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Across the country, police services have been granted unprecedented new powers to enforce public-health measures to slow the spread of COVID-19, like social distancing and mandatory quarantines. Today, we’re talking to Alexander McLelland, a fellow at the University of Ottawa who researches public health and criminalization, about whether this type of police enforcement is effective, and what the criminalization of HIV/AIDS teaches us about today’s coronavirus pandemic.

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Yesterday, Bernie Sanders dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race. His harsh criticisms of healthcare in the U.S. had become even more prominent as the country grapples with a worsening COVID-19 outbreak. Today, we’re talking to history professor Elizabeth Tandy Shermer about Sanders’ legacy on the Democratic Party and what’s next for the senator.

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While most of us are under some kind of lockdown or quarantine, not much has changed in Sweden. Life is still pretty normal as shops and restaurants remain open, even though the virus is spreading. Swedish health authorities are insisting that their approach of not shutting down the economy and letting people use their common sense is working. But there’s a growing worry among the medical community as the case count continues to rise that the outbreak could be getting out of control. Today, journalist Derek Robertson tells us what it’s like living in Sweden right now, and whether the country is taking a giant risk with COVID-19.

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Over the last few months in the context of COVID-19, you’ve probably been hearing vague references to the Spanish Flu of 1918, often referred to as the deadliest flu in history. It infected about one-third of the world’s population and killed tens of millions of people. Today, we’re talking to John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, to take a look back at the 1918 pandemic and what lessons we can learn from it for today. 

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So, we know China has been ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic. The world watched as it spread very quickly through Wuhan and then as China took extreme measures, like mandatory quarantines and surveillance, to contain the outbreak. And it seemed like these measures were working, while the number of cases around the rest of the world kept going up. But over the last couple of weeks, reporting has suggested that we may not actually have a full picture of what’s been happening in China. Today, we’re joined by Global News’ Sam Cooper to talk about his reporting on this and what’s at stake if China is downplaying its coronavirus outbreak.

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A few weeks ago, we did an episode answering your top coronavirus questions. Since then, so much has changed in terms of what we know about the virus, and the impact it’s had on our lives. Today, we wanted to answer some coronavirus questions submitted by kids, and we’re joined by Global News’ Jeff Semple to do that.

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Countries around the world are using cellphone data from people’s phones to slow the spread of COVID-19. These initiatives have been rolled out with varying degrees of success and respect for privacy. Canada hasn’t started doing this yet, but government officials are considering it. Today, we’re talking to Dilshan Kathriarachchi, the Chief Technology Officer of EQ Works, about the sorts of apps that he and other companies are proposing.

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So it’s rent day for a lot of people, the first rent day in Canada since we really started to feel the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. At this point, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, and the federal assistance program hasn’t kicked in yet. There’s very little clarity right now on what tenants and landlords should do. Today, we’re talking to a tenant, a landlord, and a housing lawyer about their perspectives on the situation, and the supports they would like to see.

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New York state now has more than 75,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with more than 43,000 of those cases being in New York City alone. New York has quickly become an epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, and the crisis unfolding there is a preview for what a lot of cities around the world could face in the coming months. Today, we’re joined by Dr. Chethan Sathya, a paediatric surgeon and journalist based in New York City, to talk about what’s happening on the ground and how things got so bad.

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If you’re doing social distancing properly to help slow the spread of COVID-19, chances are that one of the only reasons you’ve left your house is to do groceries. You’re probably also relying more than ever on places like Amazon to deliver stuff to your door. And the people working in our grocery stores, delivering packages, and cleaning our buildings are being seen as essential . . . and because of that, they’ve accidentally found themselves on the front lines of this pandemic. Today, we’re talking with Sara Mojtehedzadeh, a labour issues reporter at the Toronto Star, about what these workers are going through and how companies are dealing with this new normal. 

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