Reopening America

Many restaurants have hit their breaking point and are permanently calling it quits. Riding the rollercoaster of coronavirus restrictions and people wary of eating out has proved too much for some to stay in business. Over 15,000 restaurants have permanently closed and more could be on the way. Heather Haddon, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the restaurant industry.

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Vitamin C is a having a moment during the pandemic and sales are surging, but you have to watch out for some offering it up as a coronavirus treatment. The FTC and FBI are investigating health clinics and wellness centers for overhyping high-dose IV infusions of vitamin C as ways to prevent or treat COVID-19. Brent Schrotenboer, investigative reporter at USA Today, joins us for more.

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Good news on the vaccine front: In early stage trials, a vaccine candidate from Oxford University and AstraZeneca caused no serious side effects and produces an immune response of both antibodies and T-cells. The U.S. has also paid $1.2 billion dollars to secure at least 300 million doses when it’s available. Dave Lawler, world editor at Axios, joins us for the latest on the Oxford vaccine.

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When looking at the economic toll the pandemic has inflicted on the country, many people are focused on job losses and unemployment benefits, but another thing to look out for is wage cuts. Many Americans who kept their jobs have seen temporary hour and pay cuts that could become permanent or pave the way for more layoffs. Megan Cassella, economics reporter at Politico, joins us for these widespread wage cuts.

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From the beginning of the pandemic and despite calls from governors across the country for a unified national response, the plan has largely been every state for itself. From obtaining your own PPE and setting up your own testing and contact tracing programs, states have been desperate for federal support. Alice Miranda Ollstein, healthcare reporter at Politico, joins us for more.

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We are all looking forward to the end game for COVID-19, when the spread of the virus slows down significantly or stops altogether because enough people have immunity to it. Whether it is by vaccine or enough people catching it, we are trying to get to the point of herd immunity, but the math to get there is tricky, and the variables used to calculate keep making it a moving target. Kevin Hartnett, senior math writer at Quanta Magazine, joins us for how the population can achieve herd immunity.

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Demand for coronavirus testing continues to go up and the supplies continue dwindle, as we hear stories of long wait times and even longer waits for results. But that doesn’t seem to be a problem for sports teams that are testing players every day and getting results in 24 hours. Louise Radnofsky, sports reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how sports teams are handling testing.

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COVID parties are not a thing. You might have seen stories about people throwing parties to intentionally infect others with the coronavirus, but if you dig deeper into the stories, they quickly fall apart. To be clear, people can and are getting sick by partying in close quarters, but they are not throwing COVID-specific parties. Gilad Edelman, senior writer at Wired, joins us for more.

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We’ve seen a number of states experience a surge in coronavirus cases and become new hotspots. Largely avoiding a big outbreak early in the pandemic, Arizona now has the highest per-capita rate of COVID-19 cases in America over the past week. Local officials and public health experts are pointing a finger at the leadership for being complacent and not preparing for a future wave when they had time. Dan Frosch, reporter for the WSJ, joins us for how Arizona wasn’t ready for its coronavirus surge.

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The reopening of schools in the fall continues to be a contentious discussion with some committed to on-campus instruction and others only online. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Atlanta, three of the nation’s largest school districts, said this week that they will begin the new school year online and bring students back later in the year. Illustrating the divide in California, the Orange County Board of Education voted to support the return to school without social distancing or masks. Laura Meckler, national education reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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