What A Day - Your Antibody Is A Wonderland

Episode Date: June 26, 2020

New antibody data from the CDC indicates that only 1 in 10 COVID-19 cases in the country have been identified. That still means more than 90 percent of the country hasn’t had the virus. Incidences of police brutality continue to be reported around the country. Three officers resigned and the police chief offered his resignation in Tucson, where Carlos Ingram-Lopez died in police custody. In New York, an NYPD officer was charged with using an illegal chokehold. And in headlines: the Supreme Court says asylum seekers can’t challenge their deportations in court, the Democratic Republic of the Congo ends its Ebola outbreak, and The Dixie Chicks reinvent themselves.  We’re taking a weeklong summer hiatus! We’ll be back on Monday, July 6th.

It's Friday, June 26. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, where we are hoping this is the weekend where the U.S. figures out coronavirus. Yeah, I feel like they've been studying for a long time, but this is when we're going to crack it. Yeah, you know, six months of prep seems like it should be enough, but you know, it's not. Quick announcement before we get started. So we're going to be off all next week on a little summer hiatus looking forward, but we will be back in your ears on Monday, July 6th. In the meantime, and as always, you can stay up to date with what's happening in our dear world by subscribing to our nightly newsletter. That's at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm sure absolutely nothing will happen. On today's show, why the CDC thinks many more millions have had coronavirus than some headlines.

But first, the latest. Amazingly, he still not has hasn't grasped the most basic fact of this crisis. To fix the economy, we have to get control over the virus. Say it again. To fix the economy, we have to get control over the virus. That was former Vice President Joe Biden explaining the pandemic to Donald Trump. And it really is that simple. In news, this sure sounds like a broken record, but another 1.5 million people filed for unemployment last week, marking the 14th week in a row that the number has been over a million.

And there are still plenty of concerns about rebounds given the rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, which are hitting record highs. The total number of people getting unemployment insurance from states is 19.5 million, which is down from the 25 million in early May, but yeah, still really bad. The extra $600 a week for unemployment benefits from Congress is also set to run out at the end of July if nothing gets passed. Also, in economic news, there was a report

about a ton of the stimulus money going to dead people. Yes, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said on Thursday that about $1.1 million of those payments, which were up to $1,200 each, went to people who are dead and totaled almost $1.4 billion. So the reason this happened is basically the Treasury Department doesn't have access to death records from the Social Security Administration, and they were in charge of giving out this money. It all happened very fast as the country desperately

needed some kind of relief in the midst of the pandemic. GAO in this report recommended that the IRS, quote, consider cost effective options for notifying ineligible recipients how to return payments. Though to me, at least somewhat unclear how you do that with a person who is dead. Yeah. There could definitely be some negative political consequences to all of this, though, in the future. There's talk from the White House of possibly doing another round of these checks, but Republicans who already were not inclined to approve that could use this as an argument against it.

So we'll be keeping track of all that down the road, but clearly Americans who are alive are going to need more help. Definitely. And in actual COVID case numbers and responses from various states and cities, we're finally seeing some more guidance from hard hit places. That's right. So at long last on Thursday, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott paused the state's reopening and issued an executive order to free up hospital space as some of the state's hospitals were

approaching their capacity. The order suspends elective procedures in Bexar, Dallas, Travis, and Harris counties, the last one includes Houston, in order to free up space for COVID-19 patients. So then in terms of the reopening process, businesses that had already opened can stay open, but anything else is paused for now. So this really feels like a stopgap measure in the midst of a worsening situation. For sure. But even as Texas's public health crisis is surging, the state's Attorney General Ken Paxton filed legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act

on the same day that they paused reopenings. Yes, it does not make a lick of sense. Not at all. And meanwhile, beginning at midnight on Thursday, Nevada's Democratic Governor Steve Sisolak began requiring everyone in the state to wear masks. That is, of course, to prevent transmission, but also so no one will see your smile when you hit it big at the Bellagio. And lastly, on reopenings, New York City is apparently ready to enter phase three by July 6th, which would allow for things like indoor dining, outdoor recreation like basketball courts and things like tattooing and manicures with safety measures put in place. Just the essentials. Yeah, I mean, I personally would love to get a nose ring, but I also would like to survive. Well, shifting gears slightly, the CDC had some pretty eye-opening stuff to say about how many

