- Hi, I'm Christy McDonald.

And here's what we have for you this week on One Detroit.

In a week of news coming fast and furious from charges in the Flint Water scandal to supply and demand.

Oakland County Executive Dave Coulter on the distribution of the COVID vaccine and waiting for more doses.

Then the impact of COVID on one town, we're heading to Clawson for the report.

Plus social media rhetoric and concern for violence at state capitals moving forward, and the second impeachment of president Trump.

Stay put One Detroit is coming up right now.

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(upbeat music) - Hi there and welcome to One Detroit, I'm Christy McDonald.

Thanks so much for being with me.

It's a week, from charges in the Flint Water crisis to the impeachment of President Trump a second time, to concerns over safety at state capitals here in Michigan and across the country.

All in the middle of a pandemic, the United States is desperately trying to control.

It's coming down to supply and demand.

This week I talk with Oakland County Executive, Dave Coulter, on the frustration of appointments in the COVID vaccine.

Plus the economic fallout from COVID continues to erode at small businesses across the area.

We head back to Clawson to see how they've adapted in our ongoing series of, One City Under a Pandemic.

Then the upheaval in Washington and agreeing on the truth in how social media can erode that.

And we are starting with the historic second impeachment of President Trump that is gaining bipartisan support.

At the same time, there are concerns for safety, not only at the US Capitol but at state houses around the country.

The information divide and misinformation in our country is playing out on social media.

From tech platforms pulling the plug on Parler this week, to Twitter and Facebook banning the president.

Will Glover has more with critical thinking expert, Helen Lee Bouygues of the Reboot Foundation on handling the supply and demand for misinformation online during this pivotal time.

- To start how would you define what misinformation is?

- There's there's a lot of studies out right now.

The challenges that we have are two different matters.

Around misinformation because in this digital age, it's very hard to differentiate between blogs, opinions, facts.

And so people might have erroneous information because they might take an opinion as a fact, without checking sources and then that brings a whole dimension of media literacy into question.

So that's what I put the misinformation category.

Disinformation is deliberate, intentional interest groups or individuals who will put out outright lies that catch on fire in order for their own personal interest.

And that is a different subject that has consequences for our democracy, as well as other matters even health related to disinformation about COVID for example, and the vaccination.

So I think I do wanna distinguish the two.

And going back to disinformation one of the areas that the Reboot Foundation has studied, is really the impact of social media on disinformation.

And what our studies have shown is that regardless of age, income, or actual political partisanship, where you're leaning, heavier use of social media demonstrated that those individuals actually had, had more susceptibility to not being able to identify disinformation.

And you may then ask the question, why is that?

And it's because of the algorithm of social media is such that it's deliberately intended to prey on our emotions so that our eyeballs can stay longer on the platforms, and hence naturally what you are shown is actually linked to a polarized extreme views because you'll never get shown an opposing view on your screen, if you're going through Facebook in terms of a ranking of what's popping upfront.

So those are some of the challenges that we're dealing with misinformation and disinformation.

- How big of a factor is critical thinking?

And for example, in something like the recent attack on the Capitol, where could people have applied more critical thinking skills to not get swept up in taking part in something like that?

- A lot of the topics that you talked about is skillsets for media literacy, which obviously goes hand in hand with skills of critical thinking.

I think critical thinking by definition is, how to be a better thinker.

Which means thinking about your own thinking and realizing what your actual biases are, what may be some of your convictions based on your previous experiences or your emotion that flaws your actual thinking in terms of logic thinking, reasoning, questioning assumptions.

And I think that's why specific critical thinking skills is important, especially to teach to our children today.

Because those are skills that help people to take a step back, take a breather, and actually question your assumptions so that you might catch yourself before coming into a rut of just believing what's been pounded to you regardless of whether or not they're lies.

- How do you feel and what roles do you feel the government, social media platforms and, you know, news media outlets should be taking to provide accurate and clear information?

Should there be more of an effort to distinguish things like opinion versus fact, or highlighting the fact that maybe the statistics being referenced, you know, are widely accepted, are not widely accepted?

Where do you think the balance for that is?

- I do think that governments have a role in terms of trying to instill more literacy, media literacy and critical thinking in the curriculum in kids through 12.

People talk about the challenges of critical thinking and media literacy for adults.

But the fact of the matter is with TikTok who actually targets even younger children, it's another demonstration that we really need to start early so that it becomes a habit with regard to media literacy.

