(gentle music) - [Narrator] A historic week in America with the inauguration of president Joe Biden and the nation's first female vice president Kamala Harris, vaccination woes in Ohio prompt Governor Mike DeWine to ask the president for more vaccine as demand outstrips supply.

- One day comes, we ask ourselves where can we find lights in this never ending shade.

- [Narrator] And a young poet's inspiring words captivate the nation.

Ideas is next.

(gentle music) - [Male Narrator] Brought to you by Westfield, offering insurance to protect what's yours.

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(gentle music) - Hello, and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre Idea Stream's Executive Editor.

The newly-minted Biden administration wasted no time moving ahead with plans aimed at bringing the Coronavirus pandemic under control.

President Biden announced mask mandates on federal property as well as planes, trains, buses, and airports.

It's as close as we have come to a national mask mandate.

But masks are just one defense against the coronavirus.

Ohio governor Mike DeWine is asking president Biden for more vaccines and more federal money to battle the pandemic.

As Ohio struggles with a scarcity of the vaccine, we've learned that nearly 900 doses were lost due to carelessness.

A provider stored vials meant for nursing home residents improperly.

Joining me to discuss those stories and more Ideas Stream health reporter Anna Huntsman and general assignment reporter Taylor Haggerty, and at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau in Columbus, chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Karen, how has president Biden's call for unity's sitting with Ohio's delegation?

We know it's a very conservative delegation, we know among Ohio's delegation is one of president Trump's biggest champions in Jim Jordan.

How is Biden's call for unity being received?

- Well, five of Ohio's 12 Republican congressmen and they're all men did support the challenge to president Joe Biden's electoral college win.

So that becomes important here, but several of them, Bill Johnson and Warren Davidson, who again voted to challenge the results of the electoral college when actually went to the inauguration.

There were a couple of other ones who did who did not challenge that, Republicans Dave Joyce from Northeast, Ohio as well as Steve Stivers and Brad Wenstrup, they were at the inauguration.

Senator Rob Portman was there as well.

The Democrats in the delegation the four Ohio Democrats were all there.

That's Tim Ryan, Joyce Beatty, Marcy Kaptur who interestingly had been in quarantine because she was exposed to COVID during the insurrection on January 6th, she was at the inauguration and also Marcia Fudge, who is Biden's choice to head up the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sherrod Brown was not there but he was talking about it on Twitter inviting people to follow along with him at home.

He decided to stay away from the inauguration because of COVID concerns.

So it appears that there seems to be at least some interest in working with the Biden administration on the part of some of these lawmakers who did challenge his win in the electoral college but were there for his inauguration.

And now it's an attempt, I guess, to get to work.

- 17 freshmen Republicans signed a letter saying that they wanted to work with the administration.

None of those as I mentioned was from Ohio but you look at what Ohio has and whether or not there would be the opportunity for that.

We think about Anthony Gonzalez who voted for impeachment of president Trump.

And whether that shows a level of bipartisanship, perhaps.

- Yeah, I mean, certainly that was one of 10 Republican votes and it was the largest bi-partisan impeachment but only 10 Republicans actually voted for impeachment and again, you mentioned Anthony Gonzalez being one of those folks.

But I think now that we're starting to learn a little bit more about what Biden wants to do, the question will become how much will Ohio's Republican congressmen wanna help with that.

And certainly if the things that he's planning on doing in the next couple of weeks go against some of these things that these members of Congress campaigned on then of course there's gonna be resistance but then you have to wonder what were some of these folks campaigning on?

Were they just campaigning on being allies of president Trump?

And I'll be very interested to watch over the next couple of weeks to see how an Alliance with president Trump helps or hurts anybody.

And you're already seeing some people trying to push that alliance.

For instance, Christina Hagan, the former state representative who ran against Anthony Gonzalez in 2018.

She's now talking about running against him in 2022 because of her support for president Trump and because of his vote on impeachment.

So I think the alliances with president Trump are gonna be interesting to watch.

- President Biden signed 17 executive orders, actions and proclamations just hours after being sworn into office.

Several of those dealt with the Coronavirus pandemic making a top priority for the administration.

