Even among those who may want to go out and shop and miss that activity, a lot of them dont have the means to do so. Woodruff all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by life isnt a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with Financial Planning and advice for today, and tomorrow. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the covid19 pandemic has reached yet another grim milestone, as the number of confirmed cases worldwide surpassed the five million mark. That comes as the u. S. Labor department announced its own staggering statistic 38. 6 million americans have filed for Unemployment Benefits in the last nine weeks. Yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. Alcindor as businesses across the country prepare for gradual reopenings, the number of americans filing for unemployment appears to be leveling off. The Labor Department said 2. 4 million americans filed claims this past week. That is a drastic drop from the surge seen late in march. But those numbers are still sky high. And the toll covid19 is having on the economy overall remains vast more than 38 million workers sought jobless benefits in the past nine weeks. Today before he left for a trip to michigan, President Trump said the country would soon be on the path to recovery. The numbers are going to be very good into the future. Were going to be very good starting with our transition period, which will be probably june, june or july. He wasn the defensive after the release of a Columbia University model that estimated nearly 36,000 deaths could have been prevented had social distancing policies been enforced one week earl i was way early. Columbias an institutio thats very liberal. I think its just a political hit job, you want to know the truth. Researchers at Columbia University said if lockdowns had been imposed just two weeks earlier, 83 of the nations deaths could have en avoided. But at that time, a number of leaders, including those at the countrys epicenter of the crisis, stood back. Relax. Were doing great. It all will pass. We want people still to go on about their lives. Alcindor . As the virus quietly subsumed their cities. Today, new york city mayor bill de blasio said he regrets not having more information on the virus. I wish we had known so much more in january, february, beginning of march. I wish we had the testing that would have told us whats going on. I mean, right now were not sure when this disease started to be present in the city. We thought it was march and now more and more it looks like it was february or even late january. And we just didnt have testing to be able to give us the full picture. Lcindor dr. Ashish jha is the director at the Harvard Global health institute. He said no model will be completely right, but there is no doubt delays and inaction had a significant impact. This is the entire point of exponential growth in outbreaks like this. If you think of a doubling time of five days, it means that by delaying by 10 days you have four times the number of cases, four times the number of deaths. Or if you had closed 10 days earlier we would have a quarter of the deaths we ended up having. Alcindor he travelled to the city of ypsilanti, some 40 miles outside detroit. There he met with African American leaders from the area. Black people and people of color remain disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus. Africanamerican communities have been hit very hard, including in detroit. Reporter he also toured a he also toured a ford motor plant where workers are now producing ventilators in response to the virus. Those containment efforts have been across the country. New procedures for airport screenings were released. The agency is urging travelers to wear face masks and to scan their own boarding passes. People are also urged to keep carryon food items in clear plastic bags to prevent agents from handling their belongings. Control measures like these are playing out across the globe as the tally of infections surpass five million. And countries with Fragile Health Systems are bearing the brunt by the weekend, cases across the continent of africa could top 100,000. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and prevention warned the continent needs to be testing about 10 times the mber of people already tested. For the pbs newshour, im yamiche alcindor. Woodruff its a question that provided a haunting backdrop to this days news how many fewer deaths might there have been if social distancing had started more widely earlier in march . As we heard in yamiches report, a group of statisticians estimate there might have been 36,000 fewer deaths. Had dramatic ste been taken sooner. But this estimate is based on a computer model. And the models have their limitations. Miles obrien has been covering the work that goes into all this, as he did last night, and joins me now. So, miles, you have been looking at this new estimate. What did you find about how they came to this conclusion . Reporter well, judy, its incredibly complicated stuff to try to model a pandemic thats moving exponentially and judging that against the human response to it. The basic form lay is they look at whosusceptible, whos exposed, whos infected and whos recovering, and then they measure that against mobility datacell phone mobility data, to get a sense of how well social distancing and sheltering in place is taking hold. With those numbers and correlations based on whats tually happened here in the United States, they rolled back the clock and assume that those mobile patterns that were in place when the social restrictions were being adhered to more in th country were instituted earlier, and thats where you get those numbers. If they had started two weeks prior, there would have been 54,000 fewer deaths, 54,000. Now, thats not too surprising when you