Major funding for the pbs newshouras 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 planninand advice for today, and tomorrow. The william andfolora hewlett dation. For more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world. At www. Hewlett. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for nsblic broadcasting. And by contributo your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the numbers keep building in the covid19 pandemic, even as the pace slows in some hot spots. The United States now haofnearly a thirhe worlds three million infections, and 55,000 deaths. At the same time, tensions are growing over getting b business. Stephanie sy begins our coverage tonight. Reporter its the start of a new work week, and most americans are still at home. But in some states, more doors are opening for business. Georgia was one of the first states to begin relaxing restrictions last week that continued today with restaurants and movie theaters resuming normal operations. The grand reopening at this georgia gym over the weekend was quiet, with only a few venturinf a work out. But migemaarker sti maynos th s have families, they they have bills to pir mortgages, their car payments. So we really wanted to start to get it so we could start getting some funds back into their pockets so they can actually get back to some type of normalcy. Reporter elsewhere, Texas Governor gregg abbott announced order will end on ay. Thome meanwhile, Public Health experts in washington warn that its too soon to go back to business as usual. Distancing measures should las for months. Social distancing will be with us through the summer to really ensure that we protect one another as we move through these phases. Reporter at the u. S. Epicenter in new york, officials ese cautious about restarting the economic eng and they cancelled the stas june pre new york city mayor bill deblasio. Theres a little bit of a t tale cities going on here in this country, the places that seem to be putting economics ahead of human lives and then those of us tryg to focus on health and safety of people first and then build out the economic restart from ther reporter but for countless Small Businesses in the u. S. , its about survival. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer are pressing the Trump Administration to set aside at least 10 billion in smallne bu rescue money for minority banks and the like. They say aid is not reaching c lowincomunities. And even big business isrm sounding the alike factory s. Farming giant tyson food the company, which has been criticized for its treatment of icworkers through the pand took out fullpage ads in major pers on sunday warning that the Food Supply Chain is breaking and calling for more federal suort. Across the atlantic, british Prime Minister bor johnson returned to work on downing street, after needing hospitalization for covid19 symptoms earlier this month. We are now beginning to turn the tide. If this virus were a physical assailant, an unexpected and invisible mugger, which i can tell you from personal hperience, it is, then this is the moment when e begun together to wrestle it to the floor. Reporter europes worsthit untry italy, is also trying to pick itself up. With the number of new cases dropping there, the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced plans for easing lockdowns. translated on may 18 we plan to reopen the retail sector. That sector serving manufacturing and construction activities which well open on may 4. Also on may 18 museums, exhibitions and libraries as well as training for team. Spor june 1 is the date when we would like to open bars, restauran, coif s,mautssage centres, so all activities related to selfcare. Reporter the world healthga zation today said that prudent approach will help to save lives. What we want to see is coptries taking a stepbys data driven approach that allows a country to move steady towards a new normaltowards a new way of livg that allows lives and livelihoods to return. Buinat the same time, not dog it so quickly that theres a rebound in cases. Reporter the worlds push to reopen, experts suggest, should not be a race, but a delicate dance. For the pbs newshour, im stephanie sy. Woodruff the expanded testing plan announced by the president is one more step on a long roatoward reopening much of the country. But many say its still too small a step a new bipartisan proposal calls for far more ambitiousoves. This 46 billion dollar plan would hire 180,000 woro help test, trace and track those who were infected or exposed and the people they came in contact allocate money for housing where infected people could isolate themselves voluntarily. And provide income support while people are isolated. Andy slavitt teamed up with former f. D. A. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and many others on this blueprint. He is the former head of medicare and medicaid under president obama. Is andy slaferrity slafility good to you have with us again, they swre heard so much aboutal test, they areng about it again at the white house. The United States has a long way to gin that regards but in this proposal are you not cusing on sting, why not . Ha wele o but once we do that, oncwe reduced our test and begin to reopen we have to give states the tools to prevent what we lived through the last month, judy, i would say is the equivalent of a forest fire. What we have to do is event forest fires from breaking out so we can catch things when they are little camp fires. Rd and in to do that we have to have the ability to surround the outbreak as it happens. So it doesnt spread into community again. And what that will mean as you said, when we fi someone who tests positive, we want to help them