And social media companies obviously, we need to really think about what they can do to be much more transparent about their actual own algorithm, as well as... You know I think one of the challenges that Twitter faced before they took Trump off their site was what they were censoring, you know, even the Trump supporters, nobody could really understand what they were censoring versus not, because there wasn't as much transparency around it.

So I think everybody has a role to play.

As individuals we, you know, it's more of our own liberty if we can actually think better, and if we have the capability to change opinions because we're thinking rationally.

And I think we need to just remind ourselves that, in this economy and period where it's so much data thrown in our face, that it's hard to actually navigate through all of that.

So we really all need to take a bit of a step back, maybe do some digital detox, and allow ourselves to breathe and think better.

- All right now, to supply and demand here in Michigan and the COVID vaccine.

I spoke with Oakland County executive Dave Coulter on the frustration of changing dose numbers and scheduling.

Let's go ahead and start off with the COVID vaccines and what seems to be an increasing frustration between the County Health Departments and the state of Michigan on supply.

Tell us in Oakland County, when do you know what number of vaccines you're going to get each week?

- Well, that's been a challenge, we don't often know in a timely fashion.

We put in our order for the week, the Thursday prior.

So we're asking for a certain amount of dosage on Thursday, and then we hope that by the next Monday or Tuesday, we get notified, but that hasn't always happened.

And I'm not necessarily blaming the state on that because when we talked to the state, they said, "Well it works exactly the same way with the FED."

We put in our order for the state and then we find out the following week.

So the supply chain has been challenging to say the least.

- So for the week here of January 11th how many vaccines do you have?

And then you're gonna put that request in on Thursday, how many do you request then for the next week?

- So this past week we got, so, I mean, we got 1,950 doses.

That's a very small amount.

Our hospital systems got more.

So that's why I say you may have more, a lot going through your health system.

For next week we have requested 5,000 doses, and it's not that we couldn't administer that but we don't wanna overburden the state.

We know that all the counties across the state are asking for this as well.

Bt we put in an order for 5,000, we'll know early next week what we're going to get, and then that's how many appointments we'll schedule - Do you find that some of the information is also confusing for people about where they should be going about either getting in line or or trying to find some kind of appointment for a vaccine versus where the supplies are when it comes to either the County Health Department or hospital systems?

- You know, we've been really clear about our plan to vaccinate people, and I think the hospitals have as well.

But what has been frustrating is the number of vaccines that we've gotten.

And, you know it seems like operation work speed has kind of crawled, is crawling right now.

And it's not clear where that breakdown is.

I'm, you know, I feel good that President-elect Biden has talked about ramping that up, ramping up the production, and ramping up the distribution of that, so that may help.

But right now we could make more reservations if we had more vaccines, and that's simply what we're waiting on.

- So the news is coming out this weekend, and on Tuesday it was announced that the federal government has agreed to release millions of COVID vaccines that were being held back for that second dose.

And also we saw a news that the governor is offering to buy vaccines from Pfizer, not through the federal government, but on our own through the state.

Do you think that that is going to be able to help a little bit more in the next weeks?

- I certainly think it's gonna be helpful, and I applaud the governor's efforts to try to get additional supply however we can.

She's aware of this.

I talked to her earlier this week and she understands the frustration.

She shares some of it in terms of getting the state to get the vaccines that we need as well.

And so a hundred thousand, in the grand scheme of things, isn't going to solve the problem.

But in the short term it would really help us get through.

You know keep in mind, we're talking, you know, we've been talking about getting seniors, 65 and above, vaccinated, nurses.

These are technically 1b category and it is... - Yeah.

You you've opened up a whole range, millions of people who are now eligible.

- Yeah.

But we only have the supply in Oakland County at least I can only speak for our County for what we're doing with our 1a population, and we're not done with our 1a population.

So I do want your listeners to, you know, to understand that if the amount of vaccines that we've received we're not through 1a yet, which is those EMS workers and frontline health workers and the like.

And so, I know there's a, I know there's a frustration.

We want as many people to get vaccinated, who want to be vaccinated to do so.

But I also need them to understand that they're gonna have to exercise some patience until we actually get those vaccines in Oakland County.

- So let's say your starting to get the supply in, how many people can you vaccinate either a day, Dave, or a week in Oakland County?

How do you break that up?

- So we can do.

Yeah, that's a great question because it gets to a bigger point, which is Oakland County itself can probably do up to close to 20,000 a week, but we're not the only ones doing this.

So the healthcare systems, the pharmacies are also gonna have access to this.

This really is a kind of a public private partnership.

So what I also tell folks is, don't just rely on the doses that Oakland County gets.

