WEBVTT - Under The Rug 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.560 This is Red Pilled America. I'm angry just like you 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.760 about what bureaucrats like doctor Fauci did to us during 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:14.720 the pandemic. That's why all week we've been rebroadcasting episodes 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.560 from the COVID era to remind you to never forget 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:20.319 what they did to us and our families. Episodes like 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.599 this one titled Under the Rug, which was originally broadcast 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:27.200 on February nineteenth, twenty twenty one, at a time when 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.200 shows were being deplatformed for stories like this. And if 0:00:30.240 --> 0:00:32.519 you want to get Red Pilled America ad free, go 0:00:32.560 --> 0:00:35.559 to Redpilled America dot com and click join in the 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:40.239 top of the menu. Now on with the show. The 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.320 arrival of COVID nineteen triggered a panic in America. 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.239 This college student, stricken with COVID nineteen is making an 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:51.000 urgent plea. 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.680 He claims he's being forced to quarantine without basic applause, and. 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.200 All across the United States, school of buildings sit empty. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:02.080 Its COVID cases surge across the US. More than thirty 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.119 states whire people to wear face masks in. 0:01:05.039 --> 0:01:10.680 Public quarantines, violence, death mandatory masks, food shortages, closed schools, 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:15.880 closed churches, businesses, shut down, election integrity, and profiteering. Americans 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.480 have seen it all. But with all the chaos unleashed 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.120 by the virus, what will be the biggest cost from 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:27.319 COVID nineteen. I'm Patrick CARELCI. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:28.759 And I'm Adriana Cortes. 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:32.200 And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show. 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.760 This is not another talk show covering the day's news. 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:37.959 We're all about telling stories. 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:40.480 Stories Hollywood doesn't want you to hear. 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:41.640 Stories. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:46.360 The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore. 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.200 You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries, 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:59.720 and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:13.160 Red Pilled America. The coronavirus unleashed chaos in America the 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:16.560 likes of which we've never seen. But through all the turmoil, 0:02:16.919 --> 0:02:24.440 what will be COVID nineteen's biggest cost? To find the answer, 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:27.480 We're going to tell the story of Trevor Till, a 0:02:27.600 --> 0:02:31.320 story the University of Illinois probably doesn't want you to hear. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.120 It was March twelfth, twenty twenty, and like the rest 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.400 of the country, the people of Illinois were about to 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:49.040 enter unprecedented times. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.480 I've asked our news stations to take this press conference 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:56.120 live because it's important that we have an opportunity to 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.400 speak directly to the people of Illinois. At this moment. 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.200 Democrat Governor of Illinois JB. Pritzker made an announcement that 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.400 would bring his state into the national coronavirus panic. 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:14.520 I want to begin tonight by announcing new guidance regarding community, social, 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.800 and sporting events in the state of Illinois. I've spoken 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:22.240 with the owners of all of our major sports teams, 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:25.520 and I've asked them to cancel all of their games 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:30.160 or play without spectators until May first. All of the 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.760 owners that I spoke with told me that they completely 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:37.840 understood and were more than willing to comply with this guidance. Additionally, 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:42.360 I'm asking that all community events that organizers expect will 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.920 attract two hundred and fifty or more people be canceled 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:53.040 or postponed until May first. This includes personal and social events. 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.200 I'm mandating that events of one thousand or more people 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:02.280 be canceled or postponed immediately. With regard to schools here 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.520 in Chicago and around the state, we are not closing 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:09.880 our schools, but we are monitoring the situation On a 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:11.520 day to day basis. 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.760 But in just twenty four hours that monitoring changed his policy. 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.120 Breaking news just a short time ago, the Governor of 0:04:17.159 --> 0:04:21.719 Illinois announcing all schools in Illinois starting Tuesday will be closed. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:25.039 Those closures will last until March thirtieth at the earliest. 