Tracking COVID through wastewater-- Nevada was one of the first states to do it, and the results could impact what actions local health officials take.

Plus a new source of funding for small businesses in the state promises to revitalize the communities those businesses are in.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

Welcome to Nevada Week; I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

There's an uptick in COVID cases right now.

According to the state, the 14-day moving average for daily new cases in Clark County is 348, compared with 253 last week and 195 the week before.

To find out what's behind the increase, we spoke with Brian Labus from the UNLV School of Public Health.

How would you describe what we're currently seeing with COVID in the state and in Southern Nevada?

(Brian Labus) We're still seeing spread of COVID in the community.

The levels are very low compared to where they were earlier this year when we saw the omicron surge that hit.

The numbers were very high, and we're at a fraction of that, just a couple of percent of where we were.

But we're still seeing transmission, and those numbers have gone up a little bit over time.

-So what's on the horizon for us based on what we're seeing in the rest of the country?

-It's really difficult to predict far out what's going to happen next.

We can talk about the recent events, we can talk about what will happen over the next few weeks, but trying to predict is this something we're going to see every fall, is this going to be a winter disease, something like that, we don't know.

What we can say is there's been an increase of disease here and throughout the country.

We will see surges in different places at different times based on those communities, but those surges probably are not going to be anywhere as big as the omicron surge because so many people got sick that there's a lot of immunity in the population right now.

So we did such a bad job stopping omicron earlier, it gave us a lot of protection right now.

It's kind of like stopping a forest fire by letting the forest burn to the ground.

The forest fire has stopped, not that we wanted to take that route to it, but it's at the point now where there isn't a lot of-- there isn't a big susceptible population in Southern Nevada right now.

-What is the role of immunity with this new subvariant?

-Well, the subvariant still seems to respond to the vaccine, and previous infections give us protection against any of these new subvariants.

We haven't seen one yet that is so different that our immune history throughout the world is irrelevant.

So right now we are still seeing protection from the vaccine and from natural infection, but even if it's the exact same strain, with coronaviruses, immunity wears off pretty quickly.

That's why you get the common cold over and over in your life, because immunity doesn't last a long time.

-And if we are able to somewhat predict what's coming in the next few weeks, what is your level of concern?

-I think if we saw a big jump, we'd be a lot more concerned.

We've seen just a slow, steady increase.

We know there's transmission in the community.

There's still that potential to get sick if you're at crowded events around a lot of other people.

We can still have these big super-spreader events.

We still hear about those happening all over the country from time to time.

Right now though it's just something that we have to deal with.

It's kind of that background disease that's there, so we have to have a healthy respect for it still.

It still could flare up, but it's not like we're in the middle of one of those bad waves that we've previously had.

-What's driving this increase?

-Well, it's a combination of things.

It comes down to the immune history of our population, so what percent of people have been naturally infected?

What percent are vaccinated?

What's basically going on with our immune systems, and then it's our behaviors.

If we spend more time together in close contact, there's a higher risk.

If we spread out more, there's lower risk.

So everything that we do affects the risk of disease transmission.

Every event we have adds some additional risk to disease transmission in Southern Nevada, and that's what drives in the community.

There isn't one simple answer.

It's basically the total of all our behaviors.

-There's a sentiment that the pandemic is mostly over.

What do you think about that?

-Well, I think we're moving on to another phase of the pandemic.

This is not a disease that's going to go away.

It's not something we're going to eradicate, so COVID is going to be with us all for the rest of our lives.

It's not just going to disappear.

But we're not seeing a lot of disease transmission like we saw in the early waves because we have immunity in our population.

Once you reach higher levels of immunity, that starts to get things under control.

We see flare-ups from time to time just like we do with influenza.

Flu shows up every single year.

Everybody doesn't get flu, though.

We have a vaccine that protects us, but we have pretty bad vaccination rates nationwide and in Nevada, so all those things together cause an increase in disease but not one that completely overwhelms the population every year, and that's probably where we're headed with COVID.

