We try to live in the moment, to not miss whats right in front of us. At mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most o today. Mutual of america financial group, retirement serves and investments. Additional support has been provided by and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. And by contributions to your s station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan evening and thanks for joining us. This memorial day weekend flags across the country are flying at half staff to honor those who have lost their lives to the coronavirus a who lost their lives in military service. Even as governments begin to allow larger gatherings and reopenings, deaths from covid19 continue. Lets get started with todays top stories it feels great to have guests on the park again. To actually enter the park, you need to reserve a spot online. Sreenivasan americans are on the move this Holiday Weekend, going to visit newly opened amusement parks and restaurants. Although the virus spread slow in most areas, the centers for Disease Control and prevention reported more than 24,000 new cases yesterday. On some newly opened beaches this weekend there were scenes of crowds that raised concerns abou the virus resurging as reopenings increase. The White House CoronavirusTask Force Coordinator dr. Deborah birx urged people to wear face coverings outdoors this Holiday Weekend if they cant stay six feet apart. I think its our job as Public Health officials everyday to be informing the public of what puts them at risk. And weve made it clear that theres asymptomatic spread. And that means that people are spreading the disease unknowingly. And thats unusual in the case of respiratory diseases in many cases. So you dont know whos infected. And so we really want to be clear all the time that social distancing is absolutely critical. And if you cant social distance and youre outside, you must wear a mask. Sreenivasanthe Trump Administration is considering a ban on travel from brazil as that country now has more confirmed coronavirus cases than any country in the world besides the United States. Brazils Health Ministry said there are now more than 347,000 cases of coronavirus, surpassing russia as the number two hot spotlobally. Despite regional lockdowns, brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro showed up to a rally supporting him in brasilia today. Bolsonaro has come under criticism for his handling of the pandemic and for alleged interference in a corruption probe into his family. Yesterday, brazilian officials announced that there were 965 coronavirusrelated deaths in the previous 24hours. In total, more than 22,000 people there have died. Thousands of demonstrators returned to the streets of hg kong today to march against Mainland Chinas new National Security legislation. Police fired tear gas at the protesters who say that beijings proposal to ban subversive activity and foreign interference threatens hong kongs autonomy. The law would bypass hong kongs legislature and could allow security agencies from Mainland China set up offices in the city. The new security legislation is expected to be approved by Chinas Parliament later this week. The longawaited corruption trial for israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu began in jerusalem today. After arriving at the courthouse, netanyahu accused police and prosecutors of trying to depose him and claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy. The Prime Minister is charged with fraud, breach of trust, and accepting bribes accusations he denies. Netanyahu is the first sitting prime mister in israels history to stand trial and legal analysts say the case could last for years. The government of afghanistan and the taliban announced a three day ceasefire for the eidalfitr holiday. Afghan president ashraf ghani said all security foes would observe the halt in fighting, which begins today. In a good will gesture, ghani also started a process to release up to 2,000 taliba prisoners. Hundreds of afghans gathered today to attend eid prayers, which were held outside to help prevent the sprd of coronavirus. The holiday marks the end of the fasting month of ramadan. You can find all of our coverage of the global outbreak and the latest national and International News at p. Org newshour. Sreenivasan theres been a lot of discussion about Contact Tracing to help curtail the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. But in this era of advanced technology with global tracking and digital locators, the process for tracking the virus may require oldschool techniques. Propublicas Caroline Chen took a deep dive into Contact Tracing and joined me recently to discuss what may be coming. Caroline, lets talk out Contact Tracing. This is not that new an idea, but its very different in how much we need it today. Yeah, absolutely. We have been actually using Contact Tracing for decades and decades for many different types of diseases, including s. T. D. S like h. I. V. And syphilis and for diseases like tuberculosis. But the big challenge right now is just how big the coronavirus outbreak is. So, what the u. S. Needs right now is massive numbers of people to do Contact Tracing. Sreenivasan and is this a job where theyre going to have to go door to door because people are concerned that, hey, i dont want to actually be a contact tracer if im going to have to go meet people who are sick . No. So, this can all be done over the phone. And, in fact, these can be remote jobs. So a lot of the states that are hiring people right now, this is a job that you can do from home. Sreenivasan