What A Day - The Sunshine State Of Emergency

Episode Date: March 22, 2021

Thousands gathered in Georgia and other cities across the country for #StopAsianHate protests over the weekend, calling for solidarity and an end to hatred as well as stricter gun control laws. As we reflect on the horrors of the shootings, we discuss the victims and who they were. Coronavirus cases in the US have plateaued around 50,000 to 60,000 a day. Miami Beach had to declare a state of emergency this weekend and implement a curfew due to an influx of spring breakers. And in headlines: the Supreme Court will hear a case about organizing farmworkers, the NCCA apologizes for woefully unequal accommodations for women’s basketball teams, and The White House cracks down on weed-lovers in their ranks.Show Links:Follow What A Day on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday.

It's Monday, March 22nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What The Day, where we give you all the news with none of the spoilers. Yeah, we can promise that we won't tell you what happens in the future, so you'll be surprised. We do know it, though, because we have a mythic Asian org. On today's show, U.S. COVID cases plateau and a chaotic spring break in Florida bend some headlines. But first, the latest. If you see something, will you help me? If you see one of our sisters and brothers in need, will you help us? And so we must understand as Asian Americans, we just need to reach out our hand to our sisters and brothers and say,

help me. And I'm here. And just for one thing, I am proud to be Asian. I want to hear you say, I am proud to be Asian. I belong here. That was actor Sandra Oh at a protest in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

And it was a big weekend of protests in cities across the country. So, Akilah, tell us more about all of that. Yeah, sure thing. So throughout Georgia, thousands gathered for the hashtag Stop Asian Hate protests. In Atlanta, a multiracial group of hundreds of protesters came together drawing comparisons to how diverse the Black Lives Matter protests were last summer. Senator Warnock spoke in Atlanta on Saturday and said, quote, to my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you. And more important, we are going to stand with you. And there were scenes like this across the country in San Francisco's Chinatown, Chicago, Philly, and New York. Yeah, really powerful to see. And what has been the actual word from activists and advocates so

far? What are they focusing on? Well, beyond, you know, just calling for solidarity and an end to the hatred, there've been loud calls for an end to lax gun control. The shooter, Robert Aaron Long, bought a gun the same day he murdered eight people. There's no wait period in Georgia, background checks are lax. And so that combined with the major increase in racist violence in the past few years means it's not improbable that something like this could happen again without some major changes. But an important note, too, is that advocates are saying that this violence is not just because of Trump and the pandemic. There's a long tradition of violence against sex workers or those believed to be sex workers

and a stigma that vilifies and makes vulnerable those in and around that industry. And Asian women in particular are often the ones who bear the brunt of those attacks. And in that same vein, activists are blaming over-policing of these businesses for a lot of violence that we haven't even talked about. They cited an incident in 2017 where a woman fell to her death when NYPD officers attempted to arrest her for sex work during a raid. And now we have the names of all the shooting victims and a clearer picture of who they actually were outside of the headlines. So let's take a moment to talk about them. Yeah, so here's who they were. Xiao Jie Tan

was a licensed massage therapist and the owner of Young's Asian Spa, according to the Daily Beast. She immigrated to the US several years ago and had an adult daughter who recently graduated from the University of Georgia. Dao Yeo Fung also worked at Young's Asian Spa. She was 44 years old, but not much else is known about her at this time. Delaina Ashley-Yan Gonzalez was 33 years old and the mother of a 14-year-old boy and a nine-month-old baby girl. She was on a date with her husband at Young's Asian Spa when the shooting happened. Soonchung Park was 74 years old and worked at Gold Spa. Before living in Atlanta, she lived in New York. Her husband said he was driving a Lyft when he heard what had happened. He attempted to give

her CPR at the scene and described the police as, quote, just standing there. Hyunchong Grant was a Korean immigrant who also worked at Gold Spa. She leaves behind two sons, the eldest of whom is 23. The brothers set up a GoFundMe and in an Instagram post said, quote, she lived her whole life only to support her two sons all on her own. And to see her taken away from us like this is unfair. Soon-Cha Kim was 69 years old. A grandmother married for more than 50 years. She immigrated from Korea to the U.S. for a better life, according to a relative.

