Reopening America

It’s important not to lose sight of our mental health during the pandemic and as daylight saving time ends, the nights get longer and winter approaches, there could be a collision of pandemic depression and seasonal depression. Experts say it’s time to lay the groundwork to help avoid it getting the best of you. Chelsea Cirruzzo, contributor to the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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A study out of Britain this week said that people with detectable antibodies for the coronavirus fell by about 27% over a period of three months over the summer, calling in to question how long immunity lasts. But health experts say this is not a cause to worry, antibodies tend to wane over time naturally. Apoorva Mandavilli, reporter at the NY Times, joins us for what to know about this antibody study.

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As cases of coronavirus surge and hospitalizations also increase, hospitals have to walk a delicate line on whether to cancel elective and non-essential surgeries again. When these surgeries were cancelled early in the pandemic, hospitals lost out on a lot of revenue and patients had to postpone procedures like knee and hip replacements among other things. Melanie Evans, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how hospitals are better prepared to keep these surgeries going.

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COVID-19 vaccine trials are currently underway and we hope to hear news soon about how safe they are, but what is it like participating in one of those trials? Beyond that, what is it like participating with your whole family. Jackie Hajdenberg, investigative reporter with Columbia Journalism Investigations, is currently enrolled in the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial with both her parents, her sister, teenage brother, and 80 year-old grandma. Jackie joins us to tell us how it’s going so far and why she feels the people shouldn’t worry at the safety of these trials.

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Looking ahead to Thanksgiving… there could be a glut of big turkeys this year. Farmers had to try and predict the demand and processing schedule for the bird during a pandemic and fear that there might not be enough small turkeys. Driving the worry, family gatherings could be smaller and people may be looking for protein alternatives. Laura Reiley, business of food reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for too many fat turkeys. 

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As we prepare for a vaccine to be approved, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their security and storing coronavirus vaccines in undisclosed locations, deploying GPS trackers to monitor shipments, and even setting up fake shipments with dummy trucks to throw criminals off. The Department of Health and Human Services is even arranging for U.S. Marshals to accompany shipments. Jared Hopkins, Pharma reporter at the WSJ, joins us for the tight vaccine security.

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Movie theaters across the country are struggling to survive as the pandemic has slowed down the entertainment industry. Many cinemas have been allowed to reopen, but they must operate at limited capacity and many people are choosing not to go in part because Hollywood is postponing big movie releases. But for small family-owned theaters, the problems are worse. They are playing classic movies and even renting out the entire theater for showings. Alexander Gladstone, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how small movie theaters are trying to stay alive.

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We are getting some mixed results on a rheumatoid arthritis drug that was showing some promise in treating patients with COVID-19. In a large study, the drug showed promise in reducing deaths of people who were admitted to the ICU. In some smaller studies, the drug showed no benefit. Still the drug has been added to a growing list of possible therapeutics. Karen Weintraub, health reporter at USA Today, joins us for more.

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We take a look into the future of office work. Things are changing because of the pandemic and it’s not just more working from home. There are considerations going into long awaited innovations in office design, how to restructure the work week and hours in the day, and even company perks could be changing. Eleanor Cummins, contributor to Popular Science, joins us for how the office will never be the same.

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Some initial results from coronavirus testing in New York City schools is showing a surprisingly small number of positive cases. About half of the city’s students have opted for hybrid learning, which is helping them keep class sizes small and allow for more social distancing between desks. David Goodman, reporter at the NY Times, joins us for the testing plan aiming to test 10-20% of the school population at least once a month.

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