headlines seattle seahawks player chad wheeler was dropped by his team yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence according to police reports wheeler strangled his girlfriend until she passed out the victim told police officers that Wheeler had stopped taking his medication for bipolar disorder a few days before he brutally attacked her. Wheeler is white and his girlfriend is black, and some are viewing the assault in the context of a hate crime. Wheeler has since been released

on bail and publicly apologized for the incident, saying he will step away from football and seek professional help. Commentators also noted that Wheeler was not a member of the Seahawks starting lineup and was set to become a free agent in March anyway, so in a practical sense, the move to cut ties wasn't difficult for his team or the NFL. President Biden signed a series of executive orders yesterday that aimed to tackle climate change and put the country back on track to reducing emissions. New leases on oil and natural gas programs have been halted and the Department of the Interior was directed to take steps towards renewable energy from offshore wind by 2030. Please make those steps as big as possible. Biden promised to take action on

protecting 30% of the country's land and water by that year as well. He made sure to emphasize how these changes will affect the economy by pledging to create up to a million jobs building electric cars, solar panels, and more. He also directed agencies to focus on investing in low-income and minority communities that live close to fossil fuel plants and face job losses when the country shifts towards greener energy sources. Let's go and get it. The union representing Capitol Police released a statement yesterday about the January 6th riot, which detailed the extent of the harm done to officers and cast blame on leadership for failing to prepare for the raid. The statement comes after Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman testified to Congress on Tuesday and said that the department knew the Capitol would be targeted by armed militia groups. In the police union statement, they said it was, quote, unconscionable

that the department didn't appropriately use this information. And they reported that nearly 140 officers suffered injuries at the hands of rioters. That's 140 more than you would expect, considering many of those rioters have big Blue Lives Matter tattoos. On a related note, some news about the chairman of the Proud Boys broke yesterday. leading the male chauvinist white nationalist group, Henry Enrique Tarrio was apparently a prolific police informant who went undercover and helped federal agents prosecute 13 people so he could reduce his own 2012 sentence for fraud. So don't let anyone tell you you can't wear a wire and still be proud. That's right. That's what they say about snitches, right? They get pride. Yeah. All right. Well, it was another banner day for the stonk market yesterday with retail investors from Reddit's Wall Street bets continuing to bid up unloved stocks and wreak havoc on more traditionally minded Wall Street traders.

Yesterday's winners were the long bankrupt rental store Blockbuster, which surged by as much as 302 percent. Struggling movie theater chain AMC, which went up by more than 230 percent. And yes, beloved sticky log candy Tootsie Roll, which briefly rose by 53% before shedding most of its gains. I've often said that the future of finance is treats that still come wrapped in wax paper. Again, a lot of this activity can be attributed to a subreddit with 2.5 million members that does coordinated runs on these stocks. Side note, that page went private yesterday, with moderators saying that unprecedented interest was making it impossible to police comments. One interesting detail from a Bloomberg article this week was how the Redditors might have locked in on their targets.

Apparently, the $12.5 billion hedge fund Melvin Capital unknowingly tipped them off by listing their short positions in a recent regulatory filing. And the Redditors figured out if they drove up those stocks, they could force Melvin and other short sellers to bail on their bets and push the stocks even higher. This week, Melvin Capital had to seek $2.75 billion in emergency funding to cover their losses. I will now be taking all my stock tips from guys on the internet named Bonglord5000. I was doing that my whole life, so this just fits in.

Yeah, if he has any questions about the stock market on Animal Crossing, I can, you know, trade. Well, those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, learn from Bong Lord 5000 and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just stonk prices 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 keep working those veins. I guarantee you, if you just do these stretches that I'm not going to go into detail about, you're going to have big old veins like us.

Get them as wide as the Hoover Dam. let those vaccines flow through? Yeah. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tan is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producers are Katie Long, Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gillyard and Kshaka.