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:27.400 Parents are now scrambling to figure out plans for the 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.279 state's two million students. 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.320 And this was a much different message than we heard 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.080 from him yesterday and even from the mayor this morning, 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:37.120 both of them saying they would not be closing schools 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.760 in Illinois, but individual districts have made those decisions, and 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.640 the governor said, after looking at new evidence and what 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:47.680 has been happening around the world, that he wanted to 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.719 be precautious and take these measures to save lives. The 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.080 governor saying he wants to flatten the curve to lessen 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:59.120 the impact and alleviate the burden on the healthcare system 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.159 to try to slow the spread of this disease. He 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:05.839 is encouraging social distancing and said he was worried about 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.640 students bringing the virus home to their parents and grandparents, 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:13.000 and also teachers and other staff in the buildings being 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:14.400 exposed to this as well. 0:05:14.760 --> 0:05:17.960 Governor Pritzker and his maskless team made a plea to 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:19.000 the people of Illinois. 0:05:19.240 --> 0:05:24.480 Please this weekend, if you can stay home, if you 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.120 are able to telework, do so. If you don't have 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:32.880 to travel, don't. This isn't forever. This is a sacrifice 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.640 in the short term to help our hospitals, our healthcare workers, 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.160 our testing laboratories, and our vulnerable and elderly residents. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.640 Then he does hope that this two week school closure 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.200 will be all that it takes. We did ask if 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.200 this could go into the month of April, and he 0:05:48.240 --> 0:05:50.719 did not answer that question directly, saying they are taking 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.160 this one day at a time. Lastly, he says he 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.839 would rather be criticized for doing too much than doing 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:57.400 too little. 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.200 Illinois was not alone. States all across America began taking 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.440 the monumental step of closing down their schools. It was 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.880 a big hit to high school seniors, especially students like 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:17.240 Trevor Till He. 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.160 Was in so many clubs and so involved in everything 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:21.799 in school. 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:24.119 That's Trevor's mom, Lisa Moore. 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.359 He was the class president, He was a president of 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.720 National Honor Society. He was an Illinois State scholar. He 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.239 was the captain acrosse team. He was a po vaulter. 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.840 He was the drum major, He played the trombone. He 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:45.560 was in choir. He was the president of the Spanish club. 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.200 He was in drama club. He was the lead of 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:52.320 the play in the Fall, and then he was the 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:54.799 male lead in the musical. 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.279 Trevor's high school was in Seneca, Illinois, a small town 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:01.560 of roughly twenty five hundred people about seventy miles southwest 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.640 of Chicago. At the time time Illinois schools were shut down, 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.000 Trevor was just coming off the lead role in his 0:07:07.040 --> 0:07:10.160 school's musical rendition of The Music Man, the nineteen fifty 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.640 seven Tony Award winning Broadway musical. 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:21.800 With One Tenos, and they were followed by Rose and 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.040 Rose off The Finest Birds. 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.800 He was the music Man. He was awesome. 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.320 Trevor was an extrovert that loved school. It was his 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.600 life force. So when Seneca High School got shut down, 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:39.120 he was hoping it was just for a couple of 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.840 days or maybe a few weeks. Again, Trevor's mom, Lisa. 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:47.360 When he first came home and we didn't know what 0:07:47.440 --> 0:07:49.400 was happening in the very beginning, you know, it was 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.720 just gonna be okay, we're home for a week or 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:52.960 two weeks. 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.160 But then Illinois Governor Pritzker did what so many of 0:07:56.160 --> 0:07:57.680 his peers did across the country. 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:01.600 To avoid the loss of potentially tens of thousands of lives, 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.040 we must enact in immediate stay at home order for 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.800 the state of Illinois. So that is the action that 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:13.000 I'm announcing today. Left unchecked, cases in Illinois will rise rapidly. 