Caregivers take care of us. That’s the job. But in a pandemic, who cares for the doctors and nurses – who cares for the caregivers? The answer is doctors like Francoise Adan from University Hospitals. I spoke with Dr. Adan because I wanted to know – for those of us with a caregiver in our lives, a spouse, a parent, a friend, someone we know on the front lines -- what can we do to take care of them?

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Some people step up. Like the individuals at Cleveland Pandemic Response. I learned about CPR’s mutual aid efforts through a report from News 5’s Jordan Vandenberge. In a nutshell, you can use the Cleveland.recovers.org website to request something you need or volunteer to provide a good or service. I spoke with three of the folks behind it, Amelia Logan, Jeanne Li and Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez.

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This isn’t Cleveland’s first pandemic. It is the first big one in a long time. You have to go all the way back to 1918-19 to find one this bad. I’m talking about the Spanish Flu, which killed 50 million people worldwide, 675,000 of them in the United States; 4,400 of those were right here in Cleveland. What was that pandemic like for the people who lived in Cleveland 100 years ago? Are there similarities to now? Lessons we can learn? For answers to those questions, I spoke with John Grabowski, a professor and historian at Case Western Reserve University a day after he gave a talk called "Pestilence and War,” about Cleveland at the end of World War I and the start of our last great pandemic.

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Maybe it’s something you’ve considered – adopting a foster child. Maybe you’ve never given it a passing thought. Adoption is one of the kindest acts, one of the most meaningful things any of us can do. It’s a service to a human and to humanity.  The coronavirus is has complicated the already complicated lives of foster kids. Which is why I’m talking to Rita Soronen, president and CEO of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. It’s the only public nonprofit charity in the country focused exclusively on foster care adoption, and it’s headquartered right here in Ohio, in Columbus.

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A few days ago, the governor of the state of Ohio closed Ohio’s schools for the rest of the year. March, April, May and June – no going to school. Only remote learning. What’s that like for the students? Their families? The teachers? I knew who to call for this one. I graduated from Mayfield High School with a great guy. His name: Jeff Legan. He’s now Principal Legan, at Mayfield High. This year he was named Ohio Principal of the Year by the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators. In spite of the profound disappointment being experienced by students and families right now, Legan, a self-described "eternal optimist," believes this experience will make them and all of us stronger. He also offers a glimpse of what school may look like this fall.

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What do you do when your livelihood is tied to large public events, and the state of Ohio, its counties and cities cancel all of the large public events? If you’re Dan Molnar, owner of the SWAT food truck, you reinvent your business on the fly. 

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Terry Pluto is one of my favorite sportswriters. And this is how most of us know him – as the Plain Dealer columnist who makes sense of whatever the Browns, Indians and Cavs are up to. But there’s another side to Pluto, one that exists outside of sports. This is someone who lives his faith, and his faith has led him to jail ministry. I’m thinking of jails and prisons right now, because jails and prisons are where COVID-19 is on the rise in Ohio. The pandemic is closing in on these forgotten souls, and Terry Pluto is someone who knows them well.

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The coronavirus has silenced one of Cleveland's most treasured institutions -- the Cleveland Orchestra. Cellist Martha Baldwin joins Joe Donatelli to discuss the sudden disruption of the orchestra's season, isolating with your family (when you play a loud instrument for a living) and the show she's looking forward to playing most when this is all over. Make sure you stick around until the very end. 

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Host Joe Donatelli introduces COVID-216, a look at how the coronavirus has impacted life in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. This brief introductory epiode was recorded in a closet in Joe's home on the East Side of Cleveland. These are truly unusual times. 

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