-There's research from Brown University that Nevada is among the top 10 states for COVID deaths that could have been prevented by vaccines.

What do you think about that?

-Nevada has historically not done very well when it comes to vaccination.

We're usually near the bottom of the list for childhood immunizations, unfortunately.

When flu season shows up, we get about 50% of our population vaccinated for flu.

The rates are better in the older population that are higher risk for serious disease, and it's worse in a younger population that's otherwise healthy.

We're seeing the exact same thing with COVID.

So it's unfortunate, but it's also not a surprise.

It really matches what we do normally with vaccination.

COVID really isn't anything special, it's just the way Nevada approaches public health and we've struggled to get the right people vaccinated to prevent disease from occurring and ultimately prevent deaths.

-You may be wondering just how accurate COVID numbers can be right now, since several people are simply testing at home and not reporting positive results.

Well, if you use the bathroom, you are contributing to COVID monitoring methods.

Together UNLV, the Southern Nevada Health District, Southern Nevada Water Authority and Desert Research Institute are using your fecal matter to detect emerging variants and early increases of COVID.

For the past two years, UNLV associate professor Edwin Oh and his students have been carefully collecting... "Try not to splash yourself."

and analyzing the sewage of Southern Nevadans.

Professor Oh is also the head of UNLV's neurogenetics and precision medicine lab.

(Edwin Oh) The reason why wastewater surveillance works so well is that all of us have to use the bathroom, and when we use that bathroom, any viral pathogen that gets through our GI tract will end up in fecal matter, and that fecal matter is flowing right through under our feet and as a result, we can get a representation of a community.

And rural areas are represented too, thanks to the efforts of Duane Moser, associate research professor at Desert Research Institute, who uses this portable pump...

I got to say to my people, you don't want to know where this has been.

To extract wastewater from tem different systems...

I'm doing it because I believe it's important.

In rural Clark and Nye counties.

(Duane Moser) Especially with COVID, you know, you get these viruses or variants of the viruses coming in from other places, they arrive in the cities first and then gradually move out to these rural areas.

So typically we'll see a ten-day to maybe two-week delay from where Ed first detects it in town here basically to when I start picking it up out in the rurals.

So it's keeping us busy.

We're sampling these on a weekly basis, and we've been able to actually observe these different variants or subvariants rolling through in time.

So we're still picking it up.

We're still getting hits out in the rural areas, which I think is really interesting, you know, that we sort of think the pandemic is sort of winding down, you know, really, but in fact, the wastewater surveillance isn't showing that.

Wastewater doesn't lie, it doesn't care.

It samples the population that's contributing to it and, you know, you've got a signal.

Workers inside this lab at UNLV are who detect that signal, which Professor Oh says can show up in someone's stool even before that person shows symptoms of COVID.

That's the power of wastewater surveillance.

We're able to have a snapshot of a community when they're potentially pre-symptomatic, when they're asymptomatic or when they're symptomatic, so you don't need to have individuals heading in to get tested in order to know whether the virus is circulating in a community.

Professor Oh provides the Southern Nevada Health District with weekly updates on viral concentration levels which can also be seen via this interactive map at empower.unlv.edu.

I'm kind of surprised how many people, I'm pleasantly surprised how many people have accessed this website.

We've had folks from Russia, from Korea, from Kenya.

The map is just one unique aspect of this wastewater surveillance project, said to be one of the largest of its kind in the United States.

Over the last two years we've learned a lot, we've been tricked a lot by this virus, and I think we're ready as we move forward, that if there is a surge in viral material in the sewage, we'll know how to set up testing sites.

We'll know how to deploy vending machines with various testing equipment so folks can have access to some of these resources.

So I think that's really a key intervention here, being able to link that wastewater result back to the public health folks and deploying these resources.