figure out who are the t peopy have been in contact with, this is tried and true method throughout the years, through measles and other outbreaks and help support folks so the community can go on and people can feel safe. And the number are you usinghr 180,000 peopleghout the country, this is something organized by the states. How do you know people are going to cooperate with this . Well, i think the majority of people will because people dont want to make other people unsafe. U if someone were to tell me tt i had covid19, i woul want to know who are all the people that i work with or were in contactith so they could be alerted. So if somebody wasmeoing to help o that and do it in a systemic way, it takesome resources. I would be appreciative. Of course it is going to be volume tear and therbe people that dont want to do that. And i think we have to recognize that were not talking about eliminating all of this or making covid19 di wppear. But whare talking about doing is limiting the damage as much as possible. So that, i see you have about 12 billion in the plan set aside for what, ntain, we call t tracing. You have snore 4 billion plus set aside for heat el hotel rooms for people, explain why those would be needed . Well, for those of us that can isolate safelyt home, ife we w test positive and not infection our families, then there is where there is a Spare Bedroom or a room to go, that is great. But that doesnt describe every american situation. And so if someone is living in a multigenerational household say way parent or grandparent and covid19 would be dangerous for them, what we want ts we want to have the many hotel and avt el rooms available across the country, madlable on a volume tear basis. If people want to soci isolate for two weeks, have a couplef weeks of cable tv and pbs newshour on their own, maybe get away from their families and that way they will be able to be able to go back to their families and be offer. Ourse this would have to be volume tear. I think other countries have done this in a way, like chinait wherasnt been volume tear. But we live in a liberal democracy. I dont think that is the right choice. Still i think st a comfortable choice for many. Woodruff but as you point out, people havetho agree to do. And for many people it would be an option they wouldnt have otheise. And andy slavitt, there is orother 30 billion in here what you call income support. What is that all about . This is reay important. We get asked to do our civic dultee duty throughout our lives. We get asked to sit on jury duty. And when we do that we get some very small stipend but it helps people who arent getting reimbursed from their employer to be able to do that and do theicivic duty. So what we are proposing here is that for a period of time where people are going to be socially isolated, that they are eligible for this level of income replacement. Otherwise i think it would be difficult forp people to complyy told somebody who was living paycheck to paycheck to go without two paychecks, in order to make all th of us safe, it may be hard for them to do that. So we have a stiplaon in this proposal that allows people that need that income to get it. And the 4billion or so 46 billion total you think takes care of it for the whole country for how long . We estimate that this needs to be done until we eitherave heard immunity or more hopefully a vaccine. So this is about 18 month of fund approxiting. The way we have structured it to be fiscally prudent the state was apply for a bloct with the decht health and human services. They would estimate thr number of cases and hopefully they have fewer cases than thethought they did the money would revert back to the federal treshry. So we want tmake sure that we doing this. Ent as possible in and of course if we get to a vaccine and they thr is still money in the state coughers this too coffer this too would go back to the fe and just quickly, you are ngrn this gomoney vewould. Go tt the states. As you know there has been some criticism test. People saying it actually should have been coordinate more at the federalevel but you are saying these things should be run at the state level. Well, there say role for the federal government in off these things and a role for the state government. So in test the f ieral governmethe most efficient person to make sure that the supply chain works. Ha to make surewe have all of sure that states afightingmake and create bidding wars. Stthat cant be done by thes themselves. But when it comes to administering the test, those are cal activities. Likewise con tablght traition can get donet a local level. And remember were not going to be all going through the same thing at the same time. W t what new york went through, they would need contact tracers aftethat point. Other cities, other states, they may need them at different times. So we think this could be much more easily coordinated at the and finally, wh the President Trump, thehite house, administration and the congress are going to go along wi all of this . So i this morning we had preliminary conversations. I think that there was really important to get people on the political right d the political left to agree on this proposal. So we hashed out many of the issues that are going to i think cause potential concern forer eiarty. I think the political right is going to focus on issues like Civil Liberties and making sure that peoples freedoms arent being violated and they will want to make sure its fi rscalicalponsible and make sure the people on the left ve those concerns well a people on the left will make sure tests are equitiably distributed. Do we just do it in testing and con tablght Contact Tracing for the well off but that it i those are