SUMMARY:With 9.5 million Americans, or 17 percent of tenants, in the U.S. still behind on their rent according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Biden administration on Monday extended a federal moratorium on evictions through the end of June. There are no changes to the rules, which, as John Yang reports, can be complicated and confusing for judges, landlords and tenants behind on their rent.
SUMMARY: President Joe Biden urged state and local officials Monday to keep or reinstate mask mandates amid some of the most urgent warnings yet about new COVID-19 surges. Judy Woodruff talks to Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University, about the latest developments in the fight against the virus, which has killed almost 550,000 Americans.
SUMMARY:The PBS NewsHour has obtained a study by a group of independent researchers convened by the WHO to find the origins of COVID-19 in China. As Nick Schifrin reports, the virus that caused the worst pandemic in a century most likely started in bats, and jumped to humans through an intermediate animal host. The researchers call it a starting point, but their critics still say it doesn’t go far enough.
SUMMARY:People with intellectual and developmental disabilities [IDD] like Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy and Autism often have underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to COVID-19. Plus, many receive care in group living facilities, putting them at further risk. But despite the elevated risks for those with IDD, they face an uphill vaccination battle. William Brangham reports.
Correction:This piece reported that only nine states and the District of Columbia report COVID-19 outcomes specifically for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities to the federal government. In fact, these states and D.C. are the only jurisdictions to report this data publicly. It’s unclear which states, if any, report this information directly to the federal government.
SUMMARY: Even as the U.S. sets records for daily COVID-19 vaccinations, disparities in availability persist. We cover the stories of some medically vulnerable people, most of whom are still waiting for their shot. And for more on the reasons behind the wait, William Brangham speaks to Jen Kates, the Senior Vice President and Director of Global Health and HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
SUMMARY: As more than 550,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, we take a moment to remember five of the remarkable lives lost.
Correction:An earlier version of this story used audio of another elder in the Indian Peaks Band of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah speaking the traditional language while referencing Earnestine Jake Lehi. That audio has now been replaced with audio of Earnestine speaking. The NewsHour regrets the error.
How typical, Republicans worry about spending $1.9 trillions on ordinary Americans while they have no problem in giving the wealthy trillions in tax breaks over the years." Shows just who the GOP serves.
SUMMARY: House Democrats are waiting to give final approval to the $1.9 trillion COVID relief package that was backed along party lines Saturday in the Senate. They are pressing to get the bill to President Biden to sign before federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14. Lisa Desjardins and Yamiche Alcindor join Judy Woodruff to discuss some of the details.
SUMMARY: During the weekend, all 50 Senate Democrats voted to pass the COVID relief bill. One of them is Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, who joins Judy Woodruff from Capitol Hill to discuss how it will affect his state, Republican opposition to the bill, immigration and raising the federal minimum wage.
SUMMARY: President Biden's nearly $2 trillion COVID aid bill is one step closer to becoming law as the House of Representatives scheduled a final vote on the legislation. In advance, Democrats and Republicans jousted again over the details of the bill. New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the Republican perspective.
SUMMARY:A key part of the COVID aid bill creates the most significant changes to the Affordable Care Act since it was passed more than 10 years ago, including larger subsidies to buy insurance, reducing deductibles and more money for Medicaid expansion. The CBO estimates the changes would cost more than $90 billion in the next two years. Julie Rovner, of Kaiser Health News, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
SUMMARY: For a perspective on President Biden's historic stimulus bill from a Democrat, Delaware Sen. Chris Coons joins Judy Woodruff to discuss American support for COVID relief, bipartisanship under Biden, and how the impact of the pandemic was "far worse than it needed to be."
