Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20240713 : vimarsana.com

KQED PBS NewsHour July 13, 2024

In mexico. [speaking in spanish] yes, it sounds difficult. And it is difficult to change something that people have been used to for years. But thats what its about. Its about telling people this isnt normal and they shouldnt be used it to. Jordan all this and me judy all that and more on ights pbs newshr. Announcer major funding for the pbs hewsr has been provided by along the mississippi river, travelers explore classic antebellum homes, civil war aboard our fleet of modern boats. You can relive american history. American cruise line, proud sponsor of pbs newshour. Fidelity investments. Bnsf railway. Consumer cellular, carnegie corporatk,n of new y supporting innovation and education and Democratic Education and peace and security at carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. This program was made possible by the corporation for public a broadcasti by contributions to your pbs news station from viewers like you. Thank you. Judy the pace of the pandemic United States on this first day of spring. Health officials report more than 11,000 cases, up nearly 3,500 in a single day. Andt least 168 deaths as the recorded numbers surge, the u. S. State department is warning americans not go abroad for any reason. Meanwhile Congress Works on a huge economic aid package. And the white house talks of making more medicines available. William breham reports. Ll m President Trump talks about two drugs that might helpd people infec with the coronavirus. Under the new rules, the fooned Drug Administration will bypassl its nor process and rapidly accelerate those and other men medication for use. But these treatments arentim mediately available for covi19 patients and theyre not considered cures or a vaccine. Its hoped theyll easeptoms and slow the sprea of the virus on people who have already been affected. On capitol hill, congress is working on its third are leif package. The point is to help Small Business endure, help wkers keep their jobs, and help both businesses and workers emerge from this ready to thrive. William the bill will include 300 billion forin small bs loans, a direct cash payment to adult americans,ge td lending to Key Industries and resources for hospitals and alth workers who are caring for sick people. But democrats are again pushing for the fwoil prioritize workers over coorningses. Minority leader chuck schumer. We believe that whateveros prer proposalmerges, and it will be bipartisan, it must be a workers first proposal. Senate is expected to work on the bill throughout th weekend. The urgency comes as unemployment claims a rapidly rising across the country as industries from restaurants to car manufturing are closing their doorsutting millions of americans o instant of work. Inact, jobless claims spiked to 281,000 last week. Thats up from 211,000 the previous week thats the largest week to week rise since the 2008 financial crisis. Back at the capitol, this pandemic is not jus affecting congresss legislative calendar. Mario diaz ben mcadams, a ive, democrat from utah said the haested positive for the virus. Both said they began toeel ill on saturday night just hours after they w alongh 400 other members of the house of representatives voted to approve another Coronavirus Relief bill. Now, more than 20 members of congress are selfisolating. And theres some troubling news about who else is falling ill. New data from the centers for disee control and prevention reveals that youngre americans a being sickened in large numbers. The c. D. C. Says there have been 500. 38 ofhem were between 20 and 15 years old. Nearly half of the 121 patient who is were moved to intensive but still, the virus is more fatal for the eldsly. And important to note, the vast majority of infected people have been recovering. In the meantime, covid19 continues to take an enormous toll on italy. 3,405 people have died there surpassi china ashe nation thats lost the most citizens to this virus. And in china today, a major mileone, officials said that for the first time there were no new local iections in wuhan, the original epicenter of the pa didge. President trump said epicenter of the pandemic. President trump said he hopes these numbers are true. You can reduce transmission of the virus. Jenniferzo n is an especial deem yol gist. She believes chinas numbers are real. And theyre a result of that countrys highly aggressive measures to isote people. Now, there are other questions about those measures that we have to address, buts what it d show is that it is possible for a short period reduce transmission. She cautions that this is by no means the end of chinas outbreak the impact of these measures are likely to be temporagi, just n the fact that the virus is still circulating in theorld. So its not as though they can just stop once theyve rched a certain point. 5,000 miles from china, the demonet of africa is just starting to realize the scope of its outbreak. Several nations closed theirod borders and the w. H. O. s regional head said that the continent is seeing extremely rapid evolution. For the pbs news hour, im william angham. Wall street had calmer day a investors reacted to the stimulus measures being taken by banks. They closed 20,187. The nasdaq rose 160 point and the s. M. P 500 added s 500 added 11. Lisa desjardins is on capitol hill. Hello to both of you. Ye mitch, the pbs did announce the food and Drug Administration is going to be fast tracking me medicines thathey hope can make a difference. What do we know about that . And also what we know about testing being available toic ams . Yamiche its clear that prident trump is eering get the medicine to treat coronavirus that medicine is far away at this point. The president is saying today that there was medicine including antimalaria medicine that could be given immediate to aricans. But they clarified that and said the president s wrong there no f. D. A. Approved medicine to treat this. But what might happen is that doctors might be using experimental drugs on patient to try to i see the coronavirus reacts to those drugs. There are some senior officials who worried about that saying