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Speaker 1: We weren't prepared for the hurricanes, we weren't prepared for

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Speaker 1: the earthquakes, and we're definitely prepared for this global health emergency.

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Speaker 2: From Futuro Media, It's Latino USA by Maria ino Josa.

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Speaker 2: Puerto Rico was not in good shape when the first

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Speaker 2: cases of COVID nineteen appeared back in February. The island

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Speaker 2: is still going through a severe economic depression, and it's

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Speaker 2: still recovering from the devastation left by back to back

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Speaker 2: hurricanes Irma and Maria in twenty seventeen. After Hurricane Maria,

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Speaker 2: hospitals and clinics throughout the island were overwhelmed.

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Speaker 3: In Puerto Rico, the government says one of its top

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Speaker 3: priorities is restoring power to the island's hospitals and people.

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Speaker 2: You can imagine all over this island, maybe a desperate condition,

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Speaker 2: maybe they need dialysis, maybe they've run out of their

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Speaker 2: anti hypertensive medicines, but they simply cannot ask for help.

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Speaker 4: Many of the deaths in Puerto Rico came in the days, weeks,

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Speaker 4: and months after the hurricanes struck last September, raising new

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Speaker 4: questions about the federal and local response.

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Speaker 2: And experts estimate that almost three thousand people died as

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Speaker 2: a result. Then, just one month before the coronavirus crisis

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Speaker 2: started to spread globally, a string of earthquakes and tremors

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Speaker 2: rocked the southern part of the island.

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Speaker 5: In Puerto Rico, a state of emergency has been declared

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Speaker 5: after a six point four magnitude earthquake struck in the

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Speaker 5: early hours of yesterday morning.

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Speaker 6: Several houses and buildings crumbled, at least one public school plummeted.

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Speaker 4: To the ground, and some area hospitals had to be evacuated.

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Speaker 2: We felt tremors throughout the night and this morning. We

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Speaker 2: can expect more seismic activity in the days to come.

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Speaker 2: With a vulnerable population and a precarious healthcare system, experts

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Speaker 2: warned that without an adequate response to the pandemic, the

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Speaker 2: toll on the island from COVID nineteen could be ten

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Speaker 2: times deadlier than Hurricane Maria's.

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Speaker 1: And because I felt that the government, the local government

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Speaker 1: was not telling the story that we needed to hear

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Speaker 1: in order to understand what we were going to face

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Speaker 1: during this pandemic, I started reaching out to scientists.

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Speaker 2: Edmiya Yala has been reporting on this story from early on.

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Speaker 2: She's a co founder of the local media outlet Nueve Millones,

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Speaker 2: and she's focused on the efforts of the scientific community

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Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico and its diaspora to fight the virus.

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Speaker 2: Edmiya Yala, welcome to Latino, USA.

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Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you for having me. Maria.

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Speaker 2: So Anny, take me back to the moment when you

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Speaker 2: remember first hearing about COVID nineteen on the island.

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Speaker 1: So, the first cases reported in Puerto Rico with COVID

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Speaker 1: nineteen were tourists in late February, and the first case

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Speaker 1: that tested positive that I heard about was an Italian

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Speaker 1: tourist who arrived aboard a cruise ship called Costa Dominosa.

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Speaker 1: There was some concern.

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Speaker 7: We had hospitals that had suffered damage after the earthquakes.

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Speaker 1: Our hospitals were not overwhelmed then, but there was the

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Speaker 1: concern that they could become overwhelmed if the system did

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Speaker 1: not do something to prevent the virus from spreading. So

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Speaker 1: that is why I talked to doctor Kenira Tomson, who

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Speaker 1: is vice president of research at the Ponzalth Sciences University,

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Speaker 1: because she has led the efforts from her research team

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Speaker 1: to bring relief after hurricanes and then the twenty twenty earthquakes,

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Speaker 1: so she's been through it all these hospitals.

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Speaker 7: They were in the process of fixing the damage that

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Speaker 7: it occurred due to the earthquakes. When the pandemic struck,

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Speaker 7: construction had to be halted and this limited the number

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Speaker 7: of ICU units intensive cure units available.