thats great. Now, theres also been app or what does a contact tracer do over the phone . Yeah. So, Public Health departments will get information from labs on positive patients. And so, theyll get that information, say, you know, that bob has gotten a positive te. So theyll call bob, hi, you know, they will check up on how bobs doing and what his symptoms are. And then also ask, hey, you know, can we review with you who youve been in touch with . And this the c. D. C. Guidance right now is two days before you started to get symptoms, because ths the period in which you were probably most infected. And the definition of a contact, according to the c. D. C. Right now, is someone who you were within six feet of for more than 15 minutes. And then theyll ask, you know, do you remember peoples phone numbers . You know, this is why theyre called disease detectives as well. Thats another word for Contact Tracing. You really have to do some sleuthing here and theyll get that information and then start contacting these people who are close contacts with bob now, they dont ever actually give out bobs name, though. So there is this level of anonymity where theyll call wednesday, jane, and say, hey, jane, we have information that you were within close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus and ask jane to then be in quarantine for 14 days. Sreenivasan so, give me an example of the scale of contact tracers that we would need to pull this off considering that our data shows that there are still new infections officially recognized and diagnosed ones that are happening every day. One statistic thats really stuck in my mind is that the city of wuhan, china, had a has about 11 million residents. And at the peak of their infection, at one point, they had 9,000 contact tracers. And thats a ratio of 81 contact tracers per 100,000 residents. Right now in the u. S. So if you take massachusetts, saying that heard is california says that they would hire up to 20,000 contract tracers, so that would be in the range of about 50 contact tracers per 100,000 residents so it is still not up to wuhan levels, but much higher. So basically, i think the takeaway is we need a lot more. Sreenivasan what do i need if i want to be a contact tracer or, considering there are a lot of people that are unemployed right now that might be looking for work that they can do from home, this sounds pretty good. What kind of qualifications do i have to have . A lot of experts have said a lot of people have compared to, you know, census taking type of jobs. Its sort of a civil level of education. And ive looked, you know, state by state different states have different requirements so, i would say you really probably want to go look at your specific states requirements. But i think, you know, what the hardest part of this job is not just data collection, but really empathy and getting trust from the person on the phone because youre calling someone and oftentimes youre giving them really bad news. Youre telling either youre infected or youve been in close contact with someone whos been infected. And its a real shock. And the thing that states really need to think about is youre not there to, like, just extract information from someone, but youre there to then equip and enable someone to be able to comply with what they then need to do, which is stay at home for a relatively long period of time. So someone might say, im the so you need to have social services engaged. You need to have this person trust you and understand why its so important to break the chains of transmission. And so, really, people need to be trained in communication. Do that job well alongside being able to gather good information. Sreenivasan caroli chen of propubla, thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Sreenivasan the coronavirus pandemic has put every country to the test. Whether measuring infection rates, mortality or unemployment, the results vary dramatically. Here in the u. S. , the government is weighing whether or not to provide another stimulus package as more than 38 Million People have filed for unemployment since midmarch. In germany, the number of people out owork during stay at home orders surged, but atate funded shortterm program there helped many avoid layoffs. Its a worksharing agreement that some here in the u. S. Are hoping may catch on. Newshour weekends Christopher Booker has more. Reporter with the passage of the landmark cares act in march the headline was Financial Relief was on its way for millio of americans. As companies slashed jobs, the nearly 2 trillion relief bill meant that on top of a one time stimulus check, an additional 600 a week in federal Unemployment Insurance would be made available for those suddenly out of work. But, buried deep in the document was Something ElseAdditional Support for little known state programs that can help businesses avoid having to lay people off in the first place. I learned about work share because i actually stared reporting a story about the unemployment system in my capacity as a journalist at the l. A. Times. Right at the same time, i was working on that our management came to us and said that they wanted 2 million in cuts from our newsroom. Reporter matt pearce is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and an elected guild member of the newspapers union. You know there are other programs out there like t. P. P. That Small Businesses have applied for to keep workers on their payroll. We were too big to be eligible for that. We also didnt have access to the Treasury Program for mid sized business loans, so we