talk about the exponential spread of a virus that is novel, but it does give some specific numbers to the particular problem. Woodruff so these are eyepopping numbers, miles. But, as you were telling us, there are caveats here. Reporter well, whats really important to remember is, if you to back two weeks prior to that date, first part of march, trooper only eight deaths in the entire United States associated with covid 19. So getting people to abide by strict social distancing, sheltering in place rules when there are only eight deaths total would probably not work very well. After all, people have to feel compelled to to things. So the models dont capture that particular aspect of it, the human nature component. Woodruff yeah, its so much of it, of course, is about the timing. And is it possible to know that these deaths were really preventable . Reporter yeah, thats an interesting point because we talk about social distancing, and we talk about sheltering in place as a way to keep the Healthcare System from overflowing, which would, of course, create more deaths, because people cant get care. But this particular paper, looking at these numbers, doesnt account for that, it doesnt sort out between those deaths and deaths that, frankly, might benevitable because it is, after all, novel coronavirus, and we dont have a vaccine. But an important pont, if you take, using as a template, south korea, where they instituted early action, widespread testing, contact tracing, and the numbers have diminished dray mattedcally. As a matter of fact, theyre getting back to work. Professor jeffrey shaman is the lead author from Columbia University and elaborated further. I dont think its inevitable everyone will get infected. If we were to hold this virus in check and reduce it analogously in the United States so instead of 20,000 new cases each day we only had 200 each day, we would be in a similar position where we probably could hold this thing in check a considerable amount of time while giving ourselves an opportunity to develop therapeutics and an effective vaccine. Woodruff so, miles, how useful is the information the doctor is saying . I think theres plenty of blame to go around, i think the important point is we settle into the idea its a binary, either were shut down, at home, not going out or weret at work. Theres a lot in between we can think about, including more usage of masks, much more testing and contact tracing. If you get to a point where there is a small outbreak, you can identify it much more quickly and kind of put a ring around it and stop i from becoming that wildfire type growth that we see with an exponential pandemic. So there is some there are lessons here, if we are willing to list up. Im afraid if we dont listen, were in for another surge pretty soon. Woodruff still some ambiguity, but you are right, something we have to Pay Attention to. Miles obrien, we thank you as always. Youre welcome, judy. Woodruff in the days other news, more than 80 people have died after a powerful cyclone swept through coastal india and bangladesh. The storm packed winds of up to 118milesperhour when it roared ashore wednesday. Bangladesh remain without power. China is considering a new security bill that could restrict opposition activity in hong kong. That comes after months of pro eaty so until they adhere weey esidt trumps longtimeector aer personal lawyer Michael Cohen was released from a federal prison in new york today due to the coronavirus. He arrived at his manhattan apartment wearing a face mask, to ser the rest of his sentence at home. Cohen had been behind bars since last may for tax charges, fraud, and lying to congress. He was scheduled to remain there until november 2021. His release was part of a widespread effort to slow the virus spread in prisons. In the president ial campaign, georgias bureau of investigation arrested a man who video recorded the Fatal Shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in february. He was taken into custody on a felony murder charge. The two main suspects, gregory and travis mcmichael, were arrested earlier this month. In the president ial campaign, theres word the Presumptive Democratic nominee joe biden invited both of new hampshires Democratic Senators for initial interviews to be considered for his Vice President ial running mate. Maggie hassan agreed to take part, but Jeanne Shaheen reportedly declined the invitation. Former Vice President biden has pledged to pick a woman as his running mate. Actress Lori Loughlin and her husband have agreed to plead guilty in a College Admissions bribery scandal. Loughlin will serve two months behind bars for conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud. Her husband will serve five months. Prosecutors will in turn dismiss Money Laundering and federal programs bribery charges. The couple is accused of paying 500,000 in bribes to get their daughters into the university of southern california. And, todays unemployment report pushed stocks lower on wall street. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost more than 101 points to close at 24,474. The nasdaq fell 91 points, and the s p 500 slipped 23. Still to come on the newshour Virginia Governor Ralph Northam discusses efforts to reopen his state. The Trump Administration plans to withdraw from a critical arms control treaty. With the economy in freefall, the struggling Retail Sector faces a grim future. Plus much more. Woodruff the washington d. C. Metropolitan area, which includes parts of maryland and Northern Virginia, is still under lockdown. And it is one of three areas in the country where cases of the coronavirus are plateauing, instead of declining. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam oked the phased reopening of most of the state last week. Hes also the only sitting governor who is also a medical doctor. And he joins us now from richmond. Governor northam, thank you very much for talking with us today. You have begun to open up the state of virginia, like soany other states, but we also learned today virginia had the highest number of new cases reported since the pandemic began. How do you know that youre not moving too fast . Well, judy, first of all, thank you so much for having me on today, and i hope that you and your viewers are healthy and safe. We have been fighting this pandemic for a little bit over two months now. Our first case was on march 7th, and we have followed the c. D. C. Guidelines that were outlined, and those were looking at the percent positivity, the Hospital Capacity that we have, the amount of p. P. E. , the amount of testing, and most of virginia, judy, a week ago, was ready to move into phase one following those criteria. I have received Northern Virginia, which is neighboring with maryland and washington, d. C. , still have high numbers. We had discussions with their leadership and decided that we would delay entering phase one for two weeks. To your point, we did have a high number of positive tests today. The great majority of them are up in Northern Virginia. So were monitoring that very closely, and, again, were encouraging people in the Northern Virginia area to just stay home until these numbers go down a bit. Reporter woodruff and in a separate question, governor, which has to do with whats happening in the d. C. Area is that we see, as these areas open up in the less populated parts of the country, as in rural virginia, southern virginia, people from the urban areas are going out to these parts of the state and of the country. Is virginia prepared for what could happen as people move around the state more . Were monitoring that very closely, and we have encouraged individuals that live in Northern Virginia to please stay home. Weve had outbreaks in other parts of the state, as you know, judy, over on the Eastern Shore where im there, weve had outbreaks at our Meat Processing plants, Nursing Homes have been affected by this. So this virus doesnt know boundaries of counties and states, and we all have to just really remain villagetlanta and keep our remain vigilant and keep our hygiene, warrick hands, wearing face protection and keeping our social distancing. We know those things work and virginians overall have been very good about following those idelines. Woodruff how prepared would you say virginia is, because you have to factor in a certain amount of unpredictability, dont you . Absolutely. Thats why they call this a novel virus. There are so many things we dont know. We dont know whether its seasonal. We dont have a vaccination. Theres no treatment for the virus. So we are monitoring our numbers very closely, and we have the ability, now, and its Getting Better every day, judy, to do testing. Were hiring a number of individuals to do tracing. We have the p. P. E. That we have thats necessary in virginia. So each day is better. But, you know, one of the points i would make, judy, we have been fighting this biological war for over two months now and we started with no supplies. Being an army doctor, as i was, weve had our hands tied and, so, weve worked very hard to accumulate more p. P. E. , thats going well, and our testing capabilities, yesterday, we tested over 10,000 individuals in virginia. So each day is better. Obviously, were working to make it better every day, and we want virginians to be safe and, as we move into these phases, we will do it responsibly. Woodruff a different subject, governor, and that has to do with mailin voting. You reported yesterday that in local elections in virginia this week, there was a much higher number of people, i think you said you reported 55,000 virginians voted in these local elections with mailin ballots, much more than in the last election four years ago. Youre encouraging virginians to mail in their votes for the june primary. But we know that President Trump, in the last fe days and again today, is saying that mailin voting, in his words, leads to fraud. He said, in so many words, its illegal. He said its going to lead to total election fraud. What do you say to that . And do you see this as an effort to discourage voting in november on the part of democra . Well, judy, nobody should have to choose between their health and casting a ballot, and this is not the time to play politics. So much of what our president has done is aspirational. There have been so many mixed messages that have come out of washington, andeth really why were in somewhat the predicament were in now, but we need to make sure that we can allow individuals to cast their ballball lot andhat they can do it safely. So, you know, we dont know what this virus is going to do over the next weeks and months, but, certainly, if, i november, the virus is still out there and people are putting their lives at risk, poll workers are putting their lives at risk, and we need to find another means of voting to make sure everybodys voice is heard and that we can elect president in november. Woodruff when the president claims that this leads to, in his words, total election fraud, how do you respond to that . Well, its baseless is what it is, and, again, we have showe of days ago that, you know, its a way that people can vote and its a way that they can protect their health. So, again, we need to be flexible as we move forward, and i hope that november 3, which we have made a holiday in virginia, we got rid of lee jackson holiday, as you know. We hope that people will go to be able to vote at the polls and do it safely, but if they cant, weve got to find other means to do that. Woodruff Governor Ralph Northam of virginia,hank you so much, governor. Thank you so much, judy. Woodruff the president signaled today that he would begin the