mptients might get harmed. But president taid we have to cut red tape to help people. The president was asked over and over again, when can eve american who needs a test get a test . Theid president ot have a clear answer. Their not clear whether the administration have enough ventilators. So the healthcar workers are saying that the system might not be able to care for as much people and we might be in a isituation whethers it enough equipment . Theyre trying their best do that. But they dont know at what point that kwliment actually bep had, the ent rath he be taken and be able to giveut to states. Judy and talsa, the senate has released its proposal for the next bill on the coronavirus response. What do we know thats in it . This is tl third b that weve been waiting if. And looking over the 247 pes of i quickly, i want to put some highlights out there. First of all, one thing thid wo do, it would the senate andla republicangive almost every american a. 1200 che that would be 2,400 for families. For most ame they would get that. Alsoon 208 bilor industrys that include 50 billion for the airlinest in. And also something yamiche has en talking about fre testing for any american, insurance would be required for that. And this looks to be a three month suspension of student loan payment First Federal student loans. Whats important is next what happens is these republicans will take this plan and negotiate with democrats. Democrat want more forem oyment insurance over the next couple of days. Well see what happens. Judy whats the reaction there to all this . Well, the president has saying over and over again that he wants now, the white house has been pushing republicans on capitol hill and republican senators to get behinthe giving more than one tchoke americans. I want to walk throughe what white house wants to see happen here. They want to see two 1200 to americans one in april and the other in may. Including50 for every child and eligible americans. They want 203 billion for Small Businesses. That made it into the bill. s thomething they greed on. The president wanted to forbid executive bonuses and stock buybacks. Weapon dont want to see c. E. O. s get millions of dollars in bonuses. Thats something that the president agrees on with democrats. There are progressives who say we dont want to see stock buybacks. The president visited the headquarter of fema. Ng a lotl be administe of help to states. We saw governor after governor in states like michigan, illinois plead with the president for help. They were asking for medical equipment. They were asking whether or not E National Guard would be ae to help them out. We saw a number of governors praising President Trump saying he was doing a good job but also saying we need a lot more from the federal government. I mean, these ideas in the bill youre describing, are big ideas coming at breakneck speed. How much is known about whether theyll actually work . Quickly, ill summarize what people thi here. I think well be talking about this in coming days. The idea for check for americans thats something that will have and i fect across the economy. People buy things with it. The economy is not shutting down. That check b in this case, judy, is more targeted to help people buy necsities. We heard in williams report, two memberss of congrve already been tested positive for the coronavirus. Others are aut measures being taken to protect the members of congress and all the staff. Ill show you, in the last day since the announcement of those two positive tests, the o house sid the capitol weve seen signs go up on doors so c that stald place this if they didnt want a special clean or if that was a room, i believe where there wasnt a special concern that any of the memberw is tested positive have gone to. They have done a lot of cleaning around this side of the capitol in area where is they know those members had strong interactions. Theyve contacted all thef Members Congress or staff that had interactions that they think make them vulnerae to the virus. The house is shut down. Thats a positive thing. Thte members wer there last week. But it is there now. Reporter, we are keeping ourst ce as much as we can from senators when we talk to them there are a feweporters here now. But the biggest question is low the senate and house continue to operate . E votesey continue to h even into next week . Theres a big push on both sides foremote voting. Senator mcconnell has said no. Thers increasing interest on that on both sides. Memberings of the house especially tell me they dont want to return to the congress. They want to keep working but they dont want to dom this building if they can avoid it. Judy we will watch that. Thanks to u both. Thanks. Judy and now we turn to the u. S. Military and defense communities role in the fight against covid19. Late i spoke with mark eswh per was at the pentagon. Secretary mark esper, thank you very much for joining us. We are told the military gearing up in a bigs, w sending hospital ship one to each coast providing hospital beds on land and providing masks and other eterials. Is it going to ugh . I think so, judy. Were putting all of our efforts into this. You noted, were providing to the statesowan, were providing medical equipment and supplies. We are going t dispatch our hospital ships one on the east coast, o on the west coast. We are contributing to the military Research Labs where were working on vacksseend ther deutic. We wil everything question to help protect the American People. Military ships, our understanding is that they would be h used toandle the overflow of seriously ill patients from hospitals so that onland hospitals would work with the19 covi patients. Is that right . Slightly right. So the purpose of these ships, of course, are for wartime use. So theyre geared to handle trauma paties. So think of beam head injuries, broken bones. Those type of things. Theyre not built to handle patientsnf withtious disease. So what we can do is we can pull a ship into a harbor. We can dock. And we can help pick up the trauma patients from a local hospital thus freing up bed space for patients with covid19 or it could help with the overflow of trauma patients in recovery