minor dices that i feel can be worked out. This feels like a very bipartisan problem solve approach that the white house did embrace. Andy slavitt explaining this proposal that was just made public today. Thank you so much, we appreciate it. Thank you. Druff in the days othe news, wall street opened the week with a rally, on hopes of easing pandemirelated restrictions. The dow jones indurial average gained 358 points to close at 24,133. The nasdaq rose 95 points, and, the s p 500 added 41. A second wave of emergency loans became available to Small Businesses today under the ycheck protection program. Congress approved the extra 310 billion in funding last week. The initial round of loan money ran out in just two weeks time. Officials in south korea today renewed calls for caution amid speculation about kim jong un. Rumors about the north korean eladers w ing asha he sdisappeared from n recent weeks. The souths unification minister said today his government e confident th nothing to speswoman followed up. translated we can only say the same thing we have been saying. We have nothing to add regarding the rumor about kim jong un health. The National Security council had said there are no unusual signs within north korea and that stance remameins the woodruff meanwhile, state tr in korea today read what it said was a statement from kim thanking workers who built a tourism resort. It did not mentinn his health. Fghanistan, civilian deaths from fightg during the years First Quarter were the lowest for that period since 2012. The United Nations reports 533 people were killed from january through march, including more than 150 children. Ant, that was down 29 from one year ago, despitscalation in attacks during march. Back in this country, the u. S. Supreme court ruled today the federal government must Pay Insurance Companies for losses during the early years of obamacare. By 8 to 1, the court said companies can collect 12 billion, under a provision of the law that congress had sought limit. The high court will hear a broader challenge to the law,r lais year. And, in the president ialth campaignpresumptive democratic nominee, joe biden, picked up thendorsement of the nations top elected democrat today. House speaker nancy put out a video statement, praising the former Vice President. She said biden would be a voice son and resilience. Still to come on the newshour more states are opening foho business, busafe is it to go back out . Another dispatch from the front lines of the fight against covid19. Amy walter and tamara keith on washington latest response to the crisis. Plus, how social distancing has changed the way americans mourns their loved on woodruff as some states begin to loosen their stayat home restrictions, others are extending them. John yang begins our coverage of how some businesses are taking their first steps tord the new normal. Are easing, some bs ownersctions are eager to reopen, but others doing so with misgivings or aret ing shut. Lets hear from two of those voices now. In spefor my industry, we have the ability to travel as a cosmegito and barbers and nail techs. So a lot of us in our industry were able to go to homes or have someone to come to our homes. And it really put us at a more vulnerable situation. Le the reason why i was excited to be o get back. Because it allows us to have ad more controlvironment. Last week, when Governor Kemp announced that restaurants could begin reopening this wy husband, i just kind of looked at one another and both shook our heads as to say, no, w would not open up to dine in service this week. And we know that the recommendations are that we should see at least 14 days of declining cases before we start to consider opening up. And we also are thinking about our own staff and whether not they would feel comfortable coming back to wor hear how things are going in two states where businesses are reopening, im joined by bill nigut of georgian public broadcain atlanta, and anna rau of montana pbs in welcome to you bota, i want to start with you because today was the first day that businesses were allowed to reopen if they wanted to. Some businesses in montana. But tell us what the situation in montana is with the virus. How badly hit has montana been . Well, we had actually been pretty lucky. The governor got on things very quickly and closed schools andss busi early on before we had a lot of cases. So we stand at about 450 cases today and only 14 fatalities thus far. Any fatality obviously is too many but thais a pretty low number given what could have happened. So i think at th point the governor and other officials that run the state havdecided that it is at a point where we can crack the door open. And if we start to see somethi rebound a bit here, we could isolate the peoplet up and we have enough to do that. So i think it say w number of cases and low number of hospitalizations has made the governor and officials feel comfortable doing this soft opening. And is montanhitting the white house guide line of 14 days of declining numbers. Yeah,e have had declining nments since the end of march. The st couple of days, we ha some days wherwe had one case or none at all. So wdefinitely have seen a downward trend in the cases and in hospitalizations. So it is looking quite gook. Good. And i think it makes people feel confident we can do a little for reopen oing. And with the reopening today, are you seeing a lot of businesses reopening that can reopen and are a lot of consumers heading to stores . No. And i think that bas one of theo erns going into it, that will the customers show up. Ne the bues can open but will customers want to come shop and go back into the retail businesses. Otand at this point also af them werent ready to open