SUMMARY:It was one year ago today the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. On Thursday, days after Congress passed a $1.9 trillion aid bill with a party-line vote, President Biden signed the legislation into law. The President will address the nation tonight about the new law and federal efforts to combat the pandemic. Yamiche Alcindor joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
Full Speech: President Biden's first prime-time address to the nation (24:01)
SUMMARY: All of us face the risk that extreme weather events like the recent one in Texas will become more common and more destructive occurrences because of climate change. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has studied climate change for years, and he has prescriptions in his latest book, "How to Avoid a Climate Disaster." He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
SUMMARY:As the pandemic drags on, the toll taken on students and teachers, while trying to protect them from infection, has become one of the outbreak's most vexing and intractable challenges. Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss.
SUMMARY: The questions around when to re-open more schools for in-person classes remains front and center for millions of Americans. Data show about 42 percent of all students between kindergarten and high school are in virtual-only schooling right now.Christopher Morphew, dean of the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University, joins Stephanie Sy to discuss.
SUMMARY:States received a badly needed boost in shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government this week, but the supply still is not meeting the demand. One state, Virginia, has had problems with its vaccine rollout since early on. Amna Nawaz takes a closer look at the progress it has made and the daunting challenges ahead.
SUMMARY:Even as the pandemic rages on and deaths mount, communities, individuals and the federal government are finding ways to honor and keep loved ones close to their hearts. Jeffrey Brown reports for our arts and culture series, "CANVAS."
SUMMARY:President Biden's nearly $2 trillion stimulus package on Friday cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate, as a tepid jobs report confirmed the economy is still sputtering from the pandemic.Raphael Bostic, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss who has been most impacted and the federal government's response in reaching those in need.
SUMMARY: After a week reaching yet another tragic milestone in the COVID-19 death toll, we remember five remarkable individuals in the United States who have lost their lives to the pandemic.
SUMMARY:The Pentagon committed to sending around 1,000 active duty troops to help vaccinate people across the nation after the White House promised to open community vaccination centers, increasing availability to those in need.Dr. Julie Morita, Executive Vice President of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a NewsHour funder, joins to discuss the challenge of equal distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines.
SUMMARY:Millions of unemployed Americans watched the weekend fight over COVID relief play out with a sense of exasperation over feeling like pawns in a game of political football, said Michael West, 60, an Uber driver who has been out of work since the spring. He talks to Amna Nawaz about the realities of pandemic job loss and what he thinks Americans like him need from Congress in the coming months.
SUMMARY:At key moments over the last year leaders around the globe made critical mistakes that worsened the pandemic and led to more deaths. That’s the argument put forth by the New Yorker’s Lawrence Wright in “The Plague Year,” an article that fills the magazine’s entire January issue. Wright explains what went wrong in an interview with Senior National Correspondent Amna Nawaz.
SUMMARY: As we are every Friday during this pandemic, we take a moment to honor individuals lost to the Coronavirus. Here are stories of five more, including a 22-year-old musician and a 48-year-old Marine Corps reservist.
SUMMARY: American governors are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19 -- and the economic collapse it prompted. MarylandGov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is chairman of the National Governors Association, and he has spoken out recently about failures in the federal pandemic response. Hogan joins Judy Woodruff to discuss the crisis, his forthcoming book, “Still Standing” and his political career.
SUMMARY: Italy is emerging from its COVID-19 nightmare into what is usually its busiest season for tourism. The industry normally brings in 13 percent of the country’s $2 trillion GDP. But there is no normal this year, and most tourists are not coming -- sparking fears that the pandemic will cause lasting economic damage. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from Rimini, on Italy’s Adriatic Coast.
SUMMARY:It was just about six months ago that the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the U.S. Since then, the pandemic has exacted an enormous toll in terms of both human lives and economic harm -- with no end in sight. Amna Nawaz marks the moment with two people focused on solving the pandemic: Dr. Rajiv Shah of the Rockefeller Foundation and John Barry of Tulane University School of Public Health.
SUMMARY: As the coronavirus pandemic tears across the globe, the toll exacted in lives lost and ruined grows by the day. But for those already in need, especially the hungry and the starving, COVID-19 is accelerating their nightmares.David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss the pandemic supply chain and how to keep 270 million people fed in a year of crisis.