people have been infected on Thursday. So what do we know about all of this? There's a lot to unpack here. So first off, CDC Director Robert Redfield said yesterday that they now think that basically only one in 10 COVID-19 cases in the country have been identified. That's based on studies that look for antibodies in blood, and those studies are still ongoing. But at this moment, there are at least 2.3 million confirmed cases in the country. And if the CDC is right, this would mean we're talking about in excess of 20 million that have had it at one point or other. So the upshot here, if there is one, if it's true and accurate information, is that the known death rate could be lower. Still, even with this larger, more accurate number, we're talking about a tiny portion of

the country that's been exposed to COVID-19. This same CDC data suggests that 5 to 8% of Americans have been infected with the virus, which means that still more than 90% haven't. And these studies are meant to catch some of the many potentially undiagnosed cases earlier in the pandemic when testing was less widespread than it is now. And another thing Redfield mentioned is that currently there are a lot of infections identified in younger people in some of the states that are seeing these big rises. That could help explain why, for now, deaths are not climbing while cases are, but experts have also pointed out that the death toll could still climb in the weeks to come. There are some estimates that half of new cases in Florida and Texas are from people who are 35 or younger, many of whom turn out to be asymptomatic. And that could be construed as a reason to be less vigilant in all of this, but health officials are advising us not to construe it that way and avoid rolling the dice with our own lives and the lives of others. But turning to our other

national epidemic, let's zero in on a few updates on policing. Yes. So here's a follow on widespread traumatic police brutality in America. Chris Magnus, the police chief in Tucson, Arizona, offered to resign Wednesday after releasing video footage that showed police officers restraining Carlos Ingram Lopez, a young man who died in their custody in April. Ingram Lopez was a 27-year-old Hispanic man, and police body cam footage revealed that he was restrained face down and wailed for his mother and begged for water. Police kept him that way for 12 minutes. He went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead. A week ago, the three officers involved resigned, but the department's delay in disclosing details of

Lopez's death has drawn intense scrutiny. And in New York, an NYPD officer was arrested yesterday after using an illegal chokehold while detaining a man in Queens. That makes Officer David Afanador the first police officer to be charged under the new state law that makes such holds a felony. But there is a bit of good news. So yesterday we told you all about Elijah McClain in Aurora who died after police put him in a chokehold and injected him with ketamine. Well, last night, Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation. And this is huge and definitely due in part to pressure from the public, which is why I keep saying, like, don't let up, because when we show up, things actually change.

And last night, House Democrats approved the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which we talked about on Thursday. It's likely to be blocked in the Senate or vetoed by the president, but at least there is motion in the House. Right. And with so many visible instances of abuse and police brutality, more people have been donating to charity and activist organizations that can help fight back. So let's talk for a second about bail funds and where a lot of that money that's been donating is actually going. Yeah, for sure. So bail funds are just that. It's money to bail people out of jail. And since the police killing of George Floyd,

these organizations have received more than $90 million in donations. One bail fund, the Colorado Freedom Fund, received $1 million, which is 10 times more than they'd received in the past two years combined. The Minnesota Freedom Fund, which we've talked about on the show, received more than $30 million in donations, nearly 300 times the amount it received in all of 2018. And some have begun to criticize the group online for not being faster with their changemaking. But it's not as simple to bail people out as it is to enter your credit card information to donate. Each jurisdiction has a different payment system, in person, online, kiosk, etc.

Some take cash or debit cards, others only cashier checks. And it's not a uniform system of buying freedom, and it's likely intentional. All of that means that it's going to take time and patience. And if you think bail funds don't matter, remember that Sandra Bland died in police custody while her family tried to get $500 to bail her out. Legal experts say that people who cannot afford to pay bail disproportionately take plea deals instead of fighting their cases. So if you did donate, you should feel really good about it. And there are plenty of organizations to donate to at every stage of the legal process. I recommend the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund

and the Equal Justice Initiative. And that's the latest. It's Friday, WOD Squad. And for today's temp check, we're covering a story that is just very dear and close to my heart. On Thursday, Disney announced that Splash Mountain, a ride that's based on a 1940s movie called Song of the South, that's so racist it literally cannot be seen on video and remains in the Disney vault forever, will be reimagined to star characters from 2009's