who would come out of the hospital. Again, once again freing up bed space for localities to put infected patience into those rooms. Reserved forces, mr. Secretary. You said youve tried to avoid calling them up to the extent it would hurt any vital role theyre playing in their community. So how are you thinking about that, in terms of using active dutyorces vs. The reserves. And making that tough decision abouwhether to pull them out . Well, its first important t note, that 29 of the states have activauad their national. ThE National Guard is a very capable force. I served for manyea. I know what they can do. What i said in regard to reservists is this. As we look to activating whetheh its thepital ships or our filled deployable hospitals, one of the cnges we fac is that many of the medical those hospitals would, could from the reserves. So we hav to be very conscious. To make sure were not pulling required medical professionals out of a civilian role thats needed and deploying them somewhere else. As you think about the nationalol guard, were that the head of the guard is saying they shouldn be nationalized quickly. But could this situasoon become theers that has to happen . Well, we dont see a need to federalize thE National Guard either. What that means is wed end upg pull the man to the into a national basis. The best use of the guard right now is dwhike theyre doing and that is working through a tighta 382s for the governor of their states and deali wit th chaenge at e ste a cal level. As need b question always supplement them with Federal Reserve troops or active component troops. But thatsra not on theng board that time. What is the main role right now for active duty tros in e u. S. Er i liko say that the United States military remain ls read able to defend our interests abroad. Right now, that is our primary llssion. We mentioned the mixs that were provided to the covid19 efforts that includes vaccines, providing medical equipment out of our strategic stockpiles. To helping out the, any way a ate needs help. Is there a conflict, mr. Secretary, between having thesee service m do their jobs, protecting the country and keeping them safe from covid19 . How are you doing that . Number one, we know that 81 defenseepartment employees are now infect. Several duns service members. How do you look upon keeping them safe at the same time theyre doingheir job . Its a very good question. We tooko measures last week t stay ahead offensive. We stopped permanent chang of stakes move. We we ultimately moved that United States. We put quarantines on people traveling between basis. Rtainly those traveling home. Weve asked people toi selate as need be. Weve instituted a wide ran procedur including here at the pentagon whe were exercising social distanlsing, wiping down tables and phones. Were take all type of measures across the for to insure the protection of our troops and by the way, our family members and our ben fish areas. And as you noted, we have a few duns right n who have the virus itsly its 51 uniform mill tamplete i had a chance to talk to them. Theyre doing wel but were taking great care to make sure the force is well protected. Were blessed wit a young robust that has a great medical care. Im confidence that they will fare well. Judy you talked about preparation. I want to ask you aboutew a york times story that came out just today. Reporters on exercises thatere conducted inside the trump administration, anticipating a global panc. De but that people at the highest levels of the gornment it never demonstrated the sense of urgency that would normally have been expected. When present trump said nobod ever thought of numbers like this. This report says that, in fact, peop the federal government did know that this was possible. Were you aware of theseex rience, secretary . Exercises, secretary . I am not particularly sure about that. Its what we do. Were familiar with it. Thats kept us in good stead. Did the u. S. Military medical service which keeps an eye on outbreaks around the world did they notify you when this first broke in wuhan, china . C el ildnt go back andl t head. But of course, w have a great Surveillance System out there. Our doctors are the bes in the world. I was at fort dietrich, maryland just a couple of days ago where the militarys premier researchers are located. Eg you mayd these are the doctors and other professional who is helped reserve ebola and zika. We stay on top of the things. Its a part and parcel to show were mission capable. To this moment, theyre still on top of thisur to make were taking every action we can to develop therapeutics and a vaccine. Do you think you were made aware of the serious threat this poses soon enough . That youad enough warning . Because as you know people are ask whether the administrat hn coulde moved more quickly and earlier . I think the administration has moved very quickly. We could have benefited from having earlier note from china. They had known for a period of time that that this was brewing in u. S. At least not that im aware of. That would have help a great deal in terms of containing that spread within china and preventing the spread globally. Ut as soon as we heard about it, we began taking actions. Im confident the administration acted quickly we hav a great team thats advicing the president. The preside has mad some really bold decisions andth actg reat thought to make sure were staying on top of this and doing everything we can to protect our people judy no question about it. But nows n a global globlee pan didge and the president has called it theushinese v now, that it is a pandemic, how do you see the ctinue to work . Are you still in touch with them on any sort of regular basis . It is a global pandemic. We need to Work Together obally. Certainly thapt point on the mitigation. Im sure were working together on many of our allies and partners with therapeutics with regard to vaccines, we do. Counterparts. Counterpart severks ago. I offered our assistance to china to provide a doctor to t come helphem to a study the i deseesmss important its not just for co vid 19 or anywhere in the world where our one another. With i do it at my level. The chaman of joint

© 2025 Vimarsana