reached for the next closest tool, which was the work sharing program. Reporter california is one of 25 states along with the district of columbia that have at is known as a work share or shortterm compensation program. Such programs allow companies to avoid layoffs in exchange for a reduction in employee hours. A percentage of the employees lost wages are offset with Unemployment Insurance, which comes out of state funds, but der the cares act those pay outs are being reimbursed by the federal government. We had trouble actually finding other employers who had had experience with this program. I mean, this was the craziest thing when i was making phone calls even among labor people in california, they didnt have much experience with it. Reporter but pearce and the guild did figure it out, and convinced management to agree to a 12week Work Share Program. Cutting hours of everyone by 20 , the agreement saved 84 jobs. Thats really attractive thing about this program. You dont have to lay people off just to save t business. Everyone can take a collective hit, protect some people so that they dont get thrown out into the unemployment line. It really seems like a winwin for all of us. It is a program that i think in many respects is ideally suited for this recession. Reporter Susan Houseman is the Vice President and director of research with the w. E. Upjohn institute for employment research. The Michigan Research organization was founded 75 years ago to study policy related issues of employment and unemployment. The causes of the recession. Were not economic in nature. Theres a health pandemic. And what ideally wed like to do is to hold things in place as we get better control of the virus ramp up as quickly as possible. There is not a fundamental restructuring that needs to be done in the economy. Reporter much of the immediate job losses were in the Service Sector of our economy. Is a Work Share Program more is it possible to have a Workshare Program for someone that works at a restaurant or the bartender . For someone that works in tail . In principle, absolutely. Reporter but again, that is, if its available in your state and employers know about. In 2017, houseman was a coauthor of a study that looked at how to expand Workshare Programs already in existence in iowa and oregon. And the baseline in iowa for employers knowing about this program. Their minds have been running for years and i was 10 and, and in oregon it was about, about 25 . Reporter 25 of employers knew about this in oregon and only 10 knew about in iowa . Correct. Many employers dont know about it. And if you think about it, just, it was just within the last several years that nine of these states, including mine, michigan, introduced this program. We were in an expansion. So i would imagine that very few employers, when this hit and it hit quickly, this, this recession, knew about it. Reporter there are those who argue, the lack of workshare is not just about policy, but something much more complicated. And this can be seen nowhere more than in the difference in unemployment between the United States and germany. At the end of april, the german Unemployment Rate was 5. 8 . Meanwhile, in the u. S. It was 14. 7 . Well, whats the difference . Well, of course, culture is the difference. Reporter Thomas Kohler is a labor scholar and professor of law and philosophy at boston college. So, what has made the difference . Their socalled kurzarbeit, short work system. What kurzarbeit does is to take those funds and to give an incentive to employers and employees to continue to work or continue to train. And the government will subsidize that. The idea being this is a lot cheaper than having a large body of Unemployed People who end up if theyre out of the labor market too long. They have difficulty getting back into it. Reporter according to the german i. F. O. Institute for economic research, half of all german firms coving as many as ten million german workers are currentlutilizing kurzabeit. To do something as structurally comprehensive as the germans would require a lot of change in our attitudes. You can never look at a model and buy it and take it home. It wont work that way. You need a certain culture to do it, but theres a lot we could learn from it. Reporter do you anticipate Employment Policy will change in the u. S. In response to this crisis . I think at some point it absolutely has to. We have too many people who have literally no protections at all. Its clear to me that we need a new way to think about work and how we order it. I can see from firsthand experience now, you know, not as a journalist, but as someone, you know, representing my coworkers, why its so difficult to promote these programs in the us. Theyre just its easier to lay people off. Theres not a culture of spreading around the pain to protect people in these times of temporary economic crunches. Were just going to try to survive this round the fight and then get on to the next battle, which could be 12 weeks from now, six months from now, a year from now. Reporter the cares act funds Work Share Programs through the end of 2020. The current l. A. Times deal lasts until the end of july. While pearce is unclear what happens after, his phone has been ringing. The calls coming from other newsrooms across the country looking for advice. More on our while the environmental effects of covid19 are still to take publics focus on both crises. They are finding online ways to organize and continue their advocacy. Newshour weekends eve, Ivette Feliciano reports. Last year, the High School Reporter last year, High School Youth and n