The Princess and the Frog. I'm so excited. Okay, so Akilah, as a Disney World alum and super fan, let's delve into your reaction to this. Yeah, I mean, it starts with excitement, but it does not stop at excitement. So people know that Princess Tiana and I go way back. And I love the movie. I love the movie I love the music and I've consistently felt like as a person who pays you know for a Disney pass for the year an annual pass that there's just not enough Tiana there's not enough costumes merch anything and so now uh what's really great is for the locations they announced it for so that's Disney World and Disneyland and Anaheim uh she's gonna have a

huge presence like no princess has a mountain and like specifically in Disney World and Disneyland and Anaheim. She's going to have a huge presence. Like no princess has a mountain. And like specifically in Disney World, Splash Mountain is kind of just like floating out on its own, like vaguely tied to Adventureland and Frontierland. But now it's going to be like, oh, this is a big Tiana area, which I think is just going to be mind blowing for me, my niece, my friends, everybody. And it also means that we're probably going to hear, you know, more voiceover from Oprah in the ride because she plays the grandma. I love it. It's just amazing. It's a very exciting, amazing thing. But I have a question for you. Okay. So I don't know how you feel about going to Disney parks or theme parks in general, but if there was an attraction or a ride that you could, you know, change from whatever it is now into something else, what do you think you might want to see? Oh, that is really hard.

I OK, so this is this is maybe. So one of the rides, it's like the the ones that have like like the amazing Spider-Man at Universal, where it's like you get the 3D interaction and you also move through a thing. I feel like they could easily do a Mad Max version of that. Whoa. Where you're in the car and it's through a desert scene and it's very bumpy. I am obsessed with this idea, Gideon. I mean, that's my first thought.

If George Miller and Universal execs want to call me and talk this through we can make it happen but yeah it doesn't have to be there either like i don't know what property that movie belongs to but like somewhere yeah that would be that would be my first first crack at this answer i think that's a perfect answer and guess what wad squad we have checked our temps giddy and i are gonna you, work out some way to become Imagineers. And we're very pumped to go back to Disney in 2027. Yeah, that's a plan.

You know, whenever they open. And we will check in with you all again soon. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that asylum seekers can't challenge their deportations in federal court. That means people who escaped fear and persecution to seek asylum in the United States could be sent back to their country quicker with little judicial oversight. The case centered around a farmer from Sri Lanka who requested help in a federal court after his asylum claim was rejected. The decision is a big win for the Trump administration, which has been aiming to speed up and expand deportations. Critics argue that the decision took away the opportunity for asylum seekers to have a fair hearing before being sent back into potentially life-threatening circumstances. In their dissent, Justices Sotomayor and Kagan said this will increase the risk of flawed immigration decisions. The Democratic Republic of Congo officially ended its battle with the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in the world.

The World Health Organization made the announcement yesterday after 42 days of no new confirmed cases. The disease took the lives of around 2,000 people over nearly two years. Widespread misinformation and community distrust toward aid groups slowed down response efforts, even though there were two successful vaccines. Experts say that learning to work with the community members and understand their needs was important to ending the spread. Now the country is shifting its focus to tackle COVID-19. So good news and bad news. Yeah. Another problematic band name bites the dust. The Dixie Chicks have changed their name to simply

the Chicks. The country band updated their social media handles and quietly announced their news on their website with the caption, We want to meet this moment. Definitely a smoother rollout than when Lady Antebellum announced that they had never thought about what Antebellum meant and then stole the name Lady A from a Black Blues singer. You know, we stand.

All right. Anyway, if the chicks can do it, the rest of you have no excuse. Why is there still a Dixie Highway? Rename it Chicks Boulevard Cowards or even The Highway. You know, that's a catchy enough name for the highway. Simple and descriptive. A New York judge threw out the Trump family's lawsuit to block Mary Trump, President Trump's niece, from publishing her unflattering tell-all book. The book is called Too Much and Never Enough, How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man,

which makes it sound like they built him in a shed. We truly cannot rule it out. Robert Trump, Donald's younger brother, filed a request for a restraining order against the book immediately after being released from an intensive care unit. Just normal recovery stuff. Get rest, stay hydrated, see your own family. The Trumps say that Mary signed a nondisclosure agreement years ago and isn't allowed to publish family secrets, but so far she's in the clear. The judge said his court didn't have jurisdiction and recommended Robert try the New York State Supreme Court instead.

Good luck, Rob. Yeah, yeah. I hope that you get to spend more money in court. And those are the headlines. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe leave a review listen to the chicks and tell your friends to listen to us and if you're into reading and not just headlines that sarah lazarus wrote like me what a day is also a nightly newsletter that sarah lazarus writes

check it out and subscribe at crooked.com subscribe i'm akilah hughes i'm gideon resnick and we'll see you in July. We love it. Summer. Just another month to us. 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.