The Why: Philly Explained

During the deadliest months of the pandemic so far, Pennsylvania’s new electronic death reporting system was not ready for prime time. The state still relied on faxes — yes, faxes — from funeral directors, doctors and medical examiners to create an official death record. Sara Simon dug into the delays for Spotlight PA, along with WHYY’s Nina Feldman and Ryan Briggs. She explains that just when public officials were making tough decisions about how to allocate scarce resources, like COVID-19 tests and PPE, the state did not have an accurate count of how many people had actually died from the virus.

As we wait for scientists to produce a COVID-19 vaccine, contract tracing is one of the most reliable ways to stop the spread. Now, Pennsylvania and Delaware have also released a new “exposure notification app” to let users know if they’ve been near someone who’s tested positive for the virus. New Jersey is piloting its app on college campuses. WHYY health and science reporter Alan Yu explains this could help reach people traditional contact tracing isn’t — but there’s a tradeoff: The privacy protections put in place to convince more people to download the app could make it much more difficult to know how effective it is.

Pennsylvania is going to be one of the most important states — if not THE most important state — in determining the outcome of this year’s presidential election. President Trump won Pennsylvania by a narrow margin in 2016, thanks in part to a crucial number of Democratic voters sitting out the election. WHYY’s political reporter Katie Meyer explains that’s why this year, the question in Philly is not whether the Biden-Harris ticket will win the city, but by how much. One key group they have to convince? Black voters, some of whom feel the Democratic Party has taken their support for granted.

More than 1,500 people have been shot in Philadelphia this year, many of them children. Over the past 20 years, the city has tried all kinds of approaches to stop gun violence — broken windows policing, and programs with names like Focused Deterrence and now, Group Violence Intervention — but nothing seems to be working.

What are we missing?

Guest John Solomon runs Endangered Kind, a nonprofit dedicated to stopping gun violence.  Solomon, 28, did time in prison for shooting someone and has also been the victim of violence. He says hearing the experiences of young Black men like himself would be a good place to start getting answers.

Latinos in Philadelphia make up 15% of the city’s population — but only 6% of those who’ve gotten tested for COVID-19. In fact, they’re getting tested at the lowest rate of any racial and ethnic group in the city, despite contracting the virus at high rates. When WHYY health reporter Nina Feldman spoke to Latino residents and community leaders, she learned there are several reasons why, including language barriers, anti-immigrant policies and sentiments, as well as limited job security and access to health insurance.

Antibody-rich plasma from people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 is one treatment being researched to help those still battling the virus. But an estimated 360,000 people willing to donate their plasma are not allowed to do so — despite the fact it could save roughly a million Americans. WHYY’s Zoe Read explains why a relic of the 1980s HIV epidemic still limits gay men from giving blood. She says Philly area politicians and LGBTQ advocates are pushing back.

Union membership is at a historic low in the U.S. while public support for unions is on the rise. And in Philadelphia — long known as a blue-collar “labor town” — the kinds of workers organizing has been changing. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Juliana Reyes, who covers labor and unions, explains why millennials in particular are driving that shift, which started before the COVID-19 pandemic gave workers’ rights issues new urgency.

Having a safe place to live has never been more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the economic fallout forced millions of people out of work, many of them struggled to pay their rent. Now, the state’s moratorium on evictions has expired. The CDC has stepped in with its own federal moratorium and renters in Philly recently got a temporary reprieve, but neither offers a longterm solution. Ryan Briggs of WHYY’s PlanPhilly explains why as many as 100,000 households in the city are still at risk of eviction.

Nationwide, 20% of people in jails have a mental health condition — which means there are a lot of people like Kim, who end up incarcerated instead of in treatment. That’s exactly what happened to a Bucks County woman named Kim Stringer. WITF health reporter Brett Sholtis digs into what happened to Kim to explain why a Pennsylvania law meant to fix the problem hasn’t made a difference yet.

The pandemic and the George Floyd protests that followed brought to a boil long-simmering issues of inequity in the Philadelphia restaurant industry. Now, as COVID-19 has cut into restaurants’ razor-thin profit margins, workers are demanding change. Alex Tewfik, food editor for Philadelphia Magazine, who also worked in the industry for a decade, explains how some restaurants are now rethinking their business models and culture — and what it could mean for diners.