so they have to order a bunch of thstgs. They havngent guide lines if they would like to reopen. They have toeep the number of people in their store below 50 occupant see what they normally would ve and also keep people social distance. And that is part of the requirements on reopening. So this is not just anybody can open up. You have to open with stringen social disdancing guide lines in place. So i think some people have bee nervous abat. They also need to disinfect. Some businesses they are expecting stomers to touch thing ands they have to disinfect those. Nobody really knows whathey need to do to make sure customers feel safe but they want to make sure they feel safe before they come back. Thats what they are looking at right now qunsill nigut in georgia, scom businesses were allowed to open starting on friday. What has the weekend been like. A lot of businesses opened . A lot of people going to stores, to these places . Only anecdotal evidce obviously at this point but friday it was, there were hair salon, barbershop, massage therapy, bowling alleys of all things and we found that barbershops on friday morning, had lines and people waiting to get in the door. But i think for the mo w part over tkend, we saw a great deal of resistance to people wanting to getut and patronize ese establishments, and more to the poi, many businesses chose and are continuing to choose to remain closed. Today the vernor allowed restaurants and social clubs to open for business. D here again for the most part most restauranteurs are saying they do not want to open. D tht feel comfortable. They dont feel safe. And at the same timed some who have said weve got to get back to work. Rt we need to saking money again. So it has been a very mixed reaction and the gover decision is incredibly ntroversial here. Lets talk about that. What has been the public debate about there . We have seen polls from pew last week that said most americans were worried that restrictionoos would come off soon rather than not soon enough. What is the public debate in georgia. It has been exactly that. There is no question that georgia like every other state is suffering stra ordinary economic distress and is going to continue to for the time being. But there are many many people here, chosen, the economy and trying to kick start business over public safety. Tt even got aked by the ngesident last week who said that kemp was mooo quickly, that stunned. Nd anna n montana the governor is a democrat, what is the public discussion been therh about whethe is a good idea or not . Well, it was a lot of concern go floog it i think when people found out this is ki i of just liaid crackk the door open strks not throwing it wide, restaurants and bars and d,stilleries are still clo not allowed to open unt next week. They have stringent social distancing requirements. As they read the plan, and the steps, we talked about there are certain requirements you have to enve in place in order to the economy, one would be enough p. P. E. And another to ve enough testing in case you start to se this rear its head and we can follow it quickly. Both of thosthings are in place to test imso symptomatic individuals with confidence and we have enough hospital spaiments i think all of theetion decision vtion been thought through before they decided to open things up. And with this opening up it is just some thirntion schools are still closed. Schools can remain closed. Gyms, all those places, bowling alleys, bingo hauls, all closed and you cant have anybody over, a group over ten. So they are still keeping it pretty tight, and still work from home. Just enough. Has changed. Has the governor indicated when he will take the next step or look to take the next step, the if there is a rebound in cases and move tsecond face . Ct right, i talked to a who attended. So Task Force Plan being. This a he said we do want to be realistic, when we open this increase in cases so we have to expect that. However we dont want to stee a hu number of cases and we want b able to track the ones when do see. So really how well tes will decide when we go to phase two, phase one could last three weeks, a month and we kind receive what hpens. Question go on to two, by look, the way there are three phases to this plan and we mo phase three when that was okay. But if at any time the governor doesnt like w is seeing, he will absolutely move it back to a shell ter in place and get rid of phase one, i think what they will do is track it very closely. And if they get uncomfortable with what they a seeing and people arent social distancing and not washing their hands and being safe, he will take it back to shelter in place. And bill in gorge garks the governor has been pretty aggressive on this. Has he said what his next steps are . When do you move to the next step with this. Decision to make. Important at the end of the day onur ay april 30th, thein sheltelace order will expire. We are waiting to see whether he is going to extend that order tn said that as older begansy and people witmedical risk tishould shelter in place may 13th. Now he said many businesses can open again, what will they do about extendinthe shelter in place order for all people. And were all very eager to hear what he decides about that. Ill nigut, georgia public broadcasting in eight, annulrau, in mis thank you so much, to the both of with you. Hank, john. Thank you. Woodruff the number of covid cases has been picking up in some rural parts of the country. And in many areas, their hospitals were feeling squeezed before this health emergency. Georgia, as we just heard, is very much fronand center right now in the public debate over reopening, but its already dealing with its share of casest currentlre are