Paul Andre Michaels was 54 and a local business owner who had been married for over two decades. His family members described him as a hardworking Army veteran who owned an electric company. He was doing handiwork for the massage parlor when the shooting happened. Young A. Yoo was 63 years old and worked at Aromatherapy Spa across the street from Gold Spa. She was from South Korea and moved to the States with her husband, who was stationed with the U.S. Army there.

They divorced in the 80s but had two sons together and remained close. These were human beings with lives and memories and loved ones killed senselessly in America by a white man. We have to stop AAPI hate, and we have to protect each other. Yes, we do. And we'll continue to stay on this story and the work that's being done to take action. For sure. All right, so our next story is about the ongoing pandemic.

Gideon, what's new? Okay, not to sound like a total broken record, but the theme this month has been this plateau of cases nationally in the U.S. On cases, we're settling in at around 50,000 to 60,000 a day. And you have people like CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky and Dr. Fauci pointing to Europe as a warning sign again, where many countries have had to reimpose lockdowns after surges that came when mitigation efforts were pulled back, which of course is now happening

here. But I will say the major caveat is that we in the U.S. are farther along in vaccinating, and it looks like we're just going to keep climbing there. Yeah, so hopefully the vaccinations can keep up with people just making the bad decisions. But before we talk about that, let's talk about where the U.S. trouble spots are right now. Yeah, absolutely. So one state that's getting a lot of attention is Michigan. Hospitalizations are up since last month and cases have basically doubled over the last couple of weeks. Michigan has the second highest reported cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in the country.

Meanwhile, restrictions have been loosening there. So that's the combination that these public health experts do not want to see. The good news, though, is that the state's largest vaccination site at Ford Field in Detroit is set to open this week, which will hopefully make an impact. Also, per the New York Times, New Jersey and New York are leading the country in recent cases per capita. Yeah, and there's also a variant popping up in New York City. We haven't talked about that yet, but what do we know about it? Not enough, I think. I think people are still trying to understand it more. But public health officials have been keeping their eyes on this. It is a homegrown variant that might be preventing steady declines in the city and could possibly be reinfecting

people who had COVID. If that wasn't enough, over the weekend, the city identified its first case of the P1 variant that originated in Brazil, which has in part fueled a disaster in that country and is believed to also be able to infect people who previously had the virus. Those are just some examples, but we don't really know yet if this would kick off some broader national wave. I think we're all waiting for that. Here's Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the FDA, on that question on Face the Nation. When it comes to B.1.1.7, the variant first detected in the UK, Dr. Fauci said this week it's about 30 percent of U.S. infections and it's, what, 50 percent more transmissible. It's also potentially more lethal. When you see these pictures of these spring break gatherings in Florida and elsewhere,

does that make you rethink your projections here and worry about a fourth wave? Well, I don't think we're going to have a fourth wave. I think what we're seeing around the country is parts of the country that are plateauing. We're seeing upticks in certain parts of the country. I think the fact that we have so much prior infection, 120 million Americans have been infected with this virus. The fact that we've now vaccinated, we've gotten one shot in at least 70 million Americans. Even if you account for the fact that maybe about 30 percent of people being vaccinated previously had COVID, we're talking about some form of protective immunity in about 55% of the population. Well, that's interesting. I definitely hope that he's right. And part of

that clip had to do with Florida. You know, I saw pictures of a lot of people in handcuffs there. So what on earth is going on down there, Gideon? The perennial question. So over the weekend, officials in Miami Beach had to declare a state of emergency and implement a curfew basically due to spring breakers. Harmony Corrine is writing another script. Reportedly, law enforcement were saying that many people had come down because there were fewer COVID restrictions in the state. Also, hotels and flights had been cheaper, too, to try and make up for lost revenue. Officials also said it's not the typical college crowd, but adults seeking a place to let loose. Listen, I can relate. Let's just all try to do it