- We're entering what may be the toughest and deadliest period of the virus.

We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation.

One nation.

(applauding) - President Biden then yesterday further detailed his strategy to deal with the virus on the one-year anniversary of the first diagnosed case in the United States.

He signed orders requiring masks on airplanes, trains, buses, and airports combined with his inauguration day signing of a mask mandate on federal property.

It's as close to having a national mask mandate as we've witnessed to date in this pandemic.

Anna, what's the major focus for president Biden's team in terms of strategy here?

- Well, I think we've already noticed a big shift in messaging from, you know, who's at the top of the administration, like you just mentioned.

This is as close as we'll get to a federal mask mandate.

Of course he doesn't have the power to mandate it for the whole country, but this is federal property.

And this is sending a big message.

This is, you know, you should wear masks.

It's the right thing to do.

And we remember from the previous administration that was often not the message.

In fact, you know, president Trump would former president Trump would hold rallies and people wouldn't wear masks and he didn't even encourage that sort of thing.

So obviously we're already seeing a shift in that, but in terms of strategy and what we can expect it does look like there are some ramping up of testing and the vaccine rollout.

So this is faster production, more production of supplies such as syringes for vaccines.

We're also seeing more tests, not just more tests but studying those tests and making sure that they are in the best shape, that they can be.

Also ramping up production of personal protective equipment.

We're almost a year into this pandemic and we're still seeing shortages of personal protective equipment.

You know what people on the front lines have to wear as they treat COVID patients and things like that.

So this is kind of a right out the gate we're seeing things like ramping up those tests vaccine supplies, things like that.

- He's promised a hundred million doses in 100 days.

It's a very lofty ambition.

We've heard on NPR today about how the pharmaceutical companies are going to really struggle to get enough vaccine out there.

So we still are dealing nationwide with a real vaccine shortage.

- Yeah, that's been one of the biggest problems.

We've seen it here in Ohio, there's just simply not enough to go around, you know as we have moved into this next phase of a vaccine rollout you know, pharmacies are taking it on to vaccinate the older population and those pharmacies are getting several hundred doses each, maybe not even.

And that's just quite simply not enough.

We have a huge population that qualifies in this next phase.

And this, you know, I was actually talking with health officials about that this week.

And they said, it's kind of a, you can't place blame on one thing.

It's from the national shortage of supplies and doses but also the delay in getting it to the States and delays from distributing it locally.

So it's kind of a big mess all around.

- Karen I wanted to connect this still with the Biden administration and with the DeWine administration.

Governor DeWine has sent a letter asking the Biden team for more help, more vaccine, more money.

- Right, and it's interesting to note that yeah, governor DeWine praised both Donald Trump and especially vice president Mike Pence for the Trump administration's handling the pandemic.

He did several times.

But he also has this detailed letter that he wrote to Biden asking for some specific things, some more vaccines, some more money, really kind of proposing some things that he really feels would help with this in Ohio.

And he closed it with a personal note to Biden in his own handwriting saying your team has been great to work with, we appreciate the outreach.

We look forward to working with you, my best to you.

So it appears he's trying to establish a real personal relationship as this thing moves forward.

But you know, the whole idea of where do you go and how do you get this vaccine?

That's part of, I guess, some of the weakness in turning it over to local communities because everybody's doing it a little bit differently.

And I'm happy to say that for instance, my dad is gonna get a vaccine today.

He's got an appointment.

And we're so excited about that.

But then there were other people who were in his age group who are in different counties who can't get it because some counties are running out.

Some providers are running out.

I mean, he has an appointment, but will there be any vaccine when he actually gets there for his appointment?

These are real questions.

And it all speaks to the demand and the fact that people are paying attention, they do want to go out and get this vaccine, but there's too many for the limited number that we have.

And also there are a lot of people who still have questions about how to get it.

Especially older folks who may not be as internet savvy, who may not know where to look.

It's been very, very confusing, I think for a lot of people and I hope that as the Biden administration comes through there's a little bit more direct messaging and partnering together to try to get the vaccine out to all those people who want it.

And then also start working on the messaging for people who are resistant to it.