roughly 24,000 confirmed cases in thean statnearly 1,000 people have died. William brangham has this view southwest georgia. Es in brangham thats ght. For a look at how one Rural Community in the south is dealing with theirrenique ou, im joined by dr shanti akers. She is a pulmonologist at the Phoebe Putney Health System in oubany georgia. Dr. Akers, thankery much for being here. I wonder if you could justlitart off by t us some people may be familiar with this case ofow the first case came t your community through a through a funeral, if i y. Member correc can you tell us about how that happen sure. Ed . So ourndex case happened almost six weeks ago now, if not earlier, actually, in my recollection. We had a person who came down for a local funeral. They happened to have some underlying medical problems, they unfortunately started becoming ill as they were down here. And so they came to our hospital. They ended up requiring intensive care. And so the funeral that he had attended was fully aended with numerous people in the community, people that knew the gentleman who had passed away. And at that time, there was a lot of touching. People in the south, we like to hug and kiss and hold each others hands. And so we know that there was a lot of interaction in very close quarters for a prolonged period of time during that funeral. And thats the initial first case that we had been aware of. And then subsequent to that, w found out that there was this large cluster of other people he had been in contact with that and subsequently pretty muchital exploded brangham is that right . Exploded i mean, i know thats not the medical y rm. How quicd you see a rise in cases . So he had come and gone. And then within quickly, i believe in one or twteweeks, we stnoticing a significant increase in the cases. They filled up one of our i. C. U. S but very quickly, in two, three weeks, we filled up all three of our regular i. C. U. S. Brangham and how did you guys feel well prepared . I mean, obviously, youd beenhi wa the news coming out of china and then the first cases on the west coast. Deal with this . El prepared to ev i think we had been anticipating thatually it might reach our town, but i dont think we were prepared for when it did. I think with a case that whad started much earlier than manyou parts of thery, with the exception of parts of the west coast and east coast. So at the time, you know, our Health Care System had been planning on increasing the amount of p. P. E. And things of that nature with the anticipation of cases coming. I dont think any of us were ready for the cases when it finally showed up, though. Brangham people who have been watching this primarily as an outbreak happening in major cities, new york in particular. I understand that you would say that there are particular challenges that a ruralco unity has that are different than what a big city has. Right. So people are obviously very wellware of new york city. But the main distinguishing factor is that coronavirus does not distinguish whether you live in new york city or whether you live in rural georgia. And so for us, it was a challenge because we dont have the resources of an n. Y. U. Or a mount sinai Health System withh wh pull resources so it required very early on us reaching out to people like o governor, to our state, Public Health department and state emergency relief departments in order to help us eeprovide the care that wed. Additionally, the patient populations are often very different. You know, in a ruralnity environment, you may have patients with various socioeconomic status. Youll have some people that are very well insured, but a lot of edpeople that are underinsr similarly have no insurance at all. Georgia has been a shat has not expanded medicaid. So we do have patients that como in with c medical problems utilizing parts of our Hospital System thashould be safe for acute issues. Brangham and those are all factors that were preexisting to the pandemic arriving. Exactly. And i think its sort of those differences and disparities that really get even much more exacerbated during a pandemic. Brangm as you well know, your governor is one of several who is starting to say its time for us to start opening our economy back up and let some siness start to reopen. How does that sit with you . So thats a very diffict question, because, you know, as we know, a lot of people have been very negatively impacted by the closing of businesses and unemployme has been quite thgh. At the same time has impacted our hospital as well. Weve been unable to perocrm elective pures, things that people in our Community Count on to just help quality of lis , perhknee replacement surgery for someone whos had ae difficult alking. E ve had our peak about two weeks ago, so wefinitely seen some deescalation in terms of the volume of cases coming in so it seems like win a position ando open resources to handle the state opening. Obviously that we are the only large hospital within our area. And so if people startlly interacting much more that thatn ux and that dieser, you know, that caseload that we saw a few weeks ago, few months ago is goingck back up. Brangham well, lets keep our fingers crossed that that doesnt occur. Dr. Shanti akers at Phoebe Putney in albany, geor ma. Thank you h for your time. Thank you. Woodruff the confusion coming from the white house is the white house said beere would no briefing to update americans on covid19 and then announced there would be. E r a look at how all the white hoiefings have been seen by the public im here with amy walter of the Cook Political Report and host of public radios politics im here with amy walter of the Cook Political Report and host of public radios politers with amy wa and