Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one and
Speaker 1: fifty two since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story as schools confront the question of how and
Speaker 1: whether to reopen for the fall. US education leaders have
Speaker 1: cited major budget challenges in making school safe from the virus.
Speaker 1: But first, here's what happened in virus news today. In
Speaker 1: the US, there has been a spike in coronavirus infections
Speaker 1: in children in the last half of July. Cases among
Speaker 1: kids grew for according to a report from the American
Speaker 1: Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, that brings
Speaker 1: the total number of child infections to around nine per
Speaker 1: cent of all US cases, but deaths from COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: total only six that's point zero six percent of total
Speaker 1: fatalities in the country. The report aggregates data from forty
Speaker 1: nine states. While the surge of infections may inflame the
Speaker 1: heated debate about schools reopening in the fall, the data
Speaker 1: also show that child infections make up a disproportionately small
Speaker 1: share of the overall outbreak in the US. California, Florida,
Speaker 1: and Arizona had the highest number of total child cases,
Speaker 1: with more than twenty thousand each. In New York, the
Speaker 1: number of coronavirus patients hospitalized and occupying intensive care beds
Speaker 1: has reached a new low. Governor Andrew Cuomo said today
Speaker 1: that there were five hundred and thirty five people hospitalized
Speaker 1: and one hundred and twenty seven in the U statewide
Speaker 1: on Sunday, the lower since the pandemic began. In March.
Speaker 1: There were two virus related fatalities. Finally, the World Health
Speaker 1: Organization is planning an extensive mission to investigate the viruses origins,
Speaker 1: starting in Wuhan, China, where the first cases were identified.
Speaker 1: The w h O will deeply study individuals exposures and
Speaker 1: activities like travel, occupation, and daily life before they developed symptoms,
Speaker 1: all to get to the bottom of how the first
Speaker 1: cases were transmitted from animals to humans. Mike Ryan, head
Speaker 1: of the who's Emergencies Program, said the first case of
Speaker 1: an illness to be identified is not always in the
Speaker 1: location of the first cluster. He noted that it took
Speaker 1: years to determine the animal origins for the Mirror's outbreak,
Speaker 1: and he said that the genesis of the two thousand
Speaker 1: two two thousand three stars outbreak has never been fully established.
Speaker 1: And now for today's main story. Arnie Duncan, the former
Speaker 1: U S Secretary of Education, recently warned a House panel
Speaker 1: against opening schools prematurely. He's one of a growing chorus
Speaker 1: of voices sounding the alarm about opening schools without properly
Speaker 1: funding safety measures. The schools, they say, simply don't have
Speaker 1: the money they need to make their buildings safe for
Speaker 1: students and teachers. At the same House panel, witnesses said
Speaker 1: public schools would need two hundred billion dollars in federal
Speaker 1: aid to open safely with the virus continuing to circulate.
Speaker 1: I talked to Skylar Woodhouse, who reports on costs and
Speaker 1: challenges of creating safe classrooms, walk us through some of
Speaker 1: these logistical hurdles schools are facing when they're considering reopening
Speaker 1: for the fall. There's a lot that schools are having
Speaker 1: to take into consideration this upcoming fall. Abiding by all
Speaker 1: those social distancing guidelines, making sure that their mask group
Speaker 1: being worn, making sure that there's enough um like protective
Speaker 1: equipment available for students and staff, the cleaning of schools,
Speaker 1: and I'm boiling all of these things down. Educators At
Speaker 1: this hearing that took place on Thursday with the Selective
Speaker 1: Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis, these educators came in saying
Speaker 1: that they need two hundred billion dollars in federal aid
Speaker 1: to help support these schools all across the country that
Speaker 1: are going to have students coming into the halls. At
Speaker 1: the hearing, we heard from leaders of the country and
Speaker 1: in local you know, teachers and administrators who are like
Speaker 1: on the front lines currently preparing for the reopening of schools.
Speaker 1: And during the hearing, in this discussion of funds, was
Speaker 1: there any mention of how this funding would be distributed
Speaker 1: amongst you know, the thousands of schools in the United States.
Speaker 1: So the funding is being asked to be sent to
Speaker 1: K through twelve schools that are going to see an
Speaker 1: influx of students going back to going back to campus.