SUMMARY: U.S. colleges and universities are scrambling to finalize their fall plans as coronavirus infections continue to rise in much of the country. While some students, faculty and staff are looking forward to returning to campus, others are raising serious health and safety concerns. Hari Sreenivasan reports on how schools are approaching the decision, as part of our Rethinking College series.
SUMMARY: More than 1,000 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 were reported Tuesday. As many states struggle with outbreaks, Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the country desperately needs improved data collection to understand how the virus is spreading -- and to contain it. He joins Judy Woodruff to discuss critical metrics and how to obtain and learn from them.
SUMMARY:The question of when a COVID-19 vaccine might be available is perhaps the most pressing in the world. There have been a number of recent headlines on this front, including early but encouraging results from trials. And on Wednesday, the Trump administration awarded a contract to Pfizer and a German biotech firm to potentially deliver doses this year. Miles O’Brien joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.
SUMMARY: Months after the start of spring training, the first pitch of the 2020 Major League Baseball season will be thrown Thursday night. Opening Day gets underway with the Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees. But the season will be very unusual, with no fans present at stadiums, and many questions about it remain unanswered. Amna Nawaz reports and talks to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
SUMMARY: In Alabama, doctors and nurses are seeing record numbers of hospitalizations associated with COVID-19. The state has reported more than 1,300 deaths since the pandemic began. But certain regions and populations within the state are faring far worse than others -- and huge health disparities among Black residents are causing even more dire results. Stephanie Sy reports on a tragic legacy.
SUMMARY: As we have every Friday for the past several months, we take a moment to remember some of the lives lost to the novel coronavirus pandemic, including a high school English teacher and a 39-year-old mother of six.
SUMMARY: As coronavirus cases disproportionately impact communities of color, several local and state officials have declared racism a public health crisis. Rhea Boyd, a public health advocate, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the structural racism in America’s healthcare system and how this ongoing pandemic of racial and economic inequality is compounding the COVID-19 pandemic.
SUMMARY: Fourth of July celebrations in many parts of the United States were muted this year, overshadowed by a virus spreading with alarming speed. The national death toll from COVID-19 has surpassed 130,000, and hospitals in the South and West particularly are struggling to keep up with the demand for urgent care. Still, some Americans oppose shutdowns and mask requirements. William Brangham reports.
SUMMARY: For months, it's been clear that the pandemic is taking a disproportionate toll on people of color. Now, new data quantifies the disparities, showing that African American and Latinx people are nearly three times as likely to contract COVID-19 as white Americans and twice as likely to die from it. Amna Nawaz talks to Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo of the University of California, San Francisco.
SUMMARY:With the U.S. economy in shambles due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Latina workers have suffered the worst job losses, with 19 percent reporting being unemployed in May. Latinx Americans are also among the groups most likely to contract COVID-19 -- and to die from it. We spoke to several Latina women, including two undocumented immigrants, about their experiences of the past few months.
SUMMARY: Recent headlines out of Hong Kong have focused on politics, with the imposition of a controversial new national security law from Beijing. But on the public health front, Hong Kong has been a coronavirus success story, suffering much less infection and death than was expected considering the semi-autonomous city’s high population density and proximity to China. Nick Schifrin reports.
SUMMARY: In Britain, pubs reopened over July 4th weekend after nearly three months of coronavirus lockdowns. Patrons expressed their desire to get out and socialize after the long period of isolation, and business owners took special precautions to prepare. But many revelers ignored appeals for social distancing, and police had to disperse drunken crowds. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.
SUMMARY: Coronavirus infections are on the rise in 42 states, with the national total passing the 3 million mark. In the hardest-hit areas, including parts of Florida, intensive care units are filled to the brim with patients, and communities are grappling with testing shortages and delays. But some officials, including President Trump, are downplaying the crisis and pushing to reopen. John Yang reports.
