NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Wed, 15 Jul 2020 13:12:49 +0000 https://www.gpbnews.org/post/parents-must-make-big-decision-children-school-starts-amid-covid-19-pandemic 107196 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:20:00 +0000 Parents Must Make Big Decision For Children As School Starts Amid COVID-19 Pandemic Rob Stein Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/us-wants-ramp-covid-19-testing-100-million-month-september 107197 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:20:00 +0000 U.S. Wants To Ramp Up COVID-19 Testing To 100 Million A Month By September editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/news-brief-trump-addresses-race-us-covid-19-testing-goals-federal-tax-deadline 107170 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 News Brief: Trump Addresses Race, U.S. COVID-19 Testing Goals, Federal Tax Deadline editor Copyright 2020 West Virginia Public Broadcasting. To see more, visit West Virginia Public Broadcasting . https://www.gpbnews.org/post/former-west-virginia-nursing-assistant-confesses-murder-veterans-va-hospital 107174 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 Former West Virginia Nursing Assistant Confesses To Murder Of Veterans At VA Hospital editor Copyright 2020 Georgia Public Broadcasting. To see more, visit Georgia Public Broadcasting . https://www.gpbnews.org/post/many-georgia-residents-still-struggling-get-tested 107175 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 Many Georgia Residents Still Struggling To Get Tested editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/several-states-begin-walking-back-reopening-plans-amid-covid-19-surge 107171 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 Several States Begin Walking Back Reopening Plans Amid COVID-19 Surge Joanne Silberner When COVID-19 barreled into the U.S. this year the predominant public health advice for avoiding infection focused on physical isolation: No parties, concerts, or sports events. No congregating inside in bars or restaurants. No on-site family reunions. No play dates for kids. Just keep away from other people. Meanwhile, although social scientists supported that medical advice, they feared the required physical distancing would spark another epidemic — one of loneliness, which was already at a high level in the U.S. "You might expect this would make things much worse," says Julianne Holt-Lunstad , a neuroscientist and social psychologist at Brigham Young University. But several new studies suggest that huge increase in loneliness hasn't come to pass — at least, not yet. And the researchers studying the pandemic's emotional fallout say we humans may have ourselves to thank. "That sense of solidarity that people are feeling when they ... are collectively going through a challenge together https://www.gpbnews.org/post/video-chats-driveway-dances-and-dino-parades-buffer-pandemics-loneliness 107173 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:00:00 +0000 Video Chats, Driveway Dances And Dino Parades Buffer Pandemic's Loneliness David Welna Relations between the more than 25,000 U.S. military forces on Okinawa and that Japanese island's 1.5 million residents have long been strained over pollution, crime and overcrowding associated with the 31 U.S. military bases there. Now a new outbreak of COVID-19 cases among American service members stationed on Japan's southernmost territory is fraying things further. As of Tuesday, 100 new cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the past week at five U.S. bases on Okinawa, according to Japan's independent Kyodo News agency. Beyond those bases, where only three cases had earlier been confirmed, Okinawa has had a relatively low impact from the disease, reporting 148 infections and seven deaths. At a weekend news conference, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki called the surge of coronavirus cases among U.S. military personnel "extremely regrettable," according to the Reuters news agency. "I can't help but have strong doubts about the U.S. military's measures to prevent infections," Reuters https://www.gpbnews.org/post/coronavirus-surge-us-military-okinawa-adds-soured-relations-there 107162 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 22:09:00 +0000 Coronavirus Surge For U.S. Military On Okinawa Adds To Soured Relations There Jason Slotkin Public health experts generally agree that, in spite of improvements, the U.S. still falls short on the testing needed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The official who oversees the country's testing efforts, however, maintains the U.S. is doing well on testing now and will soon be able to expand testing greatly using newer, point-of-care tests that deliver quick results. In an interview with NPR's Morning Edition , Adm. Brett Giroir pointed out the U.S. is currently conducting more than 700,000 tests