Reopening America

There is new evidence that COVID-19 can have lingering effects on your heart. A German study is showing that MRIs of people who have recovered from the coronavirus still had visual signs that the virus had an impact months after recovering. Patients showed signs of ongoing inflammation of the heart muscle. Erika Edwards, health and medical reporter at NBC News, joins us for how COVID-19 can linger in your heart.

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Cigarette smoking may have made a comeback during the coronavirus pandemic. Americans are spending less on travel and entertainment and as a result are having more opportunities to light up. We are also seeing that some people are moving away from vaping and returning to traditional cigarettes after restrictions on e-cigarette flavors. Jennifer Maloney, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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Baseball has been having a rough go as they began their 60 game season amid the pandemic. MLB has paused the 2020 season for the Miami Marlins after an outbreak of COVID-19 among players and staff. One big issue for them is the misalignment between the playing schedule, testing schedule, and protocols for what happens in between. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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One of the main symptoms for many that get COVID-19 is losing their sense of smell. Scientists now know why that happens and the good news is, it’s only temporary. SARS-CoV-2 attacks the cells that support smell-detecting neurons, and because they don’t actually attack the neurons themselves, people usually recover after a few weeks. Elizabeth Weise, national correspondent at USA Today, joins us for why the coronavirus attacks your sense of smell.

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What does it take to keep a movie studio open during the pandemic? A lot of work and a lot of coronavirus tests. Pinewood Atlanta Studios will be spending $1.5 million on tests each month once it is operating at full capacity. They are also using an app to track worker’s symptoms between tests, and a badge system that doesn’t let you open any doors on the lot unless you have a negative test. Sarah Krouse, reporter at the WSJ joins us for more.

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We all know that those with underlying health conditions are more at risk of getting worse symptoms from COVID-19, but those with diabetes are dying more often. A new government study shows that nearly 40% of people who have died of COVID-19 had diabetes. Robin Respaut, reporter at Reuters, joins us for why coronavirus is killing diabetes patients at alarming rates.

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The politics of the coronavirus recovery takes center stage this week as Republicans will unveil their stimulus proposal just days before enhanced unemployment benefits are set to expire. The GOP favors a targeted bill to address this issue, but Democrats have rejected that wanting a comprehensive bill. Democrats favor a bill with a price tag closer to $3.5 trillion and Republicans are in at the $1 trillion range. We are also 100 days out from the 2020 election and have a few new polls showing that many do not approve of the way that President Trump has handled the response to the pandemic and show hime trailing behind Joe Biden. Ginger Gibson, Deputy Washington Digital Editor at NBC News, joins us to break it all down.

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Six months after the coronavirus appeared in America, the nation’s ineffective response has failed to contain it. There is no unified national response and everything about it has become politicized. Testing continues to remain a problem with long wait times to be tested and to get results, which also makes contact tracing useless. While other countries were able to drive infection rates down, it seems that opening the country back up too soon and without proper guidelines may have been the biggest mistake. Joel Achenbach, reporter for the Washington Post, joins us for America’s response to the coronavirus.

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Congress continues to debate what to do about enhanced jobless benefits that are set to expire at the end of next week. Some 25 million Americans are set to lose an extra $600 a week that were given out to help keep people afloat during the pandemic shutdowns. Also on the table is whether to dish out more individual stimulus payments. Eric Morath, labor economics and policy reporter at the WSJ joins us for more.

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The U.S. has agreed to pay Pfizer and BioNTech nearly $2 billion to secure 100 million doses of their experimental coronavirus vaccine. It still needs to go through phase three trials and be approved by the FDA, but the race is on to secure as many doses as possible. Operation Warp Speed has struck similar deals with other vaccine developers as well. Jared Hopkins, Pharma reporter at the WSJ, joins us for all the money being poured into vaccines.

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