For many people their quickest access to a vaccination is gonna be through their current health provider.

So whether for you that Beaumont or Henry Ford or McLaren.

In many cases, you're gonna have better luck getting your vaccination through your health provider.

So reach out to them as well.

And frankly, they've been reaching out to their patients as well.

- You know, one thing I think about when we hear the stories even out of Macomb and Wayne County as well the phone's blowing up at the health department of people who maybe are not internet savvy, who don't know how to go online and sign up for things.

What would you recommend that people do if they're not going through their health provider if they wanna get more information from the County, what do people need to do?

- So they can go to our website because we update it all of the time.

They can also call us.

But right now, frankly, Christy, I mean I don't wanna set expectations that we can't meet.

We're not adding additional appointments right now until we actually have the vaccines, because we don't wanna make an appointment for someone and then disappoint them and have to cancel it.

So at this point, it is primarily through our website.

And I understand that there are seniors that are older and maybe not as comfortable doing that.

I would encourage them if they can to get a family member to keep an eye on that, for them, to just, you know kinda keep your eye on our website.

But also look for that email from your healthcare provider.

- We wanted to get a better idea of how protected people are once they're vaccinated.

So here's Beaumont Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. Nick Gilpin.

- When you get the first dose, you will have some immune response, some level of protection.

Now it won't be a lot.

And the vaccine manufacturers have shown that after the first dose and after about seven days after the first dose, you'll have around 50% protection.

That's pretty good, it's not enough, but it's a pretty good start.

So you'll get that first dose.

About a week later, your immune system ramps up you have some protection on board.

Then you'll get your second dose, whether it's three weeks or four weeks, depending on which vaccine you get.

Then fast forward another seven to 10 days and you'll have the full protection on board, which for both of these vaccines is around 95% effectiveness.

But after you get vaccinated, that's not a free pass to then rip off your mask and go on about life as we knew it.

We're still gonna have to be diligent about doing all the things, wearing masks, social distancing, hand-washing, at least for the foreseeable future.

I can tell you scientists are working on this right now to try to answer that very question of, does the vaccine not only stop disease, does it also stop transmission?

So stay tuned.

- And you can see our entire interview with Dr. Gilpin with information on the COVID vaccine plus info on Detroit Wayne County and Macomb County vaccine links just head to onedetroitpbs.org.

All right you know, we've been tracking the effects of COVID on one small city in Oakland County, starting this summer.

Clawson was really on the upswing when the virus hit in the spring.

And this next part of our series called, One City Under a Pandemic.

One Detroit's Bill Kubota and Chris Jordan take a look at how things are going now since the restrictions in November.

- Right now, Congress is maybe putting together a stimulus package, who knows if something will come out of it to help things out.

Right now we're two weeks into December and we're still on a carry out only.

we're 56% down from where we were last year.

- Well, I guess we're all waiting to see what happens on Friday, whether or not this shutdown and I'll call it a shutdown, 'cause it is for restaurants.

If it continues or not or if it's gonna be lifted.

- Chris, we're back at it again, another look at Clawson.

You live there, I used to.

We wanted to see how that small city is fairing in the midst of the pandemic.

- Yes.

And in the midst of another shutdown that hit just as the holiday season was ramping up.

Bottom line for the businesses we talked to, some doing okay, some doing not so good, and some surprising new opportunities that have popped up during the pandemic.

- [Bill] Christmas in Clawson.

The trees, carolers, as festive as can be during a pandemic.

- [Chris] How did it go for you there?

- You know, it went all right.

It was not as busy as it usually is.

People came in and came out.

No lingering, no coffee serving, no cookie eating, no hugging and kissing.

But we had a decent Christmas, all thanksgiving, you know, we made it through the year and were ready for another one.

- We had a lot of people I'd never seen before that were like, I wanna a 100% support local and not just us, but just all of their shopping.

They were saying they were trying to do it with local businesses.

- You know Christmas is never our biggest season.

I would say it was really at par for where we usually are.

- [Chris] Vikki Stoddart runs the Hips Resale Boutique - And we're really dedicating our time to building a better presence online.

So a lot of our time is spent taking pictures.

So here we are walking through the store.

- [Chris] Stoddart had to close her changing rooms.

- [ Vikki] It is almost show time.

I got my right hand man here.

I got Jen.

- Hello ladies.

- [Vikki] And there's Kelly.

- Hey.

- [Chris] After the first shutdown, she started selling via weekly Facebook live events, beginning in May, a couple hours