process of withdrawing from a key, postcoldwar treaty with russia, and more than 30 other nations. Nick schifrin has that. Schifrin judy, the 1992 open skies treaty was built amid the collapse of the soviet union and its warsaw pact allies. It was designed to allow regulated overflights of russia, the u. S. , and europe, by russian and american planes to ensure that no military action was in the process of being launched. But the administrati says the russians have routinely violated the pact, and startethe clock today on a sixmonth process to withdraw. At the same time, the u. S. Is trying to include china in the renewal of new start, an arms between the u. S. And russia. For more, im joined frothe statdepartment by the newly appointed president ial special envoy for arms control, marshall billingslea. Ambassador billingslea, welcome to the newshour. Thank you very much. Lets start with a straightforward question, why is the Trump Administration withdrawing from the open skies treaty . Thanks for that question, nick. Four specific reasons were exercising our right under the treaty to withdraw. The first is that russia, regrettably, has engaged in a systemic pattern of arms control. Theyve destroyed the arms control framework in ukraine not just with the open skies treaty but the conventional Armed Forces Treaty and many other destabilizing efforts. Russia was misusing the treaty. Counterimpledges said russia was abusing the treaty to target our critical infrastructure. Three, russiaous using the treaty to advanced maligned propaganda activities over the world, trying to get their occupation of georgia and ilgal occasion of crimea accepted. The months answer is technologies passed by the world of wet film and antiquated aircraft. You can download commercial imagery today in a matter of seconds that really meets the original intent of confidence Building Measures in europe. Well work with our allies on this but russias behavior has been really regrettable. Reporter the main argument is russias not been compliant with this treaty. Yes, russia has constraints according to the experts that im speaking to and really blocked some of the conversation about some of those constraints as the u. S. Has seen it but the Trump Administration made progress. Russia allowed an overflight in kaliningrad. Why withdraw the treater than honor the progress the Trump Administration has been making . We and the president expects that other countries and partners in the treaty arrangements abide by the contractual obligations. When you sign a treaty, you deliver. When you break the rules, when you cheat by the way, this is not just open skies, like i said, this is a pattern of russian violation of arms control agreements across the board. We cant forget that just a few monthsgo, maybe a year ago, russia blew up the i. N. F. Treaty by secretly developing a ground launch Cruise Missile nuclear tip specifically prohibited by the treaty and deploying thousands of these things to target n. A. T. O. Forces. So were dealing with an unreliable partner here and there have to be consequences starting two the fact that if theyre going to cheat, we have the right to go ahead and withdraw from the taty and thats what the president decided to do. Reporter of course, russia uses everything they can to justify some of the propaganda dand bad behavior but open skies had a couple of venues to block that. Georgia used open skies to complain ability what russia was doing on its borders and when russia rammed yiewcialian ships and kidnapped ukrainian sailors, back into russia, n. A. T. O. Used russian skies to fly over russian territory to make a point. Why give up that tool . The tool hasnt been abandoned. The treaty in operate and our n. A. T. O. Allies will continue to exercise their treaty rights as they see fit. Its going to be important that, going forward, the other countries who remain inside the open skies treaty continue to hold the russians to account. Were going to work with our n. A. T. O. Allies because we have plenty of forces based in europe. Reporter we need to move on to talk about new start which expires early next year. You announced the russian colleague will sit down and talk ability new start. You said you expect china to be there. It took 24 years for the soviet union to agree to onsite inspections. Why do you think you can get that done, something similar, with the chinese in the next seven mont . It is true that we have built up a systematic way of engaging between the United States and soviet union, now the United States and russia that has provided some real advantages. We have a Risk Reduction center and a hotline, ways to really reduce the risk of inadd vertenned Nuclear Exchange and we need to get that dynamic going with the chinese as well. If they really do wanted to be treated as a great power, which i think they do, then theyre going to need to be prepared to show up, behave like a great power, negotiate with the United States and rust and agree to the verification and transparency measures that we need, given we know that china is engaged in a secretive and unconstrained Nuclear Weapons buildup. Reporter how can yoget that done in the next six to seven months before new start expires . At what point is some bert than nonnone arms control. We want to restore it with the russians and extend it to include the chinese. This is something that the russians themselves have recognized in the past. My counterpart, the Deputy Foreign minister himself, right after new start was adopted, made clear the next arms control agreement needed to be multilateral. I agree with him and were going to work together. I made clear to him i expect russia to help bring china to the negotiating table. I assure you the president is committed to the future of the Nuclear Arms Control but wants a good deal for the american