responsibly and not in a way that causes problems. But according to an AP report, the 8 p.m. curfew is set to stay in place for the next week with the possibility of extending it into April if needed. There were over a thousand arrests over the weekend with officers firing pepper balls into a crowd that was violating curfew. From the same article, quote, some people responded by jumping on top of cars, twerking and throwing money into the air. I'm also fairly certain you and I both saw a video on Twitter of a guy in Joker makeup doing some combination of a few of those things. Totally. Yeah, it was overall seemed to be really chaotic. There was a lot of destruction. It seems like there was a lot of destruction.

It seems like there was a lot of pent up pandemic energy, to say the least here. To say the very least. It seems like people are wiling. But we mentioned the vaccination race in the US. So let's quickly just talk about the progress there. Yeah, it is going great. According to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker, in the last week, we were averaging about 2.5 million doses a day. And there was at least one day over the weekend where the daily total was over 3 million.

And maybe helpful, maybe not helpful information to keep in mind. But if you look just at the Bloomberg tracker, they estimate that if we continued with the amount of doses that we are administering per day, at this moment, it would take an additional five months to cover 75% of the population, though, we will likely see the daily number continue to rise. So I think we have a good shot of beating that. We'll keep on this, but that's the latest for now. It's Monday, WOD Squad. And for today's Tim Check, we're getting into reading. There was a great New York Times article yesterday about something called BookTok. Basically, TikTok users are using the same principles they use to make songs blow up on music charts to make books insanely popular overnight.

One example is a novel called The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It won a big fiction prize back in 2012, but it's now selling nine times as well as it did then after TikTok's recommending it went viral. Publishers say this is like nothing they've ever seen before on Instagram or Twitter. TikTok is officially the smartest social media app. So Giddy, this is your application to be an influencer on BookTok.

What are you recommending? Ooh, a lot of pressure because everybody that uses TikTok is way smarter than I am at figuring out how to do basically anything. I recently read Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam. And if I talk about it extensively, it would lead to massive spoilers. The setup is this. This is me trying to BookTok it here. If I talk about it extensively, it would lead to massive spoilers. The setup is this. This is me trying to book talk it here.

There is a couple that leaves Brooklyn and goes to the Hamptons to rent like an Airbnb. And while they're there, some weird stuff starts happening. And then the couple that owns the house that is renting it to them shows up and they end up in a situation where, let's just say they're reliant on each other to proceed through the situation. And that's all I'll say because I don't know what spoilers there might be. You know, you just made that book sound really excellent. I think that, you know, book talk should pay you

and then the publisher should pay you and then hopefully that book will go viral and then be bought a bunch because that was beautiful, Gideon. Thank you. I hope so. I hope I did not mispronounce his name because then all this is for not. Same question. Akilah, what book are you talking about a book talk this week? I mean, you know, I think it would be really cool if you're a fan of a certain podcast to hear about, you know, one of the hosts who started her life in Kentucky with a single mother,

was really good at spelling, moved on to take improv classes in New York, go to the Sundance Labs, and then, you know, you see everything up until she became that podcast host. The book is called, obviously, Stories from My Timeline by Akilah Hughes, who seems like a great individual. And I think that people should buy that. I would be remiss if I didn't say that.

But the other books I would recommend on BookTok include a book I'm reading right now. David Sedaris, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. They do not need my recommendation. He is very popular, but it's a great book of essays. And I find myself laughing out loud to just Fauci who can't read yet. So that's been a lot of fun. And then also my friend wrote a book recently called Buy Yourself the Fucking Lilies.

And it's by Tara Schuster. And it's a book about treating yourself right, especially in a lonely time, which I think feels really applicable now. So, yeah, those are my book talk recommendations. We will understand our power when we see how high these chart. I don't actually want to see my power in this way because I think the teens on book talk might have a little bit more than us, but just like that, we have checked our temps, stay safe, subscribe to our book talk. It's actually just this podcast and we'll be back after some ads.

Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. the fields. Two growers in California brought on the suit challenging a state regulation that allows organizers to meet with workers during lunch or an hour before or after their shifts. They argued that by doing that, the government is taking their private property without compensation. Now, labor advocates argue that farm workers are one of the hardest groups of people to reach, considering that they work in secluded rural areas and don't usually have centralized spaces to meet. So physically meeting with them is one of the best ways to reach out. The state of California established the law in question in the 70s amid demands from labor leader Cesar Chavez and his United Farm Workers Union so that all agricultural workers could have access to learn about their labor rights. The NCAA apologized over the weekend after being called out for providing subpar facilities to the women's basketball teams

during their league tournament in San Antonio. The controversy started last week after a coach from Stanford and a separate player posted photos and videos to social media comparing the women's and men's facilities. The post revealed huge disparities in what the women's team was given, including a single small weight rack compared to the men's full gym and Fyre Fest-quality lunch boxes compared to buffets with steak fillets and lobster. The VP of women's basketball at the ncaa responded to the controversy last friday saying the women would have access to the full weight room once they reach the third round of the tournament never

mind that the men have full access throughout officials ended up making an overnight upgrade to the women's weight room on saturday and announced that the food disparity will be addressed soon not soon enough just give women equal. God, why do why does it have to be complaints? Why social media complaints? Right. Someone else has to say it. Oh, Lord. If you need another reason to be jealous of babies, there are now early reports that children born to vaccinated mothers could inherit covid immunity. Covid antibodies were shown to be present in both umbilical cord blood and breast milk of moms who got the vaccine. FYI, if I have the option to drink my Moderna shot, I'm interested, and I would like to request mine in Capri Sun Pacific Cooler.

I think this can be done. Modern science is amazing. Several studies have documented the same phenomenon, and none of them have undergone peer review yet, so it's too early to say anything definitive. The findings do accord with published studies that observe the same phenomenon in moms who had recovered from COVID. Pregnant women have been prioritized for vaccinations because they're vulnerable to respiratory diseases. It is a win-win if they're also conferring immunity to their babies for the first few months of their lives. Still no research though into whether aunts and uncles can absorb antibodies by blowing on infant bellies, but we will keep you posted. The White House is finally responding to the pandemic called reefer madness.

Per the Daily Beast, they've suspended, pushed out, or transferred to remote work dozens of staffers for past use of weed. The moves affected staffers who had only smoked, eaten, or otherwise done pot in states where it was legal. It also came after the Biden administration said some use of cannabis would be excused and staffers voluntarily shared their pot histories. One reason for requiring staffers voluntarily shared their pot histories. One reason for requiring staffers to have said no to pot is because otherwise they may not qualify for top secret clearance from the FBI and NSA. But not everybody needs that clearance. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to the reports on Friday, saying that only five staffers were fired.

And the Biden administration stance on weed is more permissive than that of previous administrations. Someone please make them an award for almost tolerating a thing everyone else is now fine with. Anyway, I just asked my magic eight ball if Biden would help legalize weed federally, and the little triangle inside it melted. We have to buy a new one. In addition to the orb, our expenses are piling up. Yeah, it's really not going well. And those are the headlines. One last thing before we go, you can now get full transcripts of every new WOD episode by going to crooked.com slash whataday and clicking on the episode link. We're hoping

it makes the show more accessible to everyone. The transcripts are posted each afternoon, so go check them out. That is all for today. If you like this show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, don't fall prey to reefer madness, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just the list of ingredients and Capri Sun Pacific cooler 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 help me fix my magic eight ball. How am I supposed to proceed if I don't have it? What am I supposed to shake?

Nothing. Nothing is right. Nothing's in my hands anymore because it's broken. What a Day is a production 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 executive producers are Katie Long,

Akilah Hughes, and me. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.