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Speaker 2: So Ami, when you describe the situation on the island,

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Speaker 2: it really does sound like one thing after another and

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Speaker 2: a lack of preparedness at every turn. So in the

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Speaker 2: case of this pandemic, what was the Puerto Rican government's response.

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Speaker 6: Well, Maria, they were very slow to start.

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Speaker 1: It felt surreal because at the same time as the

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Speaker 1: whole world was facing COVID nineteen, our public health department

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Speaker 1: was in denial and the whole secretary at the time

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Speaker 1: even said that the virus was not going to reach

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Speaker 1: us because there are no direct flights from China to

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 6: So seeing how.

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Speaker 1: The government was being so inactive, I really started reaching

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Speaker 1: out to put Rican scientists, and one of these scientists

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Speaker 1: is doctor Danikonramo. He's a neuroscientist who runs a lab

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Speaker 1: out of Yale University.

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Speaker 5: So when I hear the circretary of Health in Puerto

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Speaker 5: Rico saying that something that's becoming a pandemic will never

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Speaker 5: make it to Puerto Rico. I become really concerned because

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Speaker 5: that means that they're not only unprepared, but completely oblivious

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Speaker 5: to the dangers that are in the horizon.

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Speaker 2: At this point, it's late February, and by now there

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Speaker 2: is a sense that there is a deadly pandemic, that

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Speaker 2: it is again worldwide, and it's already at the doorstep

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Speaker 2: of Puerto Rico, and the local health department doesn't seem

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Speaker 2: to be preparing for it. I mean, it does begin

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Speaker 2: to sound like a recipe for disaster.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes it does, and it did back at that time,

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Speaker 1: and that is why doctor Kennida Thompson started crunching the

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Speaker 1: numbers with her team and making statistical models to try

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Speaker 1: and predict the impact of the virus in Puerto Rico,

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Speaker 1: because until.

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Speaker 6: Then, Maria, we really did not know what was going on.

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Speaker 7: And this was done extremely quickly, in less than twenty

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Speaker 7: four hours, so we very early on identified that there

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Speaker 7: was the potential for this to spread.

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Speaker 1: According to doctor Coron Ramos, at that time, there was

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Speaker 1: a grim projection that between fifteen thousand to sixty thousand

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Speaker 1: people would die if nothing was done. And you have

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Speaker 1: to understand, Maria, these projections take into account a lot

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Speaker 1: of factors, so that is why the projections are so

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Speaker 1: wide ranging. But even fifteen thousand people for an island

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Speaker 1: with a population of three million is a lot.

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Speaker 5: I know some people might hear those numbers now and say, wow,

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Speaker 5: that was an exaggeration, But you know, if they think so,

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Speaker 5: they're really blinded to the fact that that happened in

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Speaker 5: Lombard in Italy. They're blinded to the fact that that

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Speaker 5: happened in New York, and had that happened in Puerto

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Speaker 5: Rico would have been much worse because the health systems

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Speaker 5: in Italy and the health systems in New York are

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Speaker 5: far stronger than ours. We all know what happened during

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Speaker 5: the hurricane when the hospitals lost capacity and people died

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Speaker 5: because they couldn't perform dialysis.

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Speaker 1: And seeing how weakend our hospital system was, we know

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Speaker 1: that the situation here in Puerto Rico could have been

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Speaker 1: a replay of all those things.

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Speaker 2: Was the government aware of these projections that these scientists

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Speaker 2: were coming up with, What did they do about this?

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Speaker 6: Well, there was really one thing to do.

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Speaker 3: Eldos de Marson Americancian Plaza Puerto Rico yel Mundo Aris

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Speaker 3: de Coronavirus COVID di Sinueve.

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Speaker 6: Put the whole island on lockdown.

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Speaker 1: So Governor van da Basqiz did just that on March fifteenth.