a day. He argued that some parts of the country are already conducting enough tests to contain outbreaks. "We know that in areas of the country right now that have appropriate mitigation, that the testing we have is sufficient. We know right now that the testing we have is dense enough that we can detect very sensitively where there's going to be a problem," the assistant secretary for health in the Department of Health and Human Services told NPR. A recent analysis for NPR by Harvard https://www.gpbnews.org/post/despite-shortfalls-and-delays-us-testing-czar-says-efforts-are-mostly-sufficient 107152 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:07:00 +0000 Despite Shortfalls And Delays, U.S. Testing Czar Says Efforts Are Mostly 'Sufficient' Frank Langfitt Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit AILSA CHANG, HOST: The United Kingdom is banning Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, from developing Britain's 5G network. The U.S. welcomes this decision. It's just the latest move in a global struggle between the U.S. and China over technology, business and political power. As NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, it's also a sign of how China's increasingly assertive diplomacy has backfired. FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: The British government will forbid companies here from buying Huawei equipment for 5G beginning next year and require the removal of all Huawei equipment by 2027. The government says the decision was triggered by U.S. sanctions on Huawei suppliers that could make the company's equipment easier for China to use for spying. Oliver Dowden is the U.K.'s digital secretary. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) OLIVER DOWDEN: The security and resilience of our telecoms networks is of paramount importance. We have never and will never compromise that https://www.gpbnews.org/post/uk-bar-british-companies-buying-5g-equipment-huawei 107151 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:03:00 +0000 U.K. To Bar British Companies From Buying 5G Equipment From Huawei Jeff Lunden Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: Performing artists are struggling to find ways to reach audiences during the coronavirus lockdown. Musicians are streaming concerts from their homes. Theaters are trying everything from Zoom plays to radio dramas. And one opera company is trying to reach its audience one listener at a time over the telephone. Reporter Jeff Lunden decided to take the call. JEFF LUNDEN, BYLINE: This is a story of love and separation. Two days before my phone rang, I got an email. And it says, my love, I miss you terribly. Each day without you is like... JENNIFER ZETLAN: A day without breathing. I long to see your face, the twinkle of your eyes. LUNDEN: The email is from my beloved. She says she's written some lyrics to songs she wants to sing to me and adds a postscript. ZETLAN: I've taken up learning a new language in quarantine, so all the songs will be in German. Here's the English translation. LUNDEN: I waited. Then the phone rang. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/site-opera-offers-live-performances-over-phone-just-1-person-time 107150 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:03:00 +0000 On Site Opera Offers Live Performances Over The Phone For Just 1 Person At A Time editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST: California's two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, both said yesterday that students will not be headed back to school campuses this fall. Instead, classes will be online. But school board leaders in Orange County, which sits between LA and San Diego, have decided the opposite. Last night, the Orange County Board of Education voted to approve recommendations that school campuses reopen in the fall without masks or social distancing. Lisa Sparks is one of the board members who voted in favor of those guidelines, and she joins me now. Welcome, Lisa. LISA SPARKS: Thank you. MCCAMMON: And we should note that your recommendations are not binding recommendations, but they are what your board is advising. They say that masks may be harmful to students and that social distancing causes, quote, "child harm." How so? SPARKS: I think that the data is not completely conclusive. And that is the main point of all of this https://www.gpbnews.org/post/orange-county-education-board-member-her-vote-schools-reopen-without-masks 107147 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:03:00 +0000 Orange County Education Board Member On Her Vote For Schools To Reopen Without Masks editor AILSA CHANG, HOST: Two female firsts in the Supreme Court are retiring. We're talking about the marshal of the court and the reporter of decisions. In 2001, Marshal Pamela Talkin became the first woman to oversee security. Christine Luchok Fallon has been at the court for 31 years, the last nine as the reporter of decisions. