Reopening America

Coronavirus fatigue has hit the country. The pandemic has upended society on a scale and duration that has not been seen before, and the worst part about it is that there is no end in sight. Waiting for a vaccine to get approved is just the beginning, then comes the hard part, distributing it to millions of Americans. In the meantime, parents are worried about how to balance work and school for their kids, healthcare workers continue to work long hours, and unemployed workers struggle to keep up. Brady Dennis, national reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more on COVID fatigue.

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Doctors’ offices, nursing homes, and federal officials are in a scramble to obtain point-of-care COVID-19 tests from the only two companies that have emergency approval to produce them. There has been some concern about accuracy with these tests but they are useful for quicker results and don’t need to be sent away to a lab. Sarah Krouse, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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As dentists have started to open up, they are seeing patients come in with a new set of symptoms and they are dubbing it “mask mouth.” Dentists are seeing inflammation in gums, decaying teeth, and really bad breath. Wearing a mask can lead to dry mouth and a host of other problems unless proper precautions are taken. Melkorka Licea, features writer at the NY Post, joins us for what to do about mask mouth.

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We all remember the panic buying at the start of the pandemic and how tough it was to find toilet paper and cleaning supplies. While some of those products are back in stores in steady supply, other groceries are still hard to find. Baking ingredients, coffee and tea, barbeque and other items are hard to come by. Annie Gasparro, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for why it’s still so hard to find things.

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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has announced that they have approved the first vaccine for COVID-19. He said that the vaccine, dubbed Sputnik-V, “works quite effectively” and it has even been given to his daughter. However, many health experts are skeptical because it has not gone through late stage clinical trials, Tina Hesman Saey, senior writer at Science News, joins us for what we know about Russia’s vaccine.

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As companies begin to resume operations while the pandemic continues to endure, many are hiring new executives as Chief Medical Officers in industries where they normally would not be. Tyson Foods and Royal Caribbean Cruises recently made the appointments because they need expert medical advice on how to keep employees and consumers safe. Patrick Thomas, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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As the pandemic stretches on, many people are looking for places to go on vacation, and some are still risking going to traditional summer getaways despite them being coronavirus hotspots. Places like Florida, Nevada, and California are still the most searched travel destinations. Dian Zhang, data reporter at USA Today, joins us for how some Americans are visiting these virus hotspots anyway.

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The problem with making decisions about kids going back to school is that the research takes time to conduct and when it comes to children and the virus, there is still so much that remains unknown. A recent report found that more than 97,000 children tested positive in the last two weeks of July. And while they can contract and spread the virus, the questions is… to what extent? In the few schools that have re-opened, we are seeing pictures of students not wearing masks and hearing about outbreaks as well. Chelsea Janes, national reporter at The Washington post, joins us for the limited research on children and coronavirus.

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Contact tracing was supposed to be one of the biggest tools in the fight to contain the spread of coronavirus, but many health departments across the country are losing the race to warn the contacts of COVID victims. City and county health departments say they don't have enough money or staff to keep up with the surge of cases. On Alabama's Gulf Coast, the contact tracers are stretched so thin that they are telling people who get the virus to notify any contacts themselves. The country only has about a quarter of the contact tracers that is recommended to be able to do the job effectively, not to mention the difficulty in getting some people to comply. Jaimi Dowdell, investigative reporter at Reuters, joins us for more.

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A new study looking at the movements of Americans during the pandemic shutdown orders shows that rich Americans stayed put while poor Americans increased their movements, presumably because they were essential workers and could not work from home. Matt Simon, science journalist at Wired, joins us for how your income could be a predictor of how well you can social distance.

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