tamara keith of npr. She also cohosts the npr politics podcast. It isbo so good to se of you. G ank you very much. Tam, i am go start with you because you have been White House Briefings. Of the they have brn going on now for weeks. They were we mr. Tomed these were all about updatin cthe country id19. But they have branched out beyond that. What have you seen in examining them . Yes, so i have been looking back at these briefings and got some help from the Data Analytics firm factbase, they have a website that crunches al of transcribes all of the president s press conferences. And what weve learned is it started out as Vice President mike pence was going to come out of these briefs, come out of the Task Force Meetings and sort of brief the public on what the task force covered. Very quickly President Trump started attending and then he started dominating. The analysis we found is that over the course of these briengs, President Trump has spoken for 30 hours and dr. Birx and dr. Fauci, the two medical experts that are part the task force most prominently, combinef theyve spok eight hours. That Public Health communicators advocate for is that you know, the politic politicians get ouive a clear, concise, simple message about what thean publico, actionable information. And then they hand it over tope the medical s to talk about the science. That he likes to tout the shown science too. Woodruff and in fact, tam, staying with you, he got in, i think it is fair to say hot water last week after he was musing, in the white house words, about whether to injectin disinfect an humans. Whether toin effect ultraviolet light. Th afte the white house announced there prbt going to be any briefings toda as we said they did put one on. O and there that has been under way. But has the white house taken frankly a different view of these briefings . What have we learned about that . Is well, one of the things ha ithinpps ghg enrit now that president nd his new chief etom spl c hy eloperation at the white house. There say new press secretary there is a new communications director. And they are attempting to get their sea legs going. The white use has sa thats isri they sort of see this as an insnreks point. That they are trying toti tran, trying being an operative word, to talking more, focusing more on reopening the economy, rebuilding the economy, which is going to be important for the president s reelection. But instead, so much of this has just become the trump show. And certainly there are people concerned that the president spent the better part of the weekend sort of offering new explanations for why he was asking medical experts about ojecting disinfect ants i human beings for treatment. Oo uff and amy, we know a lot of americans have been watching these briefings. Ve wherever they een able to ca streang online. Vision, on what have we seen about the they are seeing. Blic to what yeah, judy, what we have seen is the more time that th president has spent in front of the cameras, the more his Approval Rating numbers have dropped. If you look at where this president was both in opinions of americans on his overall ndling of his job as president as well as handling the coronavirus, his numbers were starting to inch up at the end of the march. But now they have gone on this sort of downward trajectory. This is in contrast to governors and other state and local officials who have also been on tv a lot. Who are also really under the public eye every week or every day,in front of tv cameras, talking to their residents they see their numbers increase, their Approval Rating numbers increase to heights that they had not seen before. And a big part of the difference is as tam pointed out about the trump show is that were in ace n a lifetime crisis. And the president has chosen tot mes moment with the same personality that he has met every moment, whether it is a crisis or not. And we know that s incredibly polarizing. And for people who like it, who believe that this is the way that the president gets stuff down, taking it directly to the Mainstream Media and others who they feel are undermining him, then they are getting something for everybody else, they are but seeing something that they have come to dislike over the course of this presiden. They continue to dislike. And so for the president who has been sort of desperatetho capturmoment, perhaps the best thing for him to do is retreat from it and we know he wont do that. Woodruff and tam just quickly, this is a white house who does watch as every president does, they watch thehe sorbing it and figuringng t to a it. Superrelevant becae there is one person that watches it all extremely closely who has expressed opinions about who should be sitting where in the White House Briefing room, even, and thats the president himself. Continuingo pay very, very, very close attention to this, continuing to not want to be upstaged by others, then there a hance the president is going to keep doing what the president does. And amy, sort of related to all of this, depending on how looking at not justhealso been president is doing in terms of his approval but what some of senate races whi are critically important to Republicans Holding on to their majority in the senate. What a you seeing so far . Thats right. At least forp the last couple of weeks or so about the fact that the president s numbers as they are declining, we are seeing republican numbers decline over the koirs of that same amount of time up and down the ballot. But judy here is the chalg eng. When your party is in the white house, wherever you are on that ballot your political fortunes rise and fall with the political fortunes of that person in the white house. The other thing we have known for quitsome