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports. NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Pam Talkin had been at the Supreme Court in the top security job for less than two months when 9/11 hit. Her first task that morning was to evacuate the building. But Chief Justice Rehnquist was in a conference room conducting his annual meeting with the chief judges from around the country. Talkin sent in a note to no avail. Finally, she walked into the room to get everyone out of there. A month later, the anthrax attack cross-contaminated all the mail in the Capitol complex. And this time, the court had to do something it had never done since the Supreme Court building opened in 1935. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/look-pandemics-impact-recovery-alcoholism-and-drug-addiction 107153 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 20:03:00 +0000 A Look At Pandemic's Impact On Recovery For Alcoholism And Drug Addiction Matthew S. Schwartz Updated at 4 p.m. ET Months after approving some limited involvement by the Chinese technology giant Huawei in constructing the U.K.'s next-generation wireless data network, British regulators reversed course Tuesday. Beginning in January, U.K. regulators will implement a ban on telecom operators buying Huawei equipment. Existing Huawei 5G equipment will need to be removed from the U.K.'s 5G network by 2027. The decision comes after relations between the U.K. and China declined sharply over China's actions in Hong Kong, and in the face of a potential rebellion by parliamentarians from the U.K.'s ruling Conservative party who are concerned about the security implications of Chinese involvement in the 5G rollout. But it also follows sustained U.S. pressure on the U.K. and other European countries to exclude Huawei from 5G development. The U.S. says Huawei's equipment can be used for espionage by Beijing, and it has threatened to withhold intelligence from its allies that continued to use https://www.gpbnews.org/post/reversal-uk-will-ban-huawei-equipment-its-5g-network 107139 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 19:14:00 +0000 In Reversal, U.K. Will Ban Huawei Equipment From Its 5G Network Susan Brink Anton Besenko is worried. He fears all the hard-won progress made in fighting the AIDS epidemic is on a collision course with the urgent needs of the coronavirus pandemic. "For people with HIV, it's double, triple the crisis since the start of the lockdown," says the Ukrainian AIDS advocate . "I have a bad feeling that organizations and governments are so concentrated on COVID that they are completely forgetting about HIV. For marginalized people, it's a question of life and death." Besenko is no stranger to health crises. After years of injection drug use, he contracted HIV (which he now lives with) and hepatitis C (which he's now cured). He got clean in 2004. Today, he works for the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Ukraine as a coordinator for harm reduction programs that help IV drug users get clean needles or safer alternative drugs like methadone. On July 10, he led a session at the 23rd (virtual) International AIDS Conference on the impact of COVID-19 on AIDS. Suddenly, he and https://www.gpbnews.org/post/what-happens-when-pandemic-and-epidemic-collide 107123 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:53:00 +0000 What Happens When A Pandemic And An Epidemic Collide Dan Charles Prairie strips in fields of corn or soybeans can protect the soil and allow wildlife to flourish. This strip was established in a field near Traer, Iowa, in 2015. Omar de Kok-Mercado, Iowa State University Lisa Schulte Moore loves nature. To stand in an old-growth forest, she says, "I can only describe it as healing." When she moved to Iowa to teach ecology at Iowa State University, she didn't get that same feeling when she found herself amid acres of corn. She wasn't hearing birds or seeing many bugs. "All I can hear are the leaves of the rustling corn," she says. "Not one biological noise. You know, they call it the green desert." This is, in fact, the central environmental problem with agriculture. This year, corn and soybeans cover an area of the United States equal in size to all the East Coast states from New York to Georgia. It has displaced wildlife and left the soil more vulnerable to water and wind erosion. But Schulte Moore says that it doesn't have to be a green desert. She https://www.gpbnews.org/post/how-absentee-landlords-keep-farmers-protecting-water-and-soil 107122 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:46:00 +0000 How Absentee Landowners Keep Farmers From Protecting Water And Soil editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Here is a very brief history of American testing in the pandemic. The United States started out drastically short of coronavirus