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:18.320 Hospital systems will be overwhelmed, protective equipment will become scarce, 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.240 and we will not have enough healthcare workers or hospital 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:29.920 beds or ventilators for the overwhelming influx of sick patients. 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.840 I fully recognize that in some cases, I am choosing 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:40.479 between saving people's lives and saving people's livelihoods. But ultimately, 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:45.360 you can't have a livelihood if you don't have your life. Therefore, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:51.080 starting tomorrow evening, Saturday, March twenty first, at five pm, 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:55.520 until the end of April seventh, all our residents will 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:57.760 be subject to a stay at home order. 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.280 At the time, schools were telling student athletes to continue 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:01.840 their training. 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.360 They kept saying, keep running, you guys, keep working out 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:07.840 at home, and you know, keep going because as soon 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:09.600 as we get back, we're going to be starting, you know, 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.080 track season and everything, and baseball and you know, all 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:14.640 of our spring sports. 0:09:15.040 --> 0:09:17.560 By the end of April twenty twenty, it was becoming 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:20.160 very clear that the coronavirus was not as deadly as 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:23.360 the experts predicted, especially for children and young adults. 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:25.360 You may remember what they first told us back in 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.040 February and March. They said, we have to take radical 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:31.200 steps in order to quote flatten the curve. Well, six 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.960 weeks later, we're happy to say that curve has been flattened, 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.240 but it's likely not because of the lockdowns. The virus 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.680 just isn't nearly as deadly as we thought it was. 0:09:39.840 --> 0:09:42.320 All of us, including on this show. Everybody thought it was, 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.920 but it turned out not to be. Hospitals never collapsed 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:48.240 outside of a tiny number of places. They never came 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:51.520 close to collapsing, at least not from an influx of 0:09:51.600 --> 0:09:56.600 infected patients. Instead, something remarkable happened, something amazing, really without 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:57.840 parallel in American history. 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:00.040 The opposite happened. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:04.199 Thanks to the lockdowns. Hospitals have he come to collapse 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:05.880 why from a lack of patience. 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:16.600 Yet, even with the positive data coming in, governors were 0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:18.560 expanding their shutdown orders. 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.000 The major news from Governor Pritzker this afternoon is a 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.520 month long extension to the stay at home order for Illinois. 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:27.479 It was expected and now it's official, the Governor extending 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:30.040 the stay at home order until May thirtieth. 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.600 Trevor's high school closure went from two weeks to a 0:10:33.640 --> 0:10:34.280 few months. 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:37.480 His classes were on zoom, and he hated it because, 0:10:37.520 --> 0:10:40.120 like I said, he was ultra involved and liked to 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:41.959 be in class and had a great report with his 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.320 teachers and he's like, mom, this just stinks, you know, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.960 just and just doing all his work from home and 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:54.080 his bedroom and a computer. Just he didn't he hated it, 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:57.679 you know, he's like, I feel lost. My life's there, 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.800 you know, in high school. And kept trying to encourage 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:02.559 him and kept saying, well, we don't know how long 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.800 it's going to be. Hopefully you'll get to go back, 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:08.440 and then it just dragged out obviously longer longer, and 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.960 then it was like problem looked like it was gonna 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:15.559 maybe happen like late May, and then that got canceled. 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.480 So that was a big bomber from and we didn't 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.679 know what was going to happen with graduation. 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:24.760 Trevor eventually did have a ceremony, a modified one. Only 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.319 his parents were able to attend, no extended family or siblings. 0:11:28.600 --> 0:11:32.040 He had two older brothers and two older sisters. Missing 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.920 out on almost every big senior moment must have been 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.600 an enormous downer for millions of high school and college students. 0:11:39.040 --> 0:11:41.240 It was for Trevor, and he had a hard time 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:42.000 keeping busy. 