I think that's when a program like this makes a lot of sense.

-COVID certainly hurt several small businesses in the state.

Now there's a new source of funding to start and strengthen small businesses, specifically those owned by minorities and women.

It's called a community development financial institution, or CDFI, and here's how it works.

A CDFI, or community development financial institution, can be a bank, credit union, loan fund or venture capital fund.

They bring together investors from the public and private sectors to collaborate and create economic opportunities in low-income communities.

CDFIs do this by providing financial support like loans for everything from first homes to business startups.

The loans can range from $1,000, and they're known as micro loans, to more than $100,000, and the interest rates can be lower than traditional banks.

CDFIs also tend to follow more equitable lending practices for businesses and individuals who might not have wealth or capital and often offer financial education and business coaching in addition to lending.

The goal of a CDFI is twofold: To revitalize and give an economic boost to historically underfunded neighborhoods and communities.

In several cities, CDFIs have led to small business growth, higher-wage jobs and community revitalization.

While Nevada ranks low in the number of CDFIs per capita, a new CDFI is available statewide for the very first time.

It was established with $6 million that the state received from a settlement with T-Mobile over concerns about T-Mobile's merger with Sprint in 2019.

Joining us to talk more about potential impacts of CDFIs, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color, are Ken Evans, president of the Urban Chamber of Commerce; Nic Steele, executive director of Access Community Capital, and Teresa Miranda, vice president of Prestamos CDFI, a subsidiary of Chicanos Por La Causa.

Thank you all for joining us.

Ken, I will start with you.

With all the banks that exist in Nevada, what is the need for CDFIs here?

(Ken Evans) The need is typically the fact that usually if you're a startup business or if you're a smaller microbusiness, in some cases you may not have the tenure in business, meaning at least two years, sometimes three years in business.

You may not have that, or in other cases you may not necessarily have the credit profile to go to a traditional institution.

So as such you still want to get started with your business, if not grow your business, you need capital to do that but if you can't go to a traditional bank, you need an alternative.

-What would you say the availability of CDFIs are in the state, Nic?

(Nic Steele) Well, you know, until now there was only one, and that CDFI was operating-- or one homegrown CDFI operating in the north.

With Access Community Capital, we'll be the second CDFI, homegrown CDFI in the state, and the only homegrown one in the southern part of state.

So it's pretty exciting because when you compare us to other states with the same population, we probably should have six or seven CDFIs.

-Okay.

Teresa, you have worked with Prestamos for gosh, more than 20 years, Prestamos meaning "we lend" in Spanish.

I wonder, are these loans typically directed toward businesses that are just starting that we heard Ken mention, and also historically, why have minorities and women been underserved in this area of lending?

(Teresa Miranda) You know, I think part of it I would say is the education, and yes as a CDFI, we focus on startup businesses but also on existing businesses.

There's nothing more frustrating than being in business, approach your bank that you've been banking at for so long, and maybe you don't fit the credit box, right?

What do you do now?

You know, how do you keep your employees?

How do you keep your doors open?

As a CDFI we give that opportunity to continue with your business and also with some coaching, what it's going to take for you to become bankable, right?

We're getting out of this-- we're getting out of this pandemic, right, you know, and there's a lot of businesses who were impacted negatively and they need the capital.

So we as CDFIs step in, and we provide the capital for them to continue their operations, for them to continue, you know, to keep their doors open, and it's very important because it's not only the capital but also what are the tools that they need to become successful during this environment?

-I want to get back to the historically underserved communities, minorities and women.

Do you agree they have had trouble getting lending?

-Absolutely.

If you look at the statistics, there was a small business credit survey that was done a couple of years ago, pre-COVID.

What it suggested is that historically, communities of color or businesses from communities of color, they received a disproportionate amount of funds despite applying in some cases more for credit and for capital.

So that survey suggested there's a need there, because they're not being served.