tests. The few people who got them had to wait many days for results. Then the United States engaged private companies to make up the difference. Mobile testing centers appeared in parking lots in many cities. Millions of people were tested. But now, as NPR has reported, most states are short of the testing numbers they need, and people getting tested report delays in getting results. Admiral Brett Giroir is on the line. He is an assistant secretary of health, and he has been in charge of the federal testing response. Admiral, welcome to the program. BRETT GIROIR: Thank you. It's good to be here with you this morning, Steve. INSKEEP: I want to quote Mick Mulvaney, President Trump's former chief of staff, who wrote, quote, "it isn't popular to talk about in some Republican circles, but we still have a https://www.gpbnews.org/post/unprecedented-demand-slows-results-some-coronavirus-labs 107112 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 11:50:00 +0000 'Unprecedented Demand' Slows Results From Some Coronavirus Labs Julie Appleby In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, contact tracing is downright buzzy, and not always in a good way. Contact tracing is the public health practice of informing people when they've been exposed to a contagious disease. As it has become more widely employed across the U.S., it has also become mired in modern political polarization and conspiracy theories. Misinformation abounds, from tales that people who talk to contact tracers will be sent to nonexistent "FEMA camps" — a rumor so prevalent that health officials in Washington state had to put out a statement in May debunking it — to elaborate theories that the efforts are somehow part of a plot by global elites , such as the Clinton Foundation, Bill Gates or George Soros. At the very least, such misinformation could hinder efforts to contain the coronavirus, and at worst it has sparked threats against tracers, say some observers, including the Institute for Strategic Dialogue , a London-based organization that studies polarization. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/conspiracy-theories-aside-heres-what-contact-tracers-really-do 107113 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 11:00:00 +0000 Conspiracy Theories Aside, Here's What Contact Tracers Really Do Lauren Sommer Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: The effects of the coronavirus pandemic are being felt all over, even underwater. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE SINGING) KING: That's a humpback whale singing in Glacier Bay, Alaska. Scientists are finding the oceans have been quieter as shipping traffic has fallen. Here's NPR's Lauren Sommer. LAUREN SOMMER, BYLINE: A lot of scientists have had to cancel their field work this year, but not Christine Gabriele. She can work all alone in a boat on Glacier Bay. On a cool rainy morning, she spots what she's looking for and captures it on her smartphone. CHRISTINE GABRIELE: Yeah, there are about five whales working this one little area, breathing when they're up. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE BREATHING) SOMMER: They're humpback whales. GABRIELE: It looks to me like they might be feeding on some schools of fish. (SOUNDBITE OF WHALE BREATHING) SOMMER: Gabriele is a wildlife biologist with Glacier Bay National Park. For 35 years, the park service has been https://www.gpbnews.org/post/pandemic-reaches-all-parts-globe-including-underwater 107108 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 10:28:00 +0000 Pandemic Reaches All Parts of The Globe Including Underwater editor As school districts consider how to approach learning this fall with no sign of the coronavirus slowing, the virus has already had devastating consequences in one rural Arizona school district. Jena Martinez-Inzunza was one of three elementary school teachers at the Hayden Winkelman Unified School District who all tested positive for COVID-19 after teaching virtual summer school lessons together from the same classroom. Martinez's colleague and friend, Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd, who taught in the district for nearly four decades, died. "She was very dear to me. She's one of my closest friends," Martinez told Morning Edition. Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd died after testing positive for coronavirus. Other teachers she worked with tested positive as well. "She was a very loving, very faithful person and she was very kind," says her colleague Jena Martinez-Inzunza. Luke Byrd "She was a very loving, very faithful person and she was very kind. She always loved watching kids find their way, https://www.gpbnews.org/post/teacher-recovering-covid-19-says-school-reopening-tough-decision 107105 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 10:25:00 +0000 A Teacher Who Contracted COVID-19 Cautions Against In-Person Schooling