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.559 In April, when I saw that there was going to 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:49.000 be no track season for sure, and I saw Trevor, 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:53.440 you know, I knew he was sad about everything. I said, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:55.920 I suggested, you know, and his dad did too, that 0:11:56.000 --> 0:11:59.800 he got a job, something to do to keep him busy, 0:11:59.920 --> 0:12:02.760 because he was such a busy kid. So he did 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:05.920 get a job at Minards, which is like a Lows 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:06.800 or a home depot. 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.000 He started the job in April twenty twenty, and. 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:13.520 So that helped, you know, because he was out again 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.079 amongst people, and mostly younger people worked in the garden center, 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:19.920 so he made some new friends there too. 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:23.600 However, Trevor was still missing the camaraderie of those final 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:28.360 days of high school. But there was a light at 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.320 the end of the tunnel. College. He was an honor student, 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.720 so going off to higher education was a foregone conclusion. 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:42.480 Trevor ied the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. It 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.840 was a much larger school than he was used to. 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:48.400 His graduating class at Seneca High had about one hundred people. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.959 U of I typically has around fifty thousand students, seventy 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:55.760 five hundred of witch are freshmen. Trevor may have been 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.000 down about high school, but at least he'd had the 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:06.079 college experience on the horizon. Welcome back to red pilled America. 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.440 So Trevor Hill had just experienced the shutdowns during the 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.320 final months of his senior year. He missed out on sports, 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.200 plays and just the general camaraderie of high school. But 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.120 there was a light at the end of the tunnel. 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:21.120 He'd gotten into the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:27.720 they were promoting normalcy at the college. Then in mid 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:33.320 May twenty twenty, news hit about a college system in California. 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.960 We've learned the chancellor for the California State University System 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:41.120 announced today that at least in the minimum, the vast 0:13:41.160 --> 0:13:44.000 majority of in person classes for the fall semester have 0:13:44.080 --> 0:13:46.839 been canceled. The schools will be shifting their focus to 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.200 online courses in the wake of the pandemic. 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:52.720 Students attending cal State schools likely won't see the inside 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:56.040 of a classroom until twenty twenty one. The California State 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.880 University System is the first group of schools in the 0:13:59.000 --> 0:14:02.240 nation to move nearly all classes online this full In 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:04.040 response to CO nineteen. 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.679 The cal State University Chancellor gave his rationale. 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.920 We got to this decision because the health and wellbeing 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.160 of our students and employees is the most important factor 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:14.719 in any decision that we make. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:19.040 With almost half a million students, California State University is 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:22.880 the largest four year university system in America. Their decision 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:24.960 carried weight in academic circles. 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:27.240 And Tom, let's go back to California. We mentioned the 0:14:27.240 --> 0:14:31.200 country's largest public university system. Cal State has decided not 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:34.600 to reopen campus and just move classes online this fall. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:37.400 What do you think that means? I mean in terms 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.240 of a signal for other universities around the country. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.600 Well, it certainly could be a precedent. The cal State system, 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.360 as you know, is half a million people, twenty three campuses. 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.560 It says it's been losing hundreds of millions of dollars 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.040 because students are not on campus. Universities up and down 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:55.640 are struggling with when they should reopen and how good 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.040 of an education are they providing if it's online Like. 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.640 Millions of other college students, Trevor was wondering how his 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.680 target at college, the University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, was 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.360 going to handle the coming school year. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.720 He wanted a big school. He wanted a bigger school, 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:13.760 you know, coming from a smaller high school, he just 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.680 thought he wanted something bigger, just to you know. He 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.800 wanted to be in marching band, you know, that was 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:21.440 one of the things. And u of I had a 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.240 good marching band, and it was only two hours from home. 