people. Reporter well leave it there. Marshall billingslea, thank you very much. Good to see you. Woodruff for more than two months, the toll of unemployment in the u. S. Has grown each week. Many economists and experts believe some of these lost jobs will not come back any time soon. Thats true in the Retail Sector, which was already struggling before the pandemic. Just today, macys said sales were down 45 and expected a one economics paul solman reports on retails plunge for our series, making sense. They shut everything down and we were all furloughed. Reporter over two million americans have now lost their jobs in retail. Like janet dee, 43 years with macys in new york. This is going to be devastating to so many people. Reporter violet moya lost her job at a houston sephora six weeks ago. And still hasnt received Unemployment Benefits. Idid apply for food stamps. And it did thankfully went through, thankfully, because i didnt know how was i was gonna buy food. Reporter stores shed jobs, of course, as sales plunged a record 16. 4 down from march to april, a bloodbath for the economy, since retail accounts for about half of all consumer spending, which in turn drives some 70 economic activity. When we first entered lock down, there was a hope that this would be very quick, it would be a kind of vshaped recovery. I think most retailers now no longer hold on to that hope. Reporter Neil Saunders monitors the sector for global data retail. Youve still got a lot of economic distress, massive unemployment, a lot of people very uncertain about the future. It probably wont 2021 before we get back to any semblance of normality in retail. Reporter in acute pain clothing stores, where sales have tumbled nearly 80 . Already struggling Department Stores are down about 30 . Its just a scary situation. Reporter Sales Associate pmacys on long island after it closed in march. Are the cutbacks like this going to be for one year, two years, three years. You dont know. So is unnerving. Reporter especially for dee as a union rep. Our contract is up this month, may. So we have tried to get the company to agree to a one year extension onto the current contract, but they did not want to go for that. So then we asked for a six month extension, but they didnt want to go for that either. Reporter workers like dee have far less Bargaining Power than they did just months ago, says saunders. Before this crisis, we had very full employment. You had to pay attractive salaries, good bonuses to get those people to work for you. The problem now is that that situation is reversed. Reporter violet moya has been living off her stimulus check, still waiting for those Unemployment Benefits, looking unsuccessfully for work. I applied at target. I applied at h. E. B. And aldis. I applied at what i knew would be open. I even tried to door dash, but i only have one vehicle and my brother already does door dash. The other day was so bad that he made like 3 i a day and he was like, oh my goodness. Reporter he only made three dollars. You mean three dollars an hour . No, a day. Because theres thousands of other people on the app that joined because of what happened, because of the pandemic. Theres no jobs. So a lot of people are doing those jobs now. Reporter the pandemic has speeded the shift to online, predted to jump from 15 of all retail to fully a quarter. Good for virtual stores, disastrous for ones you can walk into. Many of which have now gone under. But in the case of two of the biggest names, j crew and neiman marcus, an added problem was the way theyd been financed by something called private equity. Ten out of the 14 bankruptcies in our retail in recent years have been private equity owned companies. So we expected them to be the first to go down when the covid 19 crisis hit. Reporter cornell professor rosemary bat studies the private Equity Industry. Their Financial Model makes it such that if theres any disturbance at all, theyre likely to go under. Reporter now private equity firms are Investment Partnerships that buy companies, including retailers with supposedly steady cash flows. They buy them with debt and that debt gets put onto the Balance Sheet to the retailer theyre buying. So this leaves the retailer with an enormous debt pile that they then have to service. Reporter so its hder for retailers to both pay their debts and stay current to compete with behemoths like amazon and walmart. They dont have the funds to invest in upgrading their stores and their merchandise and developing their online capacities in the ways that others have. I watched all those changes happen when they had the leveraged buyout. Reporter after almost three decades at toys r us, Ann Marie Reinhart was laid off two years ago when the company went bankrupt, after a private equity takeover. At rst i did not understand the process about how you could buy a company for six billion dollars, put one billion down, and then finance the other five and then make that company pay back that loan. All large private equity firms extract all the profits, so therefore the company can never really get out from under that debt. Reporter in march reinhart was furloughed from belk, the north carolinabased retail chain where shed next taken a job. I was under the impression that they were family owned. And then someone said, yeah, well, ever since they were bought out and i was like, what . And they said, yeah. That we were sold to a private equity firm. To me it was deja vu working at toys r us is, you know, they started, you know, cutting supplies and eliminating positions and cutting payroll, etcetera, and now here i am living the same thing all over again. Reporter private equitys response . The industrys lobbying group sent us this the private Equity Industry is working around the clock to save retailers and support their employees. We are all in