Speaker 1: And you know, this money it's not just to you know,
Speaker 1: make sure that masks are available. This money is to
Speaker 1: make sure that cleaning can be properly done, that school
Speaker 1: buses are properly cleaned, to make sure that all of
Speaker 1: the working parts within the school system are being treated
Speaker 1: to prevent any type of possible spread of the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: So there was no specific plan as to this is
Speaker 1: where it's going to be, just like distributed, you know,
Speaker 1: in terms of which areas would receive more than others.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that's a whole another conversation. But the number
Speaker 1: was brought up because of the stimulus talks and Congress
Speaker 1: trying to come up with an agreement to pass the
Speaker 1: next round of stimulus so that money can start to
Speaker 1: be distributed across the country. You know, we're seeing negotiations
Speaker 1: right now between the House and the Senate, and the
Speaker 1: Republicans have proposed seventy billion for primary and secondary education,
Speaker 1: and ten percent of that seventy billion would go to
Speaker 1: private and religious schools. So the number from Republicans, the
Speaker 1: seventy billion, that was just cathered twelve, but they actually
Speaker 1: presented one hundred and five billion, and that would also,
Speaker 1: you know, go to higher education in different education sectors
Speaker 1: around the country. And the one hundred and five billion
Speaker 1: for education that the Republicans presented is a few billion
Speaker 1: higher than um what Democrats presented. And the Democrats had
Speaker 1: stated that when they were trying to get their piece
Speaker 1: of legislation out, they recognized that their number was lower
Speaker 1: once you know, the Republican number came out, but they
Speaker 1: just saw the urgency to get a piece of legislation passed.
Speaker 1: And among these administrators teachers who are actually facing a reopening,
Speaker 1: I mean in their local schools, what is their preparation plan.
Speaker 1: Let's say someone comes down with a case of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: what what would happen? What is their feeling about that
Speaker 1: kind of threat in their schools. Well, one of the
Speaker 1: witnesses at the hearing, Angela Skillings. She was teaching summer
Speaker 1: school this past summer and one of her teachers that
Speaker 1: she was working with throughout this summer during summer school
Speaker 1: passed away from the coronavirus, and she was very vocal
Speaker 1: that schools should not be rushing to reopen at the
Speaker 1: right that they are and recognize that as much as
Speaker 1: you can do to prepare to prevent the spread of
Speaker 1: the virus. She really just touched on how hard it
Speaker 1: is and that's just something that's not controllable right now
Speaker 1: at this very moment. And then Robert Runcie on the superintendent,
Speaker 1: he expressed his concern for the fear that is going
Speaker 1: to come to his students and staff and parents, of
Speaker 1: students and just really the community when you learn that
Speaker 1: one kid or one faculty member has tested positive for
Speaker 1: the virus, and it creates this type of fear when
Speaker 1: you have to start notifying families around the school, you
Speaker 1: know that they have to begin quarantining because to try
Speaker 1: and prevent a potential outbreak within a school, Why are
Speaker 1: we reopening just to reclose knowing that students and faculty
Speaker 1: will test positive and knowing and seeing the numbers that
Speaker 1: are continuing to increase, And that was a concern among
Speaker 1: um the witnesses at the hearing. Was there any discussion
Speaker 1: about whether the funds would be exclusively for in class
Speaker 1: instruction or is there an ability to use these funds
Speaker 1: potentially for online or digital education if the schools can't
Speaker 1: be reopened. Well, part of the problem with the funding
Speaker 1: and part of the reason why this hearing was called
Speaker 1: was Secretary of Education Betsy du Bois. She said that
Speaker 1: schools that do not reopen, you know, will will be
Speaker 1: will be defunded. And the hearing was called to to
Speaker 1: let her know that that's not the case and that
Speaker 1: he doesn't have the legal authority. And with that, part
Speaker 1: of that came from President Trump. Saying that schools that
Speaker 1: do not reopen will be defunded, and that is a
Speaker 1: worry for some schools because they feel that if we
Speaker 1: don't reopen, then we're going to miss out on that
Speaker 1: funding that they desk really need due to the impact
Speaker 1: of the coronavirus. So I really just think it presents
Speaker 1: a question that we've all been trying to figure out
Speaker 1: throughout this pandemic, is what's going to happen and what
Speaker 1: will kind of be like the final verdict in the
Speaker 1: in the final decision that was skylar Woodhouse. And that's
Speaker 1: it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak
Speaker 1: from one and twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg
Speaker 1: dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show,
Speaker 1: please leave us a review and a rating on Apple
Speaker 1: Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more
Speaker 1: listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is
Speaker 1: produced by topor Foreheads, Jordan's Gas Pure, Magnus Hendrickson, and
Speaker 1: me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by skylar Woodhouse.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo Sedgrin. Our editors are Rick Shine
Speaker 1: and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. H