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:27.000 You know, as we waited and waited closer and closer, 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:28.640 we weren't even sure if he was going to go, 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.080 if they were going to open the dorms, what they 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:31.800 were going to do. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.120 Then came a glimmer of hope. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.000 U of I is playing to hold in person classes 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:44.480 this fall the Champagne or ban of campus. It will 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.120 also allow students to live on campus with restrictions. The 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:50.840 school says it will follow state guidelines. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.960 In mid June twenty twenty, the University of Illinois announced 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.440 that it's Urbana Champagne campuses were going to open. The 0:16:00.560 --> 0:16:03.920 chancellor of the school system stated, quote Fall twenty twenty 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:06.840 will be an on campus semester with as much in 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:11.440 person instruction and residential occupancy as restrictions of space, health 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:16.320 and safety allow end quote. UYUC, as it's called, was 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:20.240 bucking the trend of many other large universities. The college 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.920 aggressively promoted the twenty twenty school year and began hyping 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:27.200 the possibilities. It highlighted the fact that two alumni of 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.760 the school started YouTube. It announced the Fighting a Line 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:32.800 Night football season would continue. It posted video tours of 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.720 the majestic campus, an in person college experience at the 0:16:36.760 --> 0:16:40.160 biggest university in the state. For Trevor till it was 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:41.760 just what the doctor ordered. 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:44.640 You know, I told him you don't have to go. 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.080 You can stay home as dad told him to. You know, 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.000 we can figure something. No, No, I want to go. 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:52.480 I want the college experience, you know, I want to 0:16:52.520 --> 0:16:52.880 do it. 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.880 Trevor was an extrovert honor student yearning for the education 0:16:56.960 --> 0:17:00.600 and companionship that UIUC was offering. He applied to the 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:05.479 university and got in late August twenty twenty. His mother, Lisa, 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:07.720 traveled with him to his dorm room, and it was 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.840 understandably a proud but emotional day for his mother. Her 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.760 fifth child was leaving the nest and entering the big, 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:16.120 cruel world on his own. 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:19.240 So I moved him into his dorm August twenty first, 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.520 and you know, we saw his roommate's name and he 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:26.840 was from India, and I said, I bet he's not 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.040 going to be able to come, and he didn't. 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.080 It was a very subtle sign for what was to come. 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.600 The day before the deadline to cancel registration at UIUC, 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:45.119 the chancellor of the school made a promise to the 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:46.560 incoming freshman. 0:17:46.880 --> 0:17:51.600 On behalf of our faculty, students, and staff welcome. I 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.080 am Robert Jones, and i'm the chancellor here at Illinois. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:58.359 Well for each of you. What that really means is 0:17:58.440 --> 0:18:02.359 that I am responsible for ensuring you had the kind 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.480 of education experience that we promised when we invited you 0:18:06.760 --> 0:18:07.879 to join us. 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.000 But when school started on August twenty fourth, the campus 0:18:11.040 --> 0:18:14.120 experience didn't really align with what the school was pitching. 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:19.120 Everybody obviously wore masks, they discouraged the kids to hang 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:24.600 out together. Their tables for eating were outside until it 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.600 was like forty five degrees in the morning, and then 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.800 they finally moved him inside. So there was no big 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.400 you know, clubs on the quad day you know usually 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:35.800 in college where you walk around and see all the clubs, 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:40.320 and none of that existed that this past year, so 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.680 it was difficulty. I kept asking him and he said 0:18:42.680 --> 0:18:45.879 it was hard for him to find clubs and find 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.200 this and find that. But he did join a few things, 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:53.520 but again it was all zoom meetings, and he kept saying, 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.320 it's just not the same thing, and I said, I know, honey, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.800 you know, just hopefully it's going to open up soon. 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:00.480 More things are going to open up soon. 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.840 Trevor hoped that maybe his dorm meetings would be opportunity 0:19:03.880 --> 0:19:05.520 to connect with other people. 