SUMMARY: Parents across the U.S. are wondering what the next school year will hold for their children. While reopening decisions will ultimately be up to state and local officials, President Trump said Tuesday he'll pressure governors to resume in-person classes. Judy Woodruff talks to Noel Candelaria of the Texas State Teachers Association and Elliot Haspel an education policy expert and former teacher.
SUMMARY:During this coronavirus pandemic, we hear repeatedly from public health officials to stay at home. But many Americans don’t have stable housing -- and now, a growing number of people are being forced out of where they live because they can’t pay the rent. William Brangham reports on the causes and consequences of a national rise in evictions.
SUMMARY: President Trump will welcome the president of Mexico to the White House on Wednesday. The country has more than 215,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the second-highest total in Latin America. More than 20,000 deaths have been recorded from the pandemic in Mexico -- but its government admits the number is a major undercount. Nick Schifrin reports on Mexico’s failures to contain the coronavirus.
SUMMARY:The summer surge of COVID-19 is raising more and more questions about reopening schools this fall. That issue was at the forefront today, even as daily deaths nationwide rose to nearly 1,000, the most in weeks. White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor begins our coverage.
SUMMARY: Since the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, public health experts have emphasized that having an efficient system for wide-scale testing was key to bringing the COVID-19 outbreak under control. But in reality, virus testing in the United States has consistently missed the mark. William Brangham talks to Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
SUMMARY: The rising number of coronavirus infections in the U.S. proves the pandemic is far from abating. New cases are setting single-day records in several states and declining in only two. While the nation’s top medical officials say states should pause reopening in order to control virus spread, the Trump administration insists schools should resume as normal this fall. Yamiche Alcindor reports.
SUMMARY:Of the nation’s roughly 130,000 coronavirus deaths, more than 40,000 have occurred in nursing homes. But one facility in Maryland has had zero COVID-19 cases so far -- despite serving one of the most at-risk populations. Rev. Derrick DeWitt, director of the Maryland Baptist Aged Home, joins Amna Nawaz to discuss his facility’s proactive approach, systemic racism and a lack of federal leadership.
SUMMARY: The coronavirus pandemic is exacting a devastating toll on families and communities across the United States. Each week, we want to remember some of the tens of thousands of lives we have lost. Judy Woodruff shares five more stories.
SUMMARY: The U.S. has set another record for daily new coronavirus infections -- as it has on six out of the past 10 days. Texas logged 10,000 new cases Thursday, and hospitals in Florida are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. With no signs of improvement in infection rates, more states are again implementing restrictions such as mask requirements and business shutdowns. Lisa Desjardins reports.
For months, Anthony S. Fauci has played a lead role in America’s coronavirus pandemic, as a diminutive, Brooklyn-accented narrator who has assessed the risk and issued increasingly blunt warnings as the nation’s response has gone badly awry.
But as the Trump Administration has strayed from the advice of many of its scientists and public health experts, the White House has moved to sideline Fauci, scuttled some of his planned TV appearances and largely kept him out of the Oval Office for more than a month even as coronavirus infections surge in large swaths of the country.
In recent days, the 79-year-old scientist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has found himself directly in the president’s crosshairs. During a Fox News interview Thursday with Sean Hannity, Trump said Fauci “is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.” And when Greta Van Susteren asked him last week about Fauci’s assessment that the country was not in a good place, Trump said flatly: “I disagree with him.”
Fauci no longer briefs Trump and is “never in the Oval [Office] anymore,” said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Fauci last spoke to the president during the first week of June, according to a person with knowledge of Trump’s calendar.
For some administration officials, such developments have been an early sign their job was on the line. But Trump cannot directly fire Fauci, a career civil servant with more than 50 years in government service who enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress. In any case, the President has no plans to get rid of him, said the official.
As for Fauci himself, although he is frustrated by the turmoil and the state of the outbreak, friends say he has no plans to abandon his post, which includes a critical role in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and treatments.
Fauci has found other ways to get his message out, from online Facebook chats to podcasts and print media interviews. And in recent days, with coronavirus cases slamming hospitals in the South and West, he has been frankly critical of the U.S. response — and implicitly, of the President.
