Reopening America

Going through the coronavirus pandemic has been a learning process for both people and governments in how the virus infects someone, but there is finally a growing consensus on how you catch COVID-19. Getting sick from touching surfaces or quick encounters is less of a worry than close-up, person to person interactions for extended periods of time. It's crucial to understand how the virus is transmitted because it informs governments on the proper ways to reopen economies. We should still be worried about things like concerts and bars, we need to improve ventilation in buildings, and we need to continue to wear those facemasks. Betsy McKay, senior writer at the WSJ, joins us for more on how you catch COVID-19.

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There have been over 50,000 coronavirus deaths in U.S. nursing homes. In New York, one of the hardest hit areas in the country, things got very complicated when Gov. Andrew Cuomo in March issued an order stating that if a hospital determined a patient who needed nursing home care was medically stable, the home had to accept them even if they had been treated for COVID-19. The reasoning behind the order was that it would open up crucial beds when they thought hospitals would be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Joaquin Sapien, reporter at ProPublica, joins us for how this decision might have contributed to the spread of COVID-19 in New York nursing homes.

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Despite what your local rules around facemasks are, you’ll want to make sure you have one if you are going to be flying. Air travel is starting to pick up and most airlines require that you wear a mask, but if you want to be difficult, it could land you on an airline no-fly list. Scott McCartney, Middle Seat columnist at the WSJ, joins us for flying in the pandemic.

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Some more good news in the fight against COVID-19. A study out of the U.K. has found that dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, used to reduce inflammation, reduced death rates by about a third in the most severely ill COVID-19 patients that were on ventilators. The drug however did not provide any benefit for those that didn’t need respiratory support. Jeremy Olson, healthcare reporter at the Star Tribune, joins us for more.

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As we continue to reopen the country many eyes will be on Europe as they begin to roll out contact tracing apps across various countries there. Germany just became the latest to release their app, but its effectiveness will depend on how many people actually download and use it.  Bojan Pancevski, Germany correspondent for the WSJ, joins us for how the apps work and privacy concerns.

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As we learn more about the virus, some good news for policymakers facing tough decisions about how to reopen schools and daycare centers. A recent study finds that children and teenagers are only half as likely to get infected with the coronavirus as adults aged 20 and older. They also don’t usually develop harsh symptoms even if they get infected. Joel Achenbach, science writer at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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Many people have a problem with tech companies tracking your location in order to send you ads, but during the coronavirus pandemic, some governments are OK with it. Public health officials are setting aside privacy concerns as they use location data to track the movement of people to help inform them on how to reopen economies. Patience Haggin, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how we are always being tracked.

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Can people who are asymptomatic spread COVID-19? The WHO last week said it was “very rare” and then had to walk it back clarifying that the error was confusion due to a muddling of scientific jargon and that there is a difference between asymptomatic and presymptomatic people. Either way, the virus can be spread whether the person exhibits symptoms or not. Greg Barber, staff writer at Wired, joins us for more on the COVID confusion.

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While the majority of people who contract COVID-19 only develop mild symptoms, there are those extreme cases where the virus wreaks havoc on the body. In one such story, we are hearing of a patient in her 20s who received a double lung transplant, the first of its kind in the U.S. since the pandemic began. Tests confirmed that her lungs were beyond repair and she would not survive without a transplant. She is now recovering, but faces a long rehabilitation. Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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When the country shut down to help prevent the spread of coronavirus, it was also thrust into the learning experiment of mass remote learning. As the end of the school year approaches, the results are in: It didn’t work. The problems quickly stacked up in school districts ill equipped to make such drastic changes. Some students lacked access to computers or internet, teachers had no experience with remote learning, and some parents were unavailable to help. Lee Hawkins, education reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how the remote learning experiment went and what’s on deck for next year.

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