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico became one of the first, if not the

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Speaker 1: first jurisdiction to do a full lockdown. And what made

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Speaker 1: this lockdown so strict is that basically, if you were

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Speaker 1: in the streets after nine pm, you could go to

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Speaker 1: jail or you could be fined.

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Speaker 6: And I'm talking to.

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Speaker 1: You in early June Maria and we're still with a

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Speaker 1: police and forced curfew. Now it is from seven pm

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Speaker 1: to five am, but that is what.

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Speaker 6: Experts were recommending, a full lockdown.

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Speaker 7: The scientific literature had indicated that this drastic type of

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Speaker 7: measure needed to happen because we knew that we had

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Speaker 7: limited testing capacity, that we really had no way to

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Speaker 7: do contact tracing.

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Speaker 1: It surprised a lot of people because politically it meant

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Speaker 1: maybe a blow for the governor's reelection campaign.

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Speaker 2: I don't know, when you think about it, it really

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Speaker 2: sounds like the lockdown on the island was really the

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Speaker 2: only option, but how does the government follow up lockdown

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Speaker 2: and then what?

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Speaker 6: So we knew the virus had arrived.

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Speaker 1: But we didn't know who was infected or how they

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Speaker 1: got infected. So that is why mass testing and contact

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Speaker 1: tracing is so important.

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Speaker 6: Because it accomplishes that.

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Speaker 1: And even with the really strict stay at home orders

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Speaker 1: in place, if you don't identify and isolate the people

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Speaker 1: who have COVID nineteen, the virus is still a threat.

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Speaker 6: It's still out there.

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Speaker 1: So at this point, the capacity of testing from the

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Speaker 1: Health Department was very low. They were doing around one

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Speaker 1: hundred and fifty tests a day in their lab.

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Speaker 5: And what I felt was like was like hell's now.

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Speaker 1: So doctor Colon Ramos is actually an expert in both

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Speaker 1: scientific capacity in Puerto Rico and PCR molecular testing, so

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Speaker 1: he knew that we could do more.

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Speaker 5: My constant battle is for the implementation of the right

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Speaker 5: strategies because this is an opportunity that I would not

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Speaker 5: like to support.

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Speaker 1: A ricolus And the problem was that the government agency

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Speaker 1: that was supposed to take the lead and make in

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Speaker 1: these tests was facing challenges of its own.

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Speaker 6: In the span of two weeks, Maria, we.

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Speaker 1: Had three health secretaries and a scandal broke.

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Speaker 3: Officials in Puerto Rico were struggling to test possible COVID

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Speaker 3: nineteen patients. This after the governor there canceled a thirty

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Speaker 3: eight million dollar contract to buy a million test kits, and.

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Speaker 4: The debacle that has been the ability to get more

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Speaker 4: tests involve the government using a construction company that had

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Speaker 4: no experience with medical supplies, so it turned into quite

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Speaker 4: a scandal.

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Speaker 5: But as of last week, Puerto Rico is reporting a

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Speaker 5: testing rate lower than any US state, at an abysmal

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Speaker 5: average of fifteen tests a day for every one hundred

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Speaker 5: thousand people.

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Speaker 1: The health department was trying to purchase FAULTI rapid tests

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Speaker 1: from a construction company based in Puerto Rico for thirty

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Speaker 1: eight million dollars, and this local company was trying to

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Speaker 1: buy these tests from a little known provider in Australia.

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Speaker 6: It all seemed super shady.

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Speaker 1: Luckily the purchase was stopped at the last second, but

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Speaker 1: the whole affair is currently under investigation.

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Speaker 2: So this just gets stranger and stranger this story. But

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Speaker 2: sadly we're talking about is people's lives. So at this

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Speaker 2: point the tests are now scarce there's, you know, this

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Speaker 2: real concern about corruption. So at this point, was there

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Speaker 2: any way to get massive testing underway in a way

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Speaker 2: that was appropriate and smart and correct.

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Speaker 6: It was a reality.