“As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not,” Fauci said in a podcast interview with FiveThirtyEight last week.
Fauci did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.
A White House official released a statement saying that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things” and included a lengthy list of the scientist’s comments from early in the outbreak. Those included his early doubt that people with no symptoms could play a significant role in spreading the virus — a notion based on earlier outbreaks that the novel coronavirus would turn on its head. They also point to public reassurances Fauci made in late February, around the time of the first U.S. case of community transmission, that “at this moment, there is no need to change anything that you’re doing on a day-by-day basis.”
Fauci’s supporters acknowledge those early mistakes, attributing them to the challenges posed by a new, largely unknown pathogen. They agree he downplayed the possibility of the virus spreading from person to person in January and early February even as it quietly seeded itself in communities on the East and West coasts. And, like several other public health officials, he initially said the public shouldn’t wear masks, but now strongly recommends it, especially when individuals can’t maintain distances of at least six feet from other people.
Fauci has said he was worried early in the outbreak about a shortage of masks and wanted to reserve them for health care workers. And he has said from the start that scientists’ knowledge of a brand new virus would evolve and recommendations could change based on new information.
The tension between the White House and Fauci was on full display last Sunday, when CBS host Margaret Brennan told millions of viewers that “Face the Nation” had tried for three months to interview him.
White House communications officials, who must approve television appearances related to the coronavirus, responded by allowing Fauci spots this week on PBS NewsHour, a CNN Town Hall with Sanjay Gupta, and NBC’s “Meet the Press” during the prime Sunday morning slot, according to one person familiar with the situation.
Then Fauci joined a Facebook Live event on Tuesday with Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), disputing Trump’s assertions that a lower death rate showed the country’s progress against the pandemic. Fauci called it “a false narrative” and warned, “Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”
Fauci did not end up making any of the scheduled appearances. The White House canceled them after his Tuesday remarks, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to relate behind-the-scenes conversations.
The episode underscores the deteriorating relationship between a scientist and a President who once bonded over their shared New York City roots and love of sports, but whose rapport has long since disintegrated over their differences on face mask policy, state reopening strategies and the use of antimalarial drugs to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations, said the White House has asked Fauci to do certain media appearances but is not approving all of his requests.
“Our bigger issue with Fauci is stop critiquing the task force .?.?. and try to fix it,” the official said.
But that may be an impossible order given his strong differences with the White House over how the federal government should respond to the accelerating infection rate that’s pushing up the death toll after months of decline.
Fauci has argued that parts of the country experiencing surges should shut down, “but there is no buy-in for that,” said an official with direct knowledge of the conversation who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Four months ahead of Election Day, Trump wants to “reopen and move on,” said another senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal deliberations. Those who disagree with that approach are out of favor, the official said.
Fauci has also expressed concern about the administration’s plan to reopen schools, but White House officials see keeping children home as having even more deleterious effects. Fauci has also called on state and local officials to mandate that people wear masks in public.
Even though his suggestions have been largely ignored, Fauci has not complained that he does not get in to see the President, according to one of the officials.
Trump is also galled by Fauci’s approval ratings. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 67 percent of voters trusted Fauci for information on the coronavirus, compared with 26 percent who trusted Trump.
The internal turmoil and troubled national response have taken a toll on Fauci, those close to him say. He is exasperated that states and individuals are not following the recommendations of experts, such as social distancing and wearing face coverings, said David Barr, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for 30 years.
Three or four weeks ago, Barr said, he and Fauci spoke about the troubling signs they were seeing as cases began to tick upward.
“You could just feel from Tony .?.?. how unsettled it made him,” Barr said. “He didn’t know what to do to change that, to stop it, but if the leadership isn’t there, and it’s clearly not there, then it’s really difficult to set the tone for the country.”
“What he cares most about is not his influence, but what’s happening — that things are going so badly and it’s going to cause so much disease and death,” Barr added.