In addition to that, what I like to say sometimes is our small business development systems as well as our access to capital is not always as professionally and culturally competent as it needs to be in order to reach underserved areas of the population.

-So help me understand.

What is the reason why they are applying and not getting the loans?

-Well, I think there's a number of reasons.

Banks in general, your commercial lenders, tend to focus on individuals and businesses that they can provide a plethora of services to.

So individuals that they can give credit cards to, they can do home mortgages to, they can do commercial lending, lines of credit, and all of these other products that may not fit the profile for a small business owner.

And then you have women-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses that historically have not had the opportunity to accumulate the necessary collateral to support their businesses, whether it's through the practices in the past of redlining that didn't allow individuals and communities to actually own homes or whether it's situations that haven't enabled populations to actually advance in their own careers.

Those things tend to build up over time, so business owners may be successful to a certain point, but once they need that collateral, they may not have the assets to be able to satisfy the checkboxes needed at your commercial institutions.

-A lot of people get their capital from home ownership, so if in years past a certain section or certain race was not able to own property, then how are they going to accumulate that wealth and then go on to own businesses, Teresa?

-You know, I would like to add to that comment that there are very successful businesses out there that just need the opportunity, and how do we provide that opportunity?

How do we provide them the tools they need?

Because they're working, right, they're supporting, they're creating opportunities for their family or their friends or individuals are also struggling to find a job.

But it's the education component.

What is the expectation when you walk into a bank?

What are the banks looking for?

You know, we talked about the five C's of credit.

Do business owners know the five C's of credit, or they just know how to work, right?

And that is the component, and that is what we bring to the table.

What is it and how we can prepare them so they can become bankable.

You know, as CDFIs, we are a tool for them to become bankable, right?

We don't offer all the services the banks offer, you know, as you mentioned, the credit cards, the lines of credit, the mortgage assistance if they want to buy, or they're commercial.

But again at the end of the day, it's the education and that's where we start.

You know, what are the things and the tools that they need for them to become bankable, become successful and continue to operate and grow their business?

-Before we get more into the specifics of CDFIs, why is it important for minorities and women to have access to lending?

-I would say that's probably the greatest source of intergenerational wealth.

So you have minorities and you have women that are starting businesses but as Teresa mentioned, you need a support system.

Often these communities don't have the networks that they can tap into for additional capital to grow their businesses or support their businesses.

They may not have the models to follow that they can look at and that advice that they can receive to support their businesses.

So providing that access to capital as well as that technical assistance is critical to helping them grow their businesses, and then helping them transition their businesses when they want to sell it or they want to transition it to pass that down to the kids.

-And from a society standpoint, from someone who's not a minority, there is a benefit for all of us to having more equitable business ownership.

-Absolutely.

At the Urban Chamber of Commerce, we say we have two priorities.

The first priority is to make sure that we help diversify and expand the economy.

The second priority is to make sure that there's diversity, equity and inclusion when we're doing and going after the first priority.

The bottom line is this: If we help make sure that business owners from communities of color as well as women business owners are successful, we're helping to better build our economy.

One of the things we're happy to been able to do at the Urban Chamber is provide inputs into the governor's recovery and resiliency plan, essentially making sure that whether it's advanced manufacturing, logistics, bolstering our healthcare system or information technology, if we make sure we get small business owners or business owners from communities of color to participate in these areas, they can do three things.

They can employ people, they can put resources back into the community, and last but not least, they can participate in political engagement.

The bottom line is we can make sure that everybody has an opportunity to contribute to our economy.

-Talking about this particular CDFI, it focuses on small businesses and it even has loans as low as $1,000, known as a micro loan.

Can you give me an example of how that would be helpful to a company, a business?

-Certainly.

To Access Community Capital, this statewide program is innovative in its nature.

It's a public-private partnership really formed from a partnership and conversations with the governor's office and the attorney general's office, and they understood there's a need to support those micro businesses, businesses forming out of the pandemic.