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico was at the bottom of the list of

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Speaker 1: testing in US jurisdictions, and scientists just came together to

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Speaker 1: really try to revamp our testing capacity and they tapped

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Speaker 1: into this huge network of more than thirteen thousand mostly

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rican scientists, students and educators from an organization that

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Speaker 1: is called sin Ser Puerto Rico, and they with the

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico Science Technology and Research Trust, which is an

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Speaker 1: NGO that also advocates for science here, came together with

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Speaker 1: the Ponze Health Sciences University. They got together with the

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Speaker 1: biggest clinical testing labs in Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 5: We convene as scientists, we convene again the groups that

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Speaker 5: are doing these tests, and we got the precise numbers

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Speaker 5: of tests that they're unable to access.

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Speaker 6: And they made up a CONSORTI.

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Speaker 5: The consort that we ended up forming. The scientists with

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Speaker 5: these clinical reference laboratories enabled us to not only understand

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Speaker 5: the barriers that we're facing, but also the ability they

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Speaker 5: had to do tests.

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Speaker 1: And you have to remember Maria and most of these

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Speaker 1: scientists have day jobs, they run labs, they're teaching and

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Speaker 1: doing research, but they're really focused and were determined to

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Speaker 1: help Puerto Rico.

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Speaker 6: We were scared.

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Speaker 7: We were really trying to expand our testing capacity and

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Speaker 7: that was challenging and communicating with the government.

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Speaker 6: Was that that easy?

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Speaker 7: But nonetheless we kept moving forward.

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Speaker 2: Coming up on Latino USA.

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Speaker 5: This is a situation where you have a tipping point

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Speaker 5: in which Puerto Rico will make history as one of

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Speaker 5: the few places that could be COVID free, or it

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Speaker 5: can tip over in the other direction where this health

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Speaker 5: system collapses.

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Speaker 2: Stay with us, Yes, hey, we're back, and I'm joined

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Speaker 2: by Edmi Ayala. She's co founder of the Puerto Rican

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Speaker 2: News outlets. Before the break, Edmi was telling us about

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Speaker 2: the lack of critical COVID testing in Puerto Rico. As

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Speaker 2: we return to our conversation now, Edmie tells me the

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Speaker 2: story of a group of Puerto Rican scientists who refused

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Speaker 2: to take no for an answer as they came together

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Speaker 2: to ramp up massive testing on the island. So, I mean,

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Speaker 2: this sounds like a pretty extraordinary task that these scientists

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Speaker 2: decide to take on kind of forward thinking, strategic planning,

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Speaker 2: massive prepping, essentially the job that the government in Puerto

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Speaker 2: Rico wasn't doing. So they knew what they wanted to do,

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Speaker 2: but did they have a strategy to make the testing happen.

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Speaker 1: So, if you remember Maria, it was exactly one day

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Speaker 1: after the full lockdown in Puerto Rico on March sixteenth,

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Speaker 1: the World Health Organization's message to the world and the

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Speaker 1: world's leaders was testing, testing, testing, and at that point

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Speaker 1: we had five positive cases and no deaths, but those

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Speaker 1: two numbers were on the rise, and the consortium was

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Speaker 1: advocating for a specific type of tests, the PCR test.

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Speaker 6: Which doctor Daniel Conondramos happens to be an expert in.

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Speaker 5: I never imagind that I was going to see the

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Speaker 5: day where a governor was going to stand up in

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Speaker 5: a pollium and talk about PCR molecular tests like this

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Speaker 5: is a technique that I've been doing my whole life,

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Speaker 5: almost daily. It's I'm an expert on it. I know

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Speaker 5: it very well, and I never even mind that somebody

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Speaker 5: will be interested in hearing how it works.

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Speaker 2: You may know at me that I never got a

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Speaker 2: COVID nineteen test, but I was sick, and I recently

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Speaker 2: did get an antibody test here in New York City

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Speaker 2: and I did test positive.

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Speaker 1: Well, firstly, I'm glad you're you're okay, Maria.

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Speaker 2: It was not fun, but now I'm super healthy. Thank God.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad to hear that, really, But actually, you're

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Speaker 1: a good example as to how this antibody test should

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Speaker 1: be used because they detect the antibodies that the body

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Speaker 1: produces after being infected by the virus, and that happens

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Speaker 1: after about.