People who are close to Fauci say the public undermining of scientists and public health experts has frustrated and saddened him because it adds to the chaos the country is already experiencing from the pandemic.
Despite the repeated pushback from Trump and the White House, however, Fauci has told those close to him that has no plans to do anything differently.
“For somebody like Tony, who tries to deal with people honestly and in a very open and generous way — that’s how he’s tried to approach his personal interactions with the president — it’s immensely frustrating and depressing. And there’s not much he can do about it,” said Peter Staley, a longtime HIV/AIDS activist who has known Fauci for more than 30 years.
“He’s going to continue being himself, which is always talking honestly about a public health crisis and a new infectious disease,” Staley added. “If things are looking more in conflict, it’s because this administration is going further and further adrift from a pro-science approach.”
White House communications officials say they have told government scientists and doctors that their job is to educate the public by talking about best practices to contain the virus and what the administration is doing to help the states.
Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Michael Caputo, a longtime Trump ally, approves Fauci’s television appearances, with input from the White House, said one of the senior administration officials. Several White House aides view Fauci’s interviews as unhelpful and say they’re frustrated he has expressed interest in appearing on programs such as MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” which are hostile to the administration. That one was rejected.
“The speculation game doesn’t serve the public in any particular way,” the same official said. “When it gets to handicapping and what’s going to happen next, get a cable news gig. We’ve conveyed that down to all the doctors.”
White House officials generally favor White House coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx, one of the senior administration officials said. Both Birx and Fauci have expressed frustration that their concerns have not gotten to the president, although Birx is working with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser and Trump’s son-in-law, to ensure better communication, the official said.
The administration also plans to have Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary, and FEMA Administrator Peter T. Gaynor do more appearances related to coronavirus.
Among those crusading against Fauci internally is Peter Navarro, the President’s trade adviser, who has clashed with Fauci over his opposition to adopting the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, to treat COVID-19 before its effectiveness had been proved.
When Trump and Navarro repeatedly touted hydroxychloroquine as a potential treatment for coronavirus, Fauci pushed back both internally and at task force briefings, arguing there was only anecdotal evidence about the drug’s efficacy. The Food and Drug Administration eventually revoked its temporary authorization after evidence showed it was not effective against COVID-19 and could be dangerous for some patients.
“Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on,” Navarro said. “Now Fauci is saying that a falling mortality rate doesn’t matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide the pace of our economic reopening. So when you ask me if I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is only with caution.”
Friends and allies say Fauci doesn’t quit because he loves his job and also feels a great sense of responsibility about helping to develop coronavirus vaccines and treatments — the biggest challenge of his career and the only way the country can truly begin to move past the pandemic. He has long said he does not want to retire before there is an AIDS vaccine.
“He recognizes if he doesn’t intercede, things could fall apart very quickly — even more so than they have already,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “He does it because he cares about the country and realizes he is uniquely positioned to help in this.”
Although his message is regularly at odds with the President, Fauci is naturally conflict-averse and has sought to establish a personal relationship with the six Presidents he has served over his career.
“He’ll try to be accommodating except for principles that are truly not something he can compromise on,” said one former senior administration official who has worked closely with Fauci for years. “He will try to really accommodate and fulfill your reality, but he’s bound by the laws of science.”
In the previous five presidential administrations, Fauci has almost always played a key role in public health emergencies and infectious-disease responses by advising the president and serving as a chief spokesman for both Republican and Democratic administrations.
In many ways, he was shaped by the HIV/AIDS crisis that emerged during his first years as NIAID director when the Reagan administration remained largely silent about a disease afflicting mostly gay men.
Amid fear of the virus and the stigma associated with having the infection, Fauci learned the importance of communicating with the public about new diseases that were little understood. He found out it was critical to speak honestly about the risks, and help people differentiate between valid concerns and unfounded fears, according to several people who have worked with him.