- Taylor Haggerty - Recently I spoke with an Ohio State University researcher who has gotten a grant to look into how news organizations like ourselves can combat misinformation both in ways like the Q&A's that we've been doing and just in general coverage of the coronavirus as it unfolds.

And one of the things that was brought up is it's really important to restate the claims of misinformation so that people can see it and recognize it and say, Oh I thought that pregnant women couldn't get the vaccine or something like that.

But you have now proven that wrong.

- Interesting.

- Which I thought was really interesting.

I had thought, if you repeat it, it's going to spread it.

But apparently it helps to kind of internalize it and teach people the correct information.

- Yeah, I've often heard that.

Don't say it because then you're just giving purchase to the false claim.

But what you're saying is the research says say it and knock it down.

- Exactly and from there people can remember it a little bit better and recognize the correct information when that misinformation comes up again.

(gentle music) - The scenes from the inauguration provided a sharp contrast to the angry and violent rioters who breached the Capitol on January 6th and a failed effort to derail democracy.

The debris from that mob has been swept away but aftershocks reverberate, especially in the Midwest.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says this region is now a quote hotbed for extremist groups.

Investigations into the insurrection at the Capitol are still ongoing.

A large number of rioters, one in five, according to an NPR News analysis had served in the military.

Dozens of people have been arrested for their role in the insurrection.

Karen you've been tracking this investigation that Niles area Congressman Tim Ryan is spearheading.

And four of those arrested are Ohioans including a former occupational therapist from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District which we talked about last week but also others in Ohio now, and some related to militia.

- Right, in fact two a woman and a man from Champagne County who are supposed to be members of the Ohio State Regular Militia which is a group that is tied to the oath keepers.

That's a far right anti-government organization.

When I talked to Tim Ryan and I talked to him for our TV show, 'The State of Ohio This Week' we talked about the investigations that are ongoing against some members of the Capitol police.

He says 15 to 20 investigations going on right now, two police officers have been suspended and a couple other ones are still under investigation.

There were actually two Ohio national guard members who were in Washington DC, along with the force of about 20,000 for the inauguration who were actually sent home because the FBI had flagged them because of concerns.

I mean, this stuff is pretty pretty concerning.

And I talked to Mark Perkavage who investigates and writes and looks at hate groups for the Anti-Defamation League for our TV show 'This Week.'

And he said, yeah this is stuff has been happening in Ohio for a long time.

And you know, he's relieved that we didn't have any major incidents in Ohio.

In fact, there's been nothing that's really happened since that awful insurrection at the Capitol where five people died but he's concerned about going forward into the future that these groups still exist.

They're still gonna be mad that Joe Biden was elected president and that's not gonna go away.

And so there's a real concern about where we're headed in the future here.

(gentle music) - Well, the Federal Response to the COVID-19 pandemic gets new leadership.

The battle continues at the state and local levels to get people vaccinated as soon as possible.

Most of the States counties remain in the red level on Ohio's color-coded public health advisory map.

Karen, the overnight curfew continues being continued would hurt restaurants and bars that are already severely hurt by the pandemic.

And the governor was saying, well it could have gone to 11, but it's 10.

And I guess the question is what difference does an hour make?

I think he addressed that a little bit yesterday.

- Well, I think for those restaurants and bars, especially when you've got a late night sporting events and that sort of thing, that that time does make a difference.

And I've even heard some advocate for extending that till midnight, but the question still remains is this a good way to try to knock down the spread of COVID?

And so I would almost expect this curfew to continue but yeah, he really is getting pushed back from businesses, from restaurants and bars that were really hoping that there will be a little relief coming in terms of lightening of this curfew.

I mean the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Investigative Unit is still going out and finding bars and restaurants, well bar specifically that are breaking that curfew, that are still not respecting that last call.

And so I think that there's a real good possibility that he's gonna go ahead and extend that but I don't know anything.

I don't know anything more than what I'm saying right here.

So I guess that's one of those wait and see kind of things.

- Anna, the governor announced plans to buy more rapid at home COVID tests.

How does that fit into the state strategy?

- Yeah, so this is a whole new sort of partnership with this company that's manufacturing, these rapid antigen tests.