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Speaker 6: Two weeks of getting infected.

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Speaker 1: That's the difference between antibody tests and PCR molecular test.

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Speaker 6: The PCR is a.

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Speaker 1: Diagnostic test that the texts if you have the virus

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Speaker 1: at that precise moment.

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Speaker 5: The presence of the antibodies. I like to make the

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Speaker 5: analogy of the difference betw to be seeing a person

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Speaker 5: walking on the beach and seeing their footsteps, like their

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Speaker 5: footprints in the beach.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Colondramos is actually recognized among his peers as mister Analogy.

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Speaker 1: He's been very good at explaining the science behind the

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Speaker 1: health response through interviews and even social media.

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Speaker 5: If you see footprints in the beach, you know that

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Speaker 5: somebody was there for sure, but you don't know who

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Speaker 5: he was, and you don't know when they were there.

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Speaker 5: And it's very similar actually, for these antiboty tests. You

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Speaker 5: could have had the virus two days before, you could

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Speaker 5: have had the virus three months before, depending on your

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Speaker 5: conditions of the body. The antiboti is that your body

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Speaker 5: produced the type of virus, et cetera. So when you

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Speaker 5: have a result for that test, you don't really know

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Speaker 5: if you have the virus.

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Speaker 2: So the molecular PCR tests, those are the ones that

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Speaker 2: doctor Colondramos and doctor Thompson and the rest of the team.

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Speaker 2: These are the ones that they're trying to get going

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Speaker 2: in Puerto Rico because with these tests you can immediately

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Speaker 2: see who has the virus, right and you don't have

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Speaker 2: to wait for the antibodies to form.

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Speaker 6: Yes, exactly.

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Speaker 1: They are the ones that entail swab being inserted up

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Speaker 1: your nose.

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Speaker 7: Way up there, and it scrapes around and it collects

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Speaker 7: a sample of secretions from that area.

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Speaker 1: The sample in that swab is preserved by a special

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Speaker 1: pink liquid that is called that transport agent, and the

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Speaker 1: pink liquid is used to contain and keep the virus alive.

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Speaker 6: So you can do the testing.

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Speaker 7: So from the beginning, this issue of we don't have

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Speaker 7: enough swaps and we definitely don't have enough transport medium

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Speaker 7: to be able to handle the testing volume that we

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Speaker 7: were facing as a group.

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Speaker 1: So this type of tools were in high global demand

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Speaker 1: because at the same time, every country in the world

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Speaker 1: is needing them, and this posed a challenge for the team.

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Speaker 1: So scientists from the diaspora got in touch with CEOs

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Speaker 1: of pharmaceutical companies.

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Speaker 6: To get these supplies.

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Speaker 1: But these companies were categorized in Puerto Rico as an

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Speaker 1: independent country, not a territory of the US, and.

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Speaker 5: Those companies they said, look, we're making our priority list

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Speaker 5: based on recommendations from HHS in the federal government.

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Speaker 6: The US Department of Health and Human Services.

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Speaker 5: And Puerto Rico is not a priority, so we does

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Speaker 5: not accept all right.

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Speaker 1: So it's actually a catch twenty two because Puerto Rico

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Speaker 1: is part of the US and it is subject to

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Speaker 1: federal regulations, and federal regulations affect local response. So doctor

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Speaker 1: Colon Ramos told me that not seeing Puerto Rico on

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Speaker 1: those lists makes him feel frustrated every.

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Speaker 5: Time I see a list of countries, so I look

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Speaker 5: for Puerto Rico is not present. Then you see a

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Speaker 5: list of territories of the US and States and Puerto

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Speaker 5: Rico is not present. It's almost like a place that

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Speaker 5: doesn't exist. And so as Puerto rican like, my scientific

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Speaker 5: identity has very much been linked to giving a voice

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Speaker 5: to the fact that this place exists and is part

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Speaker 5: of the world and can contribute.