As the face of the HIV/AIDS response, Fauci also developed a thick skin, experiencing the ire of activists who felt an uncaring federal government was not doing enough to make treatments available for dying patients. But over the years, he forged friendships with some of those who had begun as adversaries, activists said.
The lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS outbreak have had an impact on how he has handled almost every public health crisis since. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the Obama administration made Fauci its chief spokesperson to explain to people the actual risk of the virus.
Fauci briefed Obama about three times a week and had unlimited access to him if something came up, said Ron Klain, the Obama administration’s Ebola czar and now an adviser to the Biden campaign.
But in the coronavirus pandemic, Klain said Fauci is facing a new challenge: He’s the only member of the administration willing or able to speak plainly about the threat of the virus, in Klain’s view.
Fauci “respects the public,” Klain said. “He has this view that the public can handle the truth, whether it’s good news or bad news and the most important thing is to give people the best information he has at the time. Tony is left being the one person having to carry the weight of speaking honestly about all this stuff.”
COMMENT: I absolutely believe in Dr. Fauci (who IS willing to admit when he's wrong) over Trump who is only concerned about himself and his re-election, and hates any news he thinks as bad.
SUMMARY:The World Health Organization says Sunday marked the largest global daily surge in new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began: 183,000. In the U.S., daily fatalities from the disease have dropped since the initial peak this spring, but more than 600 people are still dying each day. Amna Nawaz reports and talks to Stephen Morrison of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As to Confederate monuments: The Confederacy conducted a war against the United States of America, killed American soldiers, and committed treason against the union they had they had signed a contract (Constitution of the United States) to support. The Confederacy should never be celebrated.
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SUMMARY: As states continue to lift pandemic restrictions and allow economic activity to resume, many are seeing new surges in coronavirus cases. Arkansas has documented more than 3,500 new positive tests since it began the second phase of its reopening. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joins Judy Woodruff to discuss where the increase in cases is coming from and his thoughts on moving Confederate monuments.
SUMMARY:Although the coronavirus pandemic presents unprecedented challenges for people living through it, humans have endured similar health ordeals in the past. Jeffrey Brown speaks to two historians, Frank Snowden of Yale University and Nancy Bristow of the University of Puget Sound, about how previous pandemics have shaped societies. It’s part of our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.
SUMMARY: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified before Congress Tuesday, referring to the spread of COVID-19 in a dozen U.S. states as “a disturbing surge.” Fauci and other top health experts reiterated the need for more testing, even as President Trump claimed that “testing is a double-edged sword” in the pandemic fight. Lisa Desjardins reports.
SUMMARY: Texas is taking a particularly hard hit from COVID-19. For about a week, the state has been reporting roughly 4,000 new cases per day. In the Houston region alone, there are nearly 32,000 cases. For a report from the front lines of the fight against the disease, Amna Nawaz turns to Dr. Hilary Fairbrother, who works in emergency medicine at the Texas Medical Center.
SUMMARY: The pandemic halted Major League Baseball's spring training in mid-March. Now, the league has announced it will start a shortened regular season in July. The plan to play 60 games comes after 40 players and staff tested positive for coronavirus in recent days. Amna Nawaz talks to author and sportswriter John Feinstein about the pandemic’s challenges for professional sports.
SUMMARY: As the United States approaches another coronavirus milestone, with nearly 125,000 deaths from the disease, we look back at the lives of a few of those lost. Judy Woodruff shares their stories.
SUMMARY: At least six states have reported a record increase in COVID-19 cases as the total number of cases in the U.S. nears 2.5 million. Some states, like Florida, which saw more than 9,500 new cases Saturday morning, are rolling back some of the reopening including shutting beaches, parks and some bars. Ben Conarck, who covers healthcare for the Miami Herald, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the state’s response.
SUMMARY: Pharmaceutical companies and governments around the world are chasing a coronavirus vaccine, fast tracking the usually years-long vaccine development procedure to a few months. ProPublica reporter Caroline Chen joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the ambitious timeline and the unpredictability of the clinical trials.