So essentially what this would be is you would get a rapid test and you kind of Skype or do telehealth with someone who helps you administer the test yourself and then you get results within minutes which is pretty huge.

I mean, one of the biggest problems in this pandemic is that we can't control the spread because people are spreading it asymptomatically or, you know there's been lags and delays in getting test results back.

And so with this, you don't even have to send the test to a lab and you get your result right away.

Now, you know, these antigen tests have been unreliable in the past, but you know, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, who's the director of ODH, he said that these tests have actually come a long way and that they're more accurate now.

So this is kind of a big step.

And so this is really honing in on curbing the spread.

So, you know, obviously the vaccines will take months before we can really see an effect of that curbing the spread, but this is kind of a in the meantime, we'll be getting testing results faster.

And I mean, think of it of how convenient this could be if you're having symptoms and you have a test already at home and you just go ahead and take it and then, you know right then and there, whether you have it and whether you should go out and things like that.

So this is a really big step.

- And what the governor's plan is to send this to the County health departments and then they can use it as they see fit.

Like, if there's a breakout, for example, I think he mentioned at a factory or somewhere and it would be helpful to know right away.

- Yeah, exactly.

Because right now currently you often don't know until several days after one of your coworkers starts feeling symptoms and testing positive.

And so what if you've been working since then and you were exposed a couple of days ago, and then it's you know, it's kind of getting out of control.

So yeah, that I can definitely see where that would help in that circumstance - Karen, there was one encouraging headline this week and that is that some national reporting including NPR suggests that the current surge has peaked.

Right?

- Yeah.

I think yeah, the numbers and I kind of hinted at this earlier, the numbers have started to plateau and DeWine actually talked about that yesterday.

I'm not sure exactly where the connection is.

I mean certainly we've got a lot more people who are wearing masks.

The holidays are over and I guess that they're maybe have the concerns about people getting together for the holidays and those numbers spiking up again have been resolved, deaths still continue to be in upper double digits and that's a real concern.

So I think that there's a cautious optimism here that may be, we aren't approaching the worst days of the pandemic, which is some other reporting that we've heard in the last couple of weeks that we could be going into the worst days of this pandemic.

Maybe that's not the case, but certainly more testing is thought to be something that could help.

And, and those test results would be reported to the health department.

So it's not just a test that you do at home and then nobody knows.

I mean, that is a way to help track what's happening.

And our positivity rates have actually been going down as well.

And that's another really good sign.

So, you know, as we're starting to approach Spring these are all good things but then there's the other side of that where the watchfulness could start to diminish and people could think that we're already at the end and you don't need to have social distancing and you don't need to wear a mask all the time.

I mean, that level of vigilance the experts say has to stay until we get to this point of herd immunity, which might not be, you know if we're talking about a hundred million vaccines in a hundred days, well, that that's a small portion of the country that needs to get to the point of herd immunity, which is like 80%, 75%.

- And it was becoming pretty obvious and we mentioned this earlier, there's just not enough supply to meet demand, including in Cuyahoga County.

The state began vaccinating its seniors over the age of 80 this week.

So let's talk a little bit about how that is going.

'Cause I've heard a lot of people, we mentioned a couple of folks that we know, including Karen's dad, right, who are getting the vaccine but so many who are not able to.

How has it been going in general?

What are you hearing about the 80 and over group in Ohio?

- I think it's been kind of a mixed bag as you just mentioned.

Some people were able to get in right away.

I know hospital systems say if you were a patient of UAH or Metro Health or Cleveland Clinic, they actually reached out directly to their patients and said, Hey you're eligible this week, contact us for an appointment.

And though the hospital systems got more doses of the vaccine than some of the pharmacies did.

So that I think in that case that has been going pretty smoothly.

Whereas in other cases, like I mentioned before the pharmacies are getting several hundred doses at a time.

And so people called and were not able to get it.

And I heard people in Summit County were calling, you know starting at 8:00 AM on Tuesday.

And the phone lines were just completely backed up and people are still for a call back.

So it just really depends, I think on where you are and what time you called and kind of the luck of the draw.