this crisis together. Now, across the country some stores are opening up. But, say wouldbe consumers leslie and john dorman on Beverly Hills fabled rodeo drive. Even if retailers open, are people ready to go shopping . You know, i want them to reopen things safely, im not in a rush to get things back to where they were before this hit. Reporter and neither are retail workers like macys janet dee. Its not like where you can just stand behind a counter and just ring the customer up and then just push the package up. Theres a lot of service areas, cosmetics, fragrances, okay . The mattress department. People come in, they want to lay on a mattress. They want to see what theyre buying. But how do you keep it safe . Reporter so workers and shoppers remain wary, says analyst Neil Saunders. Confidence takes a moment to destroy. It can take many, many months to come back. Even among those who may want to go out and shop and miss that activity, a lot of them dont have the means to do so or theyre reluctant to spend because theyre nervous about the economy. Reporter no arguing with that. For the pbs newshour, paul solman. Woodruff now, a group of essential workers putting themselves on the front lines day after day. Transit workers in this country have been hit particularly hard. Drivers and transport workers represent the second highest percentage of workrelated cases of covid19 William Brangham will talk about those risks and the problems for major Transit Systems. My name is wendloccisano, and i am a station agent with the new York City Transit authority. My name is william mora and im a subway conductor. My name is Latasha Giardina and im a bus operator. My name is Chris Moralez and i am also a bus driver i have days where im just crying on the bus. Im afraid to bring it home. I have children. I have a husband whos older. You dont know if youre getting into a contaminated bus or contaminated area. You just have to treat everything like it is contaminated. So it makes it very stressful. It makes this stressful because we dont have the correct p. P. E. Im an exmarine. So, i mean, stress. Ive dealt with stress. This feels different because the enemy is invisible. We dont know who the enemy is. We cant see it. I had covid. You try to say, you know what . Whatever is meant to be will be. I got through it the first time. I still have a job to do. I have to get paid. I have kids to feed. I just cant say, hey, you know, you cant you cant live life every day being scared. When i hear somebody get sick or when i hear somebody that i know died. There is no funeral. We cant attend any funerals. So i think thats the hard part. Yeah, we know he passed away. Theres no real closure like. Theres no way for us to pay proper respect. It hasnt numbed me at all. It just. It gets me sad. But then the anger hits and its like you start questioning everything that was done that. Could it have been done differently . Could the governor . Could the mayor . Could m. T. A. Management . Could anybody maybe stop some of the deaths that did happen . If they would have prepared and maybe outfitted us sooner instead of. I mean, they just, they just, they werent, they werent ready. They werent ready. Some of us are in our buses from eight to nine hours a day. They give us one set of gloves. I dont bring lunch anymore for eight and a half hours. I do not eat lunch because i dont know if im contaminating myself by eating my lunch. Pyou know, anybody that writest, transit has to wear a mask. Again, were in a position that we cannot enforce that all we can do is educate and accommodate. Theyre never good at putting policies in place that will. That will be functional for you as an operator out in the street. They actually, just reopened like the parks. They just reopened like the beaches. Anyway, its gotten out of control. Like the people come out. Like it never happened. I think reopening was the worst thing they could have made. Its not the right time for it. Its really not the right time for it. So its putting a strain on us. Transit is the lifeline of new york city. Without us nothing moves. We dont get. We often. We dont get appreciated as much. We give these people to the doctors, to the hospital, to their jobs, to the grocery store. If they didnt have us, ey would not be able to get these places that are so important. Think about what you say and how you say it. Because peopleere out there, were trying and were trying really hard. And just smile even just a simple smile. Little wave goes just a long way down there. I think people now maybe after all this will appreciate each other just a little more. I think youll give that extra smile that extra, hey, nice to see you again. Just because you are really happy to see the brangham for more on the central role that Public Transportation plays in society and some of the concerns about safeguarding workers and passengers, im joined now by sarah feinberg. Shes the interim president of new York City Transit, which oversees all the subways and buses in that big city. Sarah feinberg, thank you very much foreing here. You just heard some of those voices of transit workers all ov the country and the concerns they have about going back to work in this pandemic. Can you help us how do you guarantee that those workers will be safe so that we can reopen . Yeah, thank you for having me. So, look, it is this has been unprecedented for the city of new york, for the state of new york. But this has also been an unprecedented crisis for new York City Transit. So new York City Transit is made up of 53,000 men and women who show up every day to operate buses and to operate trains and to get people safely from one place to the other. I mean, look, the reassurances that i can give is that we are doing everything we can possibly do to keep people as safe and healthy as we as we can. So we are