SUMMARY: Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including President Trump’s call to reopen houses of worship despite the pandemic, controversial comments from Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, public opinion on reopening the country, the battle over mail-in voting and Trump’s firing of inspectors general.
Judy Woodruff (NewsHour): And now we turn to the analysis of Shields and Brooks. That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks, both joining us from their homes.
Hello to both of you.
I want to start with President Trump today ordering the nation's governors to open up houses of worship, saying, there's nothing they should do to prevent churches, synagogues and mosques from opening up.
Mark, the President told the governors that, if they don't go along with this, he's going to override them, although it's not clear he has the authority to do that.
What do you make of the President's really relentless push to get the country to open up, his leadership at this moment in this pandemic?
Mark Shields, syndicated columnist: Well, Judy, the churches are an intriguing and complex problem unto themselves, that someone would order the churches to open.
And the reality is that the biggest concern has been gatherings of 10 or more people. And churches frequently involve a lot more than 10 people in close quarters. And they also have that problem with separation.
The President's commitment as a churchgoer brings to mind Tom Wolfe's great line about making world safe for hypocrisy. This seems to be more political than ecclesiastical or theological on his part.
Judy Woodruff: And, David, I want to ask you to weigh in too.
And I want to bring in the fact that we are seeing, as the President pushes harder and harder for the country to open up, the support for this is breaking along partisan lines.
We had a new poll this week, "NewsHour"/NPR/Marist, showing that more Republicans are with the President, more Democrats are more cautious.
How do you look at all this?
David Brooks, New York Times: Yes.
First, the President is not subtle in his culture war fighting. He wanted to defend Christmas against the alleged war on Christmas. And now he is doing this.
It's a pretty naked attempt to try to appeal to evangelical voters. Churches happen to be one of the places where we have seen a lot of super spreading. One of the Korean churches was in — early in — was one of the worst things that happened. And so that's — it's just foolish.
The second foolishness is that a national policy here is just not a good policy. This is very context-specific. This virus is very decentralized. It hits one place, it doesn't hit another.
So, every decision that should be made, in my view, should be at the local possible-list level. And so Trump is just — it's just politics. It's just words out of his mouth.
Judy Woodruff: Mark, in terms of the President's overall determination to get the country to open up, is this something that, in the long run, he looks stronger as a leader for having done this?
Mark Shields: Well, Judy, I think the President, understandably, wants to switch the subject.
It's interesting. ABC News has measured each month people's confidence in the President's leadership and their trust of him on handling the coronavirus. It was — it reached a high of 54 percent in March. Then it dropped down to 44 percent. And now in the latest, in May, it's at 39 percent.
So, the President wants to get off the — his coronavirus shepherding and get back, he hopes, to an economy, which was his calling card for reelection, and that somehow, in the next six months, he could — well, five months, I guess now in a couple of weeks — that it could get revitalized confidence and optimism in the economy, and show some progress.
That's it. I mean, it hasn't worked for him as 'surgeon general.' And he's got to try and do it as the economic chief.
Judy Woodruff: And just quickly on this, David, one other thing.
A lot of people commenting when the President goes out, as he is trying to, he's not wearing a mask. Does it matter that the President doesn't?
David Brooks:Yes, that's exceptionally poor leadership. You lead by example. That's elementary school leadership.
I think the worst thing that could happen right now is that we — opening and not opening became a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats do differ, but not all that much. You still get 75, 77 percent of the country supporting social distancing.
In our polarized age, you just don't get that much. If you look at the movement in red and blue states, there's no real difference in how people are behaving.
There's a significant distance — difference in how people see the future. Democrats, by some gigantic percentage, 80 or 90 percent, say the worst is still ahead of us. Republicans, by some gigantic percentage, say that worst is still behind us.
But the fact is, the opening up is happening. And it's happening in all 50 states, and it's going to happen everywhere. And it's not a political decision. It's a question of striking a balance between safety and economic opportunity.
And so it's not an ideological issue. It's just the delicate balance that will be different in every single place.
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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