But you know, most of the problem is because of the limited supply of doses.

- One thing that doesn't especially inspire confidence about that limited supply is what happened according to how the Department of Health, which suspended a provider in the vaccine program, specialty RX it failed to store doses of the COVID-19 vaccine properly led to nearly a thousand doses of the vaccine meant for seniors spoiling.

Karen governor obviously was was pretty outraged about that yesterday.

- Yeah and again, at a time when you have so many people who want to get this vaccine and are trying desperately to find it, there are reports like this, and also reports about expiration lists that some health departments were compiling so that you know, you could direct a vaccine that is expiring to people who could get there on short notice to come and get it.

And Cloverleaf Schools and Medina County apparently was really aggressive about this.

And now has a lot of it's people who have been vaccinated.

And so that to some people is frustrating because they want to see their older relatives and their family members getting this vaccine.

So when you start hearing about things that seem so obvious like a vendor being cut off because they couldn't monitor the temperature of the vaccines and they expired or they spoiled it feels very frustrating, it feels very wasteful and it's the kind of thing that you would think that when providers are being selected that that would be something that would be one of the first questions that you would ask a provider is, can you maintain the very cold temperature this virus needs to be kept at?

- Right, and this was the Moderna Vaccine which doesn't need to have that super, super cold but needs to be kept at a certain level.

- But it's still cold.

- Right, but still cold.

I mean, you know, put it in the fridge and apparently that didn't happen, Anna.

- Right, yeah.

Like Karen said, it still has to be really cold.

It's just, you can use a normal laboratory freezer and fridge rather than those Pfizer needs that ultra cold storage but there's still specific instructions about monitoring the temperature and how many days you have until it expires and how many days you can have it sold.

And so you definitely still have to really pay attention.

That's specific instructions from the manufacturer.

- Taylor, I wanted to ask you about something that you worked on related to COVID this week and we're learning the pandemic and vaccines that a lot of people are having trouble figuring out the guidance over time about that.

And compounding the work of public health officials is misinformation that prevents people from seeking vaccines.

You reported this week about the Greater Cleveland Congregations and how they're gonna be involved in trying to beat down some of those excuses and some of that misinformation.

- Yeah, so the Greater Cleveland Congregations currently is training members of the congregations, it doesn't have to be anyone in a leadership role but anyone who's interested in helping to combat misinformation can go to these training sessions with the union of concerned scientists and kind of ask any questions that they have.

The scientists will help them figure out what's going on with the vaccine, how it was created what side effects to be concerned about.

Pretty much anything they wanna know.

And GCC is goal is to create a place where those questions can be asked without feeling pressured to get the vaccine.

They wanna allow people to make that decision based on their own understanding of their health and their own concerns.

They just wanna provide a place where you can ask the question and get the correct answer without the fog of misinformation and political leanings that have kind of surrounded the vaccine this entire time.

(gentle music) - We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook over our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful when they come, so we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.

The new dawn balloons as we free it, for there is always light if only we're brave enough to see it.

If only were brave enough to be it.

- It was the moment in my eyes of that ceremony, I thought Amanda Gorman is now a permanent part of the public lexicon.

Guys your thoughts?

- She's amazing.

(both laughing) That's all I have to say.

That was so good.

- She was amazing.

- Yeah.

I just feel like we've heard so much in recent years about how language can be divisive and can be hurtful.

And it was amazing to see how language can also be inspiring and unifying if used in that way.

- Great point.

- And I think the whole idea Of people dismiss the arts as being whatever that moment brought so many people together and to hear poetry in that place and that time and everything really shows how important the arts are.

And she was just incredible.

And I've seen interviews with her talking about how she wants to run for president herself someday.

- Right?

- So there's something to think about.

- That's going to wrap up our show.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas, it's been one year since we first reported on the novel coronavirus although it may feel more like five years or an eternity.

We'll get some perspective on the year of COVID-19 from Dr. Daniel Simon, the Chief Clinical and Scientific Officer at University Hospitals.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching and stay safe.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Brought to you by Westfield; offering insurance to protect what's yours.

Grow your business and achieve your dreams.