Speaker 1: It's Tuesday Ape. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: To get back to work, companies are trying to secure
Speaker 1: test for their workers. Amazon, for example, is looking for
Speaker 1: ways to test employees regularly, including building its own testing lab.
Speaker 1: But there's a big question of the best way to proceed,
Speaker 1: well employers need more diagnostic tests or would it be
Speaker 1: better for antibody tests. Sarah Krause, reporter at the Wall
Speaker 1: Street Journal, joins us for how employers want to ramp
Speaker 1: up their own testing capabilities. Thanks for joining us, Sarah,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me. Everybody on top of mind for
Speaker 1: everybody right now is how do we get back, how
Speaker 1: do we get the economy going again, and how do
Speaker 1: we get back to work? Companies are looking to get
Speaker 1: a bunch of tests for their workers. This has long
Speaker 1: been part of the conversation. We need to ramp up
Speaker 1: all the testing, but companies are looking to get their
Speaker 1: own tests, test their own workers, maybe in house, but
Speaker 1: that also poses a lot of problems upfront. Right now,
Speaker 1: we hear a lot about Amazon in general mode or
Speaker 1: is they're looking for ways to test their employees. They're
Speaker 1: looking for methods to test them regularly, but like I said,
Speaker 1: there's just a lot of problems with ramping up privacy
Speaker 1: liability concerns as well. Sarah tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about this. So as companies try to figure out when
Speaker 1: and how to bring workers back to the office or
Speaker 1: back to the workplace, they want to make testing part
Speaker 1: of it. But it's really unclear how the best go
Speaker 1: about it, whether it's most valuable to do regular diagnostic tests,
Speaker 1: whether an antibody test is the best way forward. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of questions about how best to proceed
Speaker 1: that companies are grappling with and how to act on
Speaker 1: it once they know that about their workforce. Really it's
Speaker 1: all going to be dependent on the company too and
Speaker 1: their resources. You know, I mentioned Amazon they're looking to
Speaker 1: build their own testing lab. What does that look like.
Speaker 1: Is that a centralized lab are they're going to do
Speaker 1: a lot of mini labs in regional centers. That's a
Speaker 1: lot of logistical challenges going into it. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of costs, there's a lot logistical challenges. You know, Amazon
Speaker 1: is obviously a uniquely large and well resourced company with
Speaker 1: the ability to begin now gathering the equipment it needs
Speaker 1: to build a COVID ninet team testing lab for its employees.
Speaker 1: I think some of the medical advisors that I talked
Speaker 1: to said, you might expect to see primary care facilities
Speaker 1: or on site health clinics that companies once had for
Speaker 1: workers become testing facilities. But again, like the big overarching
Speaker 1: problem here is getting access to the test in the
Speaker 1: first place, and so we and others have reported that
Speaker 1: there have been shortages of swabs, shortages of the actual
Speaker 1: equipment needed to conduct the test once it's in the lab.
Speaker 1: So as of now, there are supply issues that are
Speaker 1: hindering tests even for basic frontline police, fire, municipal employees
Speaker 1: healthcare workers. So overcoming that is pretty important step towards
Speaker 1: the broader public having wide access to testing a lot
Speaker 1: of loane individual employers and what the hierarchy is going
Speaker 1: to look like for that. Obviously, healthcare workers and as
Speaker 1: you mentioned, some of these other frontline first responders need
Speaker 1: these tests first, and they need to be able to
Speaker 1: ramp their portions of it first. So after that then
Speaker 1: does it become a bidding war for these types of
Speaker 1: materials needed. I mean, there's a lot of questions that
Speaker 1: go into it. But it is very much part of
Speaker 1: the conversation. I think some polls or some companies that
Speaker 1: you guys have been talking to at the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 1: there's over a quarter of the companies are looking for
Speaker 1: some type of testing for their employees, and there's disagreement
Speaker 1: among executives even at large employers too. Is it most
Speaker 1: valuable to regularly test people for the coronavirus itself or
Speaker 1: is it better to conduct a broad antibody tests to
Speaker 1: see who has had it and may be immune to it.