0:19:05.480 --> 0:19:09.120 And again they were zoom, so there was no real 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.240 chance to get make any relationships or you know, make 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.199 new friends. He only had two classes in person and 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.399 those were his history classes. And because of his AP 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.680 and college credits from high school, he was like in 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.480 you know, mostly juniors and seniors were in his class. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.720 So he said, Mom, you know, we're wearing masks we're 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:32.439 sitting six feet apart. You know, people kind of like 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.080 say hey or stuff like that, he said. But the 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:37.760 older kids all know each other, you know, so it's 0:19:37.760 --> 0:19:40.879 not like it's easy to you know, make friends, you know, 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.480 when I'm the new guy and everything. And he said, 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.320 I try, and I say hey and hi, but you know, 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.080 it was just there was nothing for fostering new relationships 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:50.520 at all. 0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:53.359 It was not at all what Trevor was expecting, and 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:56.520 it didn't sound like what UIUC's chancellor had promised incoming 0:19:56.600 --> 0:20:00.720 students either. The chancellor was calling the university's model a hybrid, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:04.119 a mixture of both in person and online instruction, but 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:07.880 the Chronicle of Higher Education didn't agree. It categorized them 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:12.600 as primarily online. If most of the classes and even 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:17.280 door meetings were online, group gatherings and extracurricular activities were discouraged, 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.320 and many of the things that students would expect of 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.480 campus life were not offered, why would the university even 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.280 have students come back to the campus at all. Well, 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.879 the answer could be that the school was embarking on 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:29.240 a massive experiment. 0:20:30.840 --> 0:20:34.600 As the coronavirus panic began sweeping across America, a small 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:38.720 group of scientists a UIUC were tasked with the challenge. 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.399 As mentioned, I was asked back in March to build 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:47.320 a team to try to stand up and strategically deploy 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:52.760 scalable COVID nineteen testing as part of our university's comprehensive 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:55.480 effort to reopen as safely as possible. 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.240 That's Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry at the 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.760 University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. 0:21:01.000 --> 0:21:03.400 One of the first things I realized is this all 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:08.439 about safety, safety to empower our community, and so we 0:21:08.520 --> 0:21:12.320 called it our Shield effort to reflect that focus on 0:21:12.400 --> 0:21:15.399 safety as our very first priority. The second thing that 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:19.359 we quickly realized is that testing was going to be 0:21:19.440 --> 0:21:23.119 critically important. But testing is not a silver bullet. It 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:26.960 was going to require a comprehensive program to wrap around 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:29.960 that testing capability, to figure out who to test and 0:21:30.000 --> 0:21:33.720 how often, and to rapidly communicate the results of those 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.240 tests in a way that can help people get isolated 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:39.760 very quickly and get the contact tracing started fast so 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.040 that we could eliminate the spread of the virus. 0:21:42.560 --> 0:21:46.000 Doctor Burke said that the coronavirus nasal swap tests at 0:21:46.000 --> 0:21:47.560 the time were problematic. 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.879 This standard process is too slow, it's too expensive, and 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.520 it has too many supply chain bottlenecks in order to 0:21:54.560 --> 0:21:58.720 be able to do fast and frequent testing on scale. 0:21:58.800 --> 0:22:00.600 So he and his team came up with a way 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.640 to test saliva for COVID nineteen in FIVECVE And. 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.040 So my colleague, doctor Herber Rother, led an extraordinary team 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.399 of students and postdocs at the University of Illinois at 0:22:10.480 --> 0:22:14.320 urbanash Champaign to go after a test that was directly 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.520 from saliva to the PCR test and thereby cut out 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:23.080 the time, cost and supply chain bottlenecks that were limiting 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.800 the capacity for fast and frequent testing on scale. 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.240 To do this, they converted their veterinarian labs into COVID 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:31.400 testing facilities. 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:34.280 This allowed us to then on our own campus perform 0:22:34.359 --> 0:22:36.280 these tests in a way that allows us to get 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:39.080 the results back in a fast and frequent manner. 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:42.960 Besides potentially speeding up COVID detection on campus, if they 0:22:43.000 --> 0:22:47.040 could prove their testing process could be scaled to large populations, 0:22:47.240 --> 0:22:51.800 the venture could also be lucrative, very lucrative. Think about it. 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.679 In Illinois alone, there are roughly three million people enrolled 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.000 in k through twelve public schools, public universities, and long 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:02.720