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Speaker 2: I mean, this is just fascinating because it just goes

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Speaker 2: to show how doctors, scientists, medical professionals, you know, they

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Speaker 2: can make decisions about what they want to do with

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Speaker 2: their lives and their professions in a moment like this,

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Speaker 2: in a worldwide pandemic. So at this point, at me,

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Speaker 2: what does the consortium do. They've got this idea, how

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Speaker 2: do they get their hands on the supplies?

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Speaker 1: So Maria, they got creative and genuity seems to come

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Speaker 1: very easily in Puerto Rico during hard times. Honestly, there's

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Speaker 1: this doctor called Rigardo Baba, He's a professor and the

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Speaker 1: University of Puerto Rico, and he remembered that he had

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Speaker 1: a company that made these swaps in his hometown back

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Speaker 1: in Italy.

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Speaker 5: And it's actually turns out to be the mail factory

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Speaker 5: that makes these swaps implanet Earth in the whole planet,

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Speaker 5: and so he personally contacts the owner.

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Speaker 1: And after a few conversations in Italian, he was able

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Speaker 1: to ship into Puerto Rico about twenty thousand of these

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Speaker 1: swaps that are so so fundamental for testing.

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Speaker 5: It was that level of networking and ingenuity that enabled

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Speaker 5: us to solve the problem.

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Speaker 1: But one of my favorite and most exciting stories and

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Speaker 1: even heartwarming, is that of doctor Thompson's team deciding to

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Speaker 1: hack and make their own transport medium that if you remember, Maria,

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Speaker 1: it was a pink liquid I was telling you about earlier, and.

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Speaker 7: We said, you know what, what could possibly be in

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Speaker 7: this ventral transport medium that we couldn't make. So we

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Speaker 7: started doing our research and trying to figure out what

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Speaker 7: it was, and sure enough, we put together a recipe,

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Speaker 7: we had all the ingredients that were needed, and this

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Speaker 7: viral transport medium was concocted.

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Speaker 1: Doctor Colon Ramos actually says that this happening was a

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Speaker 1: turning point.

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Speaker 5: I think for the community and for the laboratories, both

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Speaker 5: in their ability to perform the test, but also in

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Speaker 5: how they imagining their own roles in making sure that

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Speaker 5: testing will happen in Puerto Rico, no matter the barriers

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Speaker 5: that the world was facing.

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Speaker 1: When this group of scientists and private labs started meeting,

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico was only doing no more than one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty tests a day. But now they're doing three thousand,

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Speaker 1: and they're aiming to do more, and.

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Speaker 5: We estimate that we can easily break five thousand tests

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Speaker 5: a day, which is what the territory will need to

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Speaker 5: be able to respond to this pandemic.

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Speaker 2: So at this point you've got this commitment from Puerto

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Speaker 2: Rican scientists around the world to basically change the reality,

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Speaker 2: to not take this pandemic sitting down. The island goes

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Speaker 2: from one hundred and fifty daily tests to three thousand

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Speaker 2: daily tests at this point. How does Puerto Rico now

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Speaker 2: compare to other places?

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Speaker 1: Well, according to doctor Colon Ramos, they've done around one

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Speaker 1: hundred thousand tests in total. So I can tell you

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Speaker 1: this Puerto Rico is no longer in the very bottom

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Speaker 1: of the list.

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Speaker 2: Give us a sense of what's happening now. There's a

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Speaker 2: lot of pressure on the mainland to reopen in a

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Speaker 2: lot of places. Other places like New York are still

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Speaker 2: on a pretty strict lockdown, so is Puerto Rico ready

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Speaker 2: to reopen. What's the sentiment of the people.

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Speaker 1: We're actually in the second phase of our reopening, which

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Speaker 1: happened in the last week of May.

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Speaker 6: But people are worried because of the lack of data.

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Speaker 1: We still don't really understand or cannot grasp how the

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Speaker 1: virus is impacting the whole island because of this lack

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Speaker 1: of data reporting. Currently the local health department is reporting

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Speaker 1: one hundred and thirty eight and a total of almost

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Speaker 1: four thousand cases, and there's really a sense that the

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Speaker 1: government has not been transparent with the science behind their decisions.