distributing massive amounts of personal protective equipment, gloves, masks, suits, face shields, hand sanitizer. We are cleaning and disinfecting our stations and our trains and our rail cars. You know, sometimes two, four, six, seven times a day. We are testing new cleaning solutions, new cleaning tools so that we make sure were using the best products, the products so i can give people assurances on all those fronts. You know, i cant give them assurances and promise that their federal government will step up. I cant promise them that the guidance that well get from the c. D. C. Will be perfect. You know, at the beginning of this pandemic, for weeks, e c. D. C. Told us not to distribute masks because, you know, they were only for sick people and that they wouldnt help the healthy. Well, we eventually decided to go out on our own and distribute masks anyway. So i can reassure people that i will continue to do everything i can possibly do to keep them safe. And i can tell them that i hope that ill have federal partners that will do the same. Brangham what about the issue of hazard pay . As you know, theres a lot of workers who feel that the work they are doing is demonstrably hazardous and they ought to be compsated for that. Is that a possibility . Absolutely. I think myself and the c. E. O. Of m. T. A. Were the first ones to call for hazard pay. Amazingly, even before that, unions did. I absolutely believe that the folks who are operating the system and cleaning the system deserve hazard pay and the federal government should step up and should create a fund for it. E governor and others have called for a Heroes Compensation Fund similar to after 9 11. Absolutely. The congress should act and they shld act now and they should send hazard pay. Brangham if the city reopens in full and people start going back to being on buses and subways at the regularity that anyone whos been in new york city knows what those are like. How do you guarantee that people are not too crowded together on buses and subay trains so that they then are spreading the virus themselves . Well, so, look, were new york city. Were the largest train. Were a were m. T. A. Were the largest Transportation System in north america, not just on the east coast, not just in the country and all of north america. So its not really a question for us on whether the ridership comes back. Its when and how quickly. And to what degree. People need the Transit System in new york. A lot of people dont have cars. Congestion is so bad in this city that it would you know, it wouldnt work if you had a car. And so the Transit System is an absolute requirement that it function and function well in new york city. So riders will come back. But to your point, its important for folks to understand that an expectation of six feet is going to be a tough one to ever meet in new york city and in fact, to ever meet in most cities and ever to meet in most Transit Systems. We are talking a lot. We spend a lot of time talking about the social distance of six feet plus a mask. And that is great. That is absolutely ideal. As the city opens up, as the economy opens back up, six feet is not going to be an option really for anyone. And a lot of places in the city. And so our advice is going to be set expectations. Be vigilant about your mask usage and put as much distance between yourself and the person next to you as you can and give yourself a break. Look, its important for people to realize. I know Everyone Wants to get where theyre going. Quickly, efficiently on time. Its really important for people to understand that the most important thing is to keep themselves healthy and safe. And so if you have to wait for the next bus, if you have to wait for the next train, if the situation is crowded and you want to walk a little bit and then take the next train, thats going to be a better solution for everyone. Brangham all right, Sarah Fineberg of new York City Transit. Thank you very, very much. Yeah, thank you. Woodruff now its time for ask us. Thats where we take your questions on the pandemic to experts who are helping us navigate these unprecedented times. We get your questions from our web site, twitter, instagram and facebook. For the record, facebook is a funder of the newshour. Amna nawaz has more. Nawaz thanks, judy, and thanks to all of you for sending us your questions. Now, with so many communities opening back up across the country, a lot of you wrote in with questions on how to avoid catching or transmitting the coronavirus. To answer those questions and those concerns, were joined by angela rasmussen. Shes a virologist at Columbia University and holds a phd in microbiology. Angela, welcome to the news hour. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me on. Nawaz lets jump right into these questions now, the first one comes from carol campbell. Shes in lynn, massachusetts. She reached out to us on facebook and she sent us this video. A runner has the virus and coughs out loud because theres no one around. Does the virus linger in the air or on the ground . And if yes, how long is the virus still viable . Nawaz angela, its an important question dealing with maybe asymptomatic carriers out in public without masks, what do you say to her . Thats a really important question and a lot of people are wondering about that, we dont really know in every situation how long the virus will linger in the air. But in general, if you were just passing somebody on the street, walking by them, whether youre running or walking, the risk of transmission is probably fairly low. And the reason for that is that in many cases where we have seen transmission, theyre usually happening in indoor environments, environments that have a lot of people or large crowds of people where youre talking to that person for a longer duration of time. So if youre just sort of incidentally, passing somebody while youre out running or jogging, whether they cough or sneeze or anything else, the risk is not zero, but its likely quite low. Nawaz its very good to know well hopefully ease some concerns out there. Lets move on to our next question. It comes from nancy pado. Shes from mount prospect, illinois. And nancy sent us this video. Why are other countries spraying disinfectant on the streets if its safe to go outside . Should the u. S. Be doing the same in new york, for instance . Nawaz angela, weve seen some of these videos in other countries. Those masses of gases as people are spraying down subways and streets. What do we know about that . Should the u. S. Be doing it . So i think that there is a difference between spraying down surfaces in a subway car versus spraying down the road. To my knowledge, there is a very low, if not completely nonexistent risk from contracting coronavirus that might be on the ground. Unless youre licking the ground or exposing your mouth or your nose to the bottom of your shoes. A subway car is a different story. In a subway car, youre going to have people breathing, producing respiratory droplets and potentially touching those surfaces. And you could potentially touch one of those surfaces. Touch your hands, your mouth or nose and become infected that way. Certainly there can be some value within an indoor environment where there has been cases of transmission to disinfect high touch surfaces like a subway car. But in general, i dont think that its necessary to go out and start disinfecting the entire environment outdoors in the United States. Nawaz moving right along that to our next question, it comes to us from liberty, missouri. Thats where we find linda armstrong. She reached out to us on facebook and she sent us this video. What is the risk of swimming in a shared Swimming Pool . Nawaz a very simple question, angela, what do you say to her . So nobody has done any studies on sars coronavirus 2 and how long it can persist in bodies of water such as Swimming Pools, lakes, rivers or the ocean. However, a group recently did an analysis of other studies that had been published on other coronaviruses. And in general, corona viruses are fairly sensitive to chlorine and other oxidants that are put in Swimming Pools to disinfect them. So at a pool, youre probably very unlikely to become infected by swimming in the actual pool. The biggest risk is going to be in crowds of people. So one thing people should keep in mind is that viruses cannot reproduce on their own. They require a host to infect. So youre always going to be at a higher risk of exposure to a virus when youre around other hosts. And for this virus, those other hosts are other people. So if youre going to the pool or the beach in the summer, just make sure that you are practicing good physical distancing and avoiding crowds. Nawaz all very good, useful information in this summer. Our last question comes to us from gabrielle atchison. Shes from buffalo, new york. She reached out to us on ton our web si and she sent us this video. Im relying on deliveries of food and supplies and effort to stay home. How worried do we have to be about covid 19 on cardboard boxes and plastic bags . Also in a disease pass through food. Nawaz angela, so many people relying on those deliveries. Now, what do we know about transmission through the boxes and also through the food . Thats an excellent question that i tnk everybody has been this hasnt actually been studied for sars coronavirus 2. And the virus can persist on cardboard for up to 24 hours. It can persist on plastic surfaces for up to three days, according to these experiments that were done under laboratory conditions. However, its really important to note that in these studies, after that period of time, while there was still infectious virus detectable, it was at much lower there were a thousand times less virus particles than there were at the beginning of the and thgood news about groceries and packages in general is that if you wash your hands after youre handling these packages, the risk becomes even lower to the point where its probably minimal. As far as eating the virus and becoming infected with it by consuming food. We dont really have any information about that. But when you are eating, youre generally swallowing things. And those things go into your stomach, which is a very high, highly acidic environment. Most enveloped viruses, like coronaviruses, cannot survive and remain stable in that environment. Personally, i dont worry about contracting the virus from the food that i eat and the groceries that i prepare for. Four meals for my family. Nawaz always good to know what someone an expert in microbiology is doing herself. Angela rassmussen, thank you so much for taking the time to be with us today and taking these questions. Its my pleasure. Thank you for having me on. Nawaz and thanks to all of you for your questions, you can send us more anytime via news hours, twitter, facebook and instagram accounts or on our website, thats pbs. Org newshour. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. Im judy woodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by the ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newsho productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org hello, everyone, and welcome to amanpour and company. Heres whats coming up. It doesnt hurt people. Its been out on the market for 60 or 65 years, for malaria, lupus and other things. In a pandemicbad information can mean the difference between life and death. Can facebooks Oversight Board help staunch the flow, i ask its cochair, helle thorningschmidt. Then. In august, a ship appeared on this horizon in point comfort, virginia, it carried more 20 enslaved africans who were sold to thecolonist sgs. Slavery, americas origina