Speaker 1: But even what immunity is in the context of this
Speaker 1: virus is unclear. So once you have it, does that
Speaker 1: to say you can't get it again? If you are
Speaker 1: immune to it, how long does that immunity last. So
Speaker 1: there's a lot of unknowns about the coronavirus itself that
Speaker 1: make making a game plan about this really complicated, even
Speaker 1: more so than the logistics we've already talked about with
Speaker 1: actually sourcing the test. Let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: how some of this might look in actice. As you mentioned,
Speaker 1: some of these bigger companies can repurpose parts of their
Speaker 1: companies so they can do testing. But to do that testing.
Speaker 1: We've all seen those videos of the swab that goes
Speaker 1: way in the back of the throat. I mean sometimes
Speaker 1: the person coughs because it tickles them the wrong way.
Speaker 1: So the person that is going to be doing this
Speaker 1: testing will have to be in full on gear. They'll
Speaker 1: have to be a trained professional obviously, but also full
Speaker 1: on ppe personal protective equipment. And that's kind of at
Speaker 1: a shortage too sometimes, so another challenge there. And then
Speaker 1: going back to work once restrictions start to ease. Let's
Speaker 1: say we do have some of this testing in place,
Speaker 1: do you make an order saying, you know, older people,
Speaker 1: because they're more at risk, have to continue to work
Speaker 1: from home. These are some of the other issues that
Speaker 1: could arise from this just kind of uneven rollout. Nobody
Speaker 1: knows how to do it just yet. You know, in
Speaker 1: the past, there's been a pretty clear line in terms
Speaker 1: of what an employer can ask you or know about
Speaker 1: you from a health perspective. You can't necessarily ask about
Speaker 1: pre existing conditions or genetic framework or pre existing medical conditions.
Speaker 1: And with this virus, that is something that dictates how
Speaker 1: high risk you are are not in some cases, so
Speaker 1: it starts to open up these really difficult conversations about
Speaker 1: employer versus employee privacy and what your coworkers want to
Speaker 1: be assured of before they feel comfortable coming back to work. So,
Speaker 1: you know, in the meantime, you have companies trying to
Speaker 1: stagger shifts, you know, companies that are essential businesses. You know,
Speaker 1: we wrote about it today sort of making it up
Speaker 1: as they go, which is do you distribute master to
Speaker 1: your workforce? You try to practice social distancing both on
Speaker 1: the factory floor and in the bathroom. How do you
Speaker 1: really thinking through each corner of the workplace and to
Speaker 1: try to find some way to limit the spread In
Speaker 1: many ways, it's going to be a fundamental shift for
Speaker 1: a lot of companies in the way they operate going forward.
Speaker 1: And the privacy concern has always been particularly interesting to me,
Speaker 1: just for the way you said. You know, if there's
Speaker 1: an outbreak in the office, people want to know who
Speaker 1: it is because they want to know if they've been
Speaker 1: in contact with that person. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: we have to protect their privacy and their health data.
Speaker 1: So these are all very tricky situations to navigate around,
Speaker 1: and it's a very emotional time for people to right
Speaker 1: People are worried about their family and friends. And equally,
Speaker 1: some people are married to frontline workers who they all
Speaker 1: go home together at the end of the day. And
Speaker 1: that is something that has always been the case, that
Speaker 1: your workforce may be married someone in a different profession
Speaker 1: that is higher risk than yours, and that becomes relevant
Speaker 1: in this conversation, but it's not something that an employer
Speaker 1: would typically have how to right to ask you about
Speaker 1: or factor into determining whether and when you can return
Speaker 1: to the office. Yeah, I mean, these are all the
Speaker 1: conversations are going to be hearing about how do we
Speaker 1: get back and how do we do it? And unfortunately
Speaker 1: it's going to be different all over the world, from
Speaker 1: state to state, city to city, company to company. It's
Speaker 1: going to be an interesting time to see how we
Speaker 1: do it and then what combination of things gets it right.
Speaker 1: So we'll have to monitor all of that. Sarah Krause,
Speaker 1: reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Thank you very much
Speaker 1: for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramires
Speaker 1: and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.
Speaker 1: For today's big news stories, you can check me out
Speaker 1: on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so
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Speaker 1: your podcasts.