It's very important because if you overlook those businesses, then you're halting the opportunity for those businesses to then grow and then hire employees.

So in this day and age coming out of the pandemic, you see a number of businesses that are looking to pivot and looking to invest more resources into building websites and building mobile apps and ways to expand their ways of reaching customers.

So $1,000 is enough to launch a website, and $1,000 is enough to help that business buy some masks if we go through the pandemic, so those little loans are very important.

-Teresa, would that even be a loan that a traditional bank would offer, $1,000?

-No.

The quick answer is no.

I think for CDFIs, there's no such thing as a small loan, right?

And the impact that it can have in those businesses, you know, we talk about the essentials but also, you know, maybe a contract.

Maybe a piece of equipment they need, you know, either because the one they had just broke or they are looking to expand and they need to buy another to keep their operations and continue to grow and support.

But a CDFI and the point of the CDFI is really the focus, right?

Minorities.

The focus is on low-income communities, and that is what we like to do.

You know, how do we focus on those communities?

How do we support those communities either by helping larger companies with access to capital that can create those job opportunities or the entrepreneur, the small business that needs $1,000, that needs that $5,000, right, to continue to stay in business.

And that is the nice thing about the CDFIs, that we do have a mission, and the mission is to work with the low-income communities as well as minorities.

-And pardon me, if I could jump in for a minute, Amber.

One of the things that's been mentioned is the fact that there's a racial wealth gap in America, and entrepreneurship is a great way to address that racial wealth gap.

But if we're going to do that, we need to make sure they have the capital necessary to start businesses and then beyond that, as Teresa said, grow the businesses.

So again if we're going to be serious about addressing the racial wealth gap, doing what we can to provide this, assess the ability to affordable capital, is major.

-Just one more point about the $1,000 amount.

If you can't get it from a traditional bank, then you may consider a payday loan, and those have-- do you want to add to that?

-Yes, I'll hop right in.

Unfortunately, Nevada doesn't have usury laws, I believe it is, so what that means is payday loans, pretty expensive, can be 40, 50, sometimes it can be a several-100-percent rate.

The problem with that is if you're already a challenged micro business and you go to a payday lender, the interest alone is going to adversely impact your cash flow.

So the benefit of CDFIs is we can provide a lower interest rate, a fixed lower interest rate, so you don't have to worry about the interest alone being an impediment to your success as a business.

-I'll just add one quick point, and that's a lot of times, we find that women and minority-owned businesses, if they can't access traditional capital or capital from a traditional financial institution, then they're operating out of cash.

So all of their expenses are paid out of cash which means they cannot invest that into marketing, into hiring more employees.

So where CDFIs can step in is they provide those low-dollar loans to really support that business through the ups and downs that they would normally-- if they could access traditional capital they already have a line of credit for, but if they can't tap into that, then they can get a fixed loan for a small amount, and that really helps them invest back into their business.

-So another aspect of the CDFI, it helps small business but then another goal is to help the community that business is in, revitalize that community.

In your I think 20-plus years of experience in this area, Teresa, have you seen the ability of that to happen?

Does it always happen?

Sometimes probably it doesn't.

-It's definitely our goal, and how do we go into those communities?

We have been growing just because there's the need in those communities.

We just don't grow just to grow, but we want to be able to be there for those communities, and we've seen them.

We've seen where if it hasn't been for a CDFI, they will not-- businesses would not exist right now.

The opportunity, you talk about will the bank be able to entertain a $1,000 loan, you know, they say sorry, we can't, right?

We don't have the capacity, you know, and that's why we exist and that's why there's so many programs that do exist because the banks just don't want to take that risk, right?

And we understand why, right?

But for us, we can definitely have that ability to take that risk.

-Thank you all so much for your time and contribution on this important topic.

Thank you for joining us for Nevada Week.

For any resources discussed in this show, go to our website, vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @vegaspbs.

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