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Speaker 5: We need to establish these approaches of the correct testing,

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Speaker 5: the correct reporting of data, transparency, accuracy in the reporting.

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Speaker 5: So that's what we don't have.

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Speaker 1: So Maria, doctor colon Ramos told me that this can

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Speaker 1: go two ways.

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Speaker 5: Puerto Rico will make history as one of the few

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Speaker 5: places that could be COVID three, or it can tip

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Speaker 5: over in the other direction, where this health system collapses,

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Speaker 5: where you have exponential infections and the health system can

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Speaker 5: just not manage. The difference between those two outcomes are

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Speaker 5: the decisions that are being made right now.

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Speaker 2: So what's your sense of how people are reacting about

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Speaker 2: this and if you're feeling like it's safe for the

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Speaker 2: island to begin to open back up again.

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Speaker 1: It's really hard to tell what the future may bring,

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Speaker 1: and I think globally it's the reality we're facing as

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Speaker 1: a planet, as humans in the middle of this pandemic.

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Speaker 1: But no matter what happens, we can look back on

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Speaker 1: this and see two things. First, the strict government mandated

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Speaker 1: lockdown worked and it saved lives. And second, the government

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Speaker 1: got a lot of help from an amazing network of scientists,

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Speaker 1: institutions and private labs that really got together to help

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Speaker 1: Puerto Rico at a time where the COVID nineteen pandemic

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Speaker 1: could have really gotten out of control in the island.

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Speaker 1: It's not over yet and it's not clear that the

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Speaker 1: right decisions will be made going forward, but what we

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Speaker 1: do know is a prto Rican scientist all over the

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Speaker 1: world are looking after us, and Maria, I won't lie

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Speaker 1: to you. It's pretty comforting to know that during these

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Speaker 1: hard times and on certain times, we have a group

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Speaker 1: like that looking after our island.

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Speaker 2: We wish you the best ed me and for the

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Speaker 2: entire island of Puerto Rico. Venizionies as we say This

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Speaker 2: episode was produced by Edmia Yala and Camille Padilla, with

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Speaker 2: help from Luis Tres and Me and Massias. It was

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Speaker 2: edited by Sophia Palissa car The Latino USA team includes

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Speaker 2: Antonio Sejido Montgo, alisaes Carse and Alexandra Sasad, with help

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Speaker 2: from Rapes. Special thanks to doctors Monica Fejo Mocher and

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Speaker 2: Giovanna Guerrero Medina of Ciencia Pere and doctor Marcos Lopez

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Speaker 2: Gacias of the Puerto Rico Science Trust. Our engineers are

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Speaker 2: Stephanie Lebau and Julia Caruso. Additional engineering this week by

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Speaker 2: Lea Shaw. Our director of programming and Operations is Natalia Quilejoz.

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Speaker 2: Our digital editor Isamandel Cantra. Our New York Women's Foundation

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Speaker 2: ig Night Fellow is Julia Rocha. Our theme music was

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Speaker 2: composed by Zeenie Rubinos. If you like the music you

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Speaker 2: heard on this episode, stop by Latinousa dot org and

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Speaker 2: check out our weekly Spotify playlist. I'm your host and

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Speaker 2: executive producer Maria Noofosa. Join us again on our next episode,

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Speaker 2: and in the meantime, look for us on all of

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Speaker 2: our social media and I'll see you there asta la broxi,

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Speaker 2: mamiente jao.

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Speaker 8: Funding for Latino USA is coverage of a culture of

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Speaker 8: health is made possible in part by a grant from

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Speaker 8: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Latino US is made possible

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Speaker 8: in part by the Annie Casey Foundation. Creates a brighter

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Speaker 8: future for the nation's children by strengthening families, building greater

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Speaker 8: economic opportunity, and transforming communities and Carnegie Corporation promoting the

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Speaker 8: advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.

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Speaker 1: It makes us feel safe, like when you see the

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Speaker 1: press conferences from the governor