time is that democrats are on the offense this year. They have been able to put about shall bsh bsh in place, republicans have two seats in place, democrats if they hold all of their seats they just need to win three and the white house to take control of the senate. So y know, there is a very strong possibility judy that if joe biden were to win the white house he brings with him a Democratic Senate and democrats hold the house. So amy just in the little bit e we have left are there specific races that you are seeing that you are watching where ae thng cis te hahein fate of these republicans . Absolutely. I mean i think North Carolina say perfect example. Arizona to a certain extent as well. Democrats early on were worried about these two states especially when it looked like beie sanders might be the nominee, with joe biden who has a better appeal in those sort of purple states, they are feeling much better about their chances and then we have seen some challenges for republicans in places like georgi where the publican senator there has gotten caught up in aoc selling scandal. And in kansas, there is a candidate who is very polarizing figure who remains ahead in that primary. Republicans worry about kansas. And of course in montana, a state, these are all red states, the popular dem kraict governor announcing a couple weeks ago or a month ago, i dont know, all r,e days are running toget that he was running for the senate. Woodruff yes, th. So between putting a lot more seats in play, having joe biden at the tocht ticke at andent whose Approval Ratings are dropping, mal of these are ng democrats look and feel a lot better about the senate. Woodruff fascinating, amy walter, tamara keith, we thank you both. Please stay safe. We will. Urs welcome, judy. Woodruff the spread ofma covid19 has dcally altered the way we both live and now unfortunately di america. Reached out to you, our viewers, to hear your storie ones to bo covid19 and other illnesses. Amna nawaz lks at the process of grief for people in isolation. He was absolute nderful, kind person. Fo she was likfoot eleven and she would not hold back on tellinpeople what she thought. He would always say, well, a better day is coming. U just got to keep living. Awaz the memory of her father makes Kimberly Reese pain of losing himn earlye april to covid 19 ill lingers. I wakup every day with this emptiness and trying to figure out how do i fill, fill that void. Nawaz hospital rules during the pandemic prevented the tightknit family in new orleans from saying goodbye to 75 year s old, wayne reeior. What was it like in those final days when you werent even allowed to be by his bedside . I think that was thest part. My dad was there for everybody and that was heartbreaking not being there for him. Not being able to touch him and talk to him. Thats gonna probably haunt us really for the rest of our lives. Nawaz its an ache keeya steel of edina, minnesota knows all too well. With someone when ee of being nawaz but she couldnt be who died of covid 19 earlierki, this month. She was also unable to see her uncle, mike tracy, and her grandmother, dee swaggert, both of whom died in Nursing Homes within days of each other, from alzheimers. I really wanted to be there with my dad. And we got word that only he could go visit her. That was probably the hardest part of this wholeweek. Not being able to be in the room with him and really let that grief kind of be free and open and vulnerable with him. Nawaz for thousands of americans laying loved ones tour restg a time of social distancing, the goodbyes are not what theyd imagined. The socl ritual. Of holding your loved ones hands while they die, and your grief at a viewing at a funeral is so fundamental to the human ecies. Nawaz nicole hibrater has worked as both a hospice nursean anend of life doula, helping people prepare f how they wish to die. We are tribal people and that is how our species has evolved. Have that taken away from people, i really feel is going a to cauot of long termgo grief that ig to need a lot of help processing. Nawaz pete wassermans grandmother gerda died earlier this month from natural causes, just weeks shy of her 100th birthday. Y grandmothers brother, mother, father were all killed in the holocaust. She workedn a slave labor camp in latvia for her teenage young adult years. Then came to the United States when she was about 25 after the war. Nawaz the mily had planned for a traditional jewish funeral. But new jersey rules banning large gatherings blocked that memorial know, coming toget familys, you to honor her in that way. And so we we were robbed of that a little bit. Awaz a cruel carryover covid19 funerals can fuel the spread of the virus. A february service in albany, georgia is thought to have sparked an outbreak, leading to more than 1,500 cases today, anr 00 deaths. Funeral homes across the country have responded with new restrictions, defining a new reality in how america mourns. Never in my lifetime thought i would ever have to experience a pandemic right up close and personal. Nawaz Lanier Levett helpser run five f hes in atlanta. Just a few weeks ago, he says, a Typical Service hosted up to 250 people. Day . No more than 10 are allowed. Life is different now for us and our Funeral Homes and the wawere conducting funeral and you know that the inability for families to properly give the type of sendoff that they are accustomed to giving. Az nin new york state, the epicenter of the u. S. Outbreak, funeral workers are struggling to keep up. Funeral homes are overwhelmed and there is no number. People are dying. Were all the Funeral Homes. Grief feels isolatingn the best of times. And when were already isolated even more right now, it feels even more so. Nawaz keri bokevitch, who lives in richmond, california, has put memorial plans on hold, after her father David Lindstrom died recently of complications from dementia. There are so many people that my dad lovedho loved my dad that dont have a space to say goodbye right now. Nawaz to allow some grief be shared, and safely, some facilities are now offering driveup funerals, walkthrough viewings, and livestreamed services. Probably 30 ofwiur families choose to Live Streaming services prior to the pandemic. But now about 80 of the families are choosing to livestream and so thats been an add benefit. Nawaz that was a Silver Lining forete wasserman. He bid farewell to his grandmother over video conference, with a rabbi, family, and friends, all dialed in from michigan, nevada, and germany. All these people that ordinarily would not have been able to join were able to join and in that way, it was really it was really nice, really like her, heartening that so many pele cared. Nawaz ough he admits, hes hat his grandmother would make of it all. A Virtual Service r we had to do funeral, she would have been her quite simply. En blown, just ke i remember when we told her thathe was on the internet. She was like, how did i get on the internet . Th get me out oe. Nawaz hibrater says this moment, diffict as it is, provides a chance for open and honest conversations with loved ones. A way of dealing with that is saying to them, well, i undetand that you may not wa to talk about your end of life wishes, but would you mind listening to mine . And usually what happens is that once they hear you being vulnerable and talking about the gs that you would want o the things that you would not want, it kind of opens them up to also start having that dialogue. Nawaz kimberly and wayne treese junior say they knir dad would not want a lot of fuss, and they did hold a small gatherin under new funeral rules. If it were just regular funeral that church would have been packed three times over. Nawaz the family is alreadyd looking toa new day, and y king plans for tt moment. When we the ces open up, we will have a memorial to celebrate his legacy, just in an diffway, in a different time. Hell get his. Hell get s due. Well make sure of that. Nawaz a chance to gather in grief and celebration, for the moment, on hold. For the pbs newshour, im amna nawaz. Woodruff medical student Choumika Simonis is currently sheltering in place lem, but in a few months, she will be a doctor on the front lines in neyork city. Her mother, clemene vertuss li queens and has been working tirelessly throughout the pandemic as a certified nursing assistant at a v. A. Nursing home. Although the crent Health Care Crisis has kept them apart, we bring them together tonight fo this brief but spectacular take. My name is clemene virtus. I live in quee im working from 3 30 to 12 00 midnight, at a v. A. Nursing home for the new york state, im working as a certified nursing assistant. My mom is from haiti. She came over in the late 1980s. She loves the Health Profession and helping others in particular. Well, i love my daughter. Thats my first child, shes very ne and shes very intelligent, shes a doctor. Im happy for that. Im currently aedical student, at loyola university, chicago. Go ig to be an internal medicine resident in a few months. Just hearing my mom talk about very stressful, knowing that shes on the front lines and the risk that she puts herself when she goes into work every day. For me, god bless me, im not sick, but im still going, because im taking care of elderly people, people who cannot do anything for themselves. The covid people. I have so many in my floor, and so many die already. Yesterday, we have one died, the other day, one die. Every day, three of them die. One patient who die, it hurt me so much. He was a policeman and then he was in the army. He used to sing for us, and then he used to give a story every day. It hurt me. That hurt me. Ill be on the front lines in a couple of months myself. Y so i know ifm can do it, and shes been doing it for a to fear. E, then i have nothing mommy, i love you. D youve been working so hr all three of us and you instled in us this incredibl work ethic a resiliency and i credit you in terms of where i am today, so i just wanted to thank you for all the hard work that youve been doing. It has not gone unnoticed and you mean a lot to me, so thank you. Youre welcome. Me my name is c vertus. My name is choumika simones, and this is my brief but spectacular take. On my daughter. On my mother. Woodruff and you can find all our brief but ectacular segments at pbs. Org newshour brief. And on the newshr line right now, during the pandemic, School Districts have raced not only to figure out how to teach from afar, but also how to coinue providing critical meals to students in need. But the risk of exposing School Workers to the virus, as well as mounting financial costs, are prompting some districts to rethink their programs. Learn more about those challenges on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. Dy im oodruff. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by oa and by the alfred p. N foundation. E supported by hn d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation. Committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More informaon at macfound. Org and with the ongoing support of these institutions 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 newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh today on americas test kitchen, elle shows bridget a tidy take on classic sloppy joes, adam reviews kitchen sponges, dan reveals the science of cookie size, and lan and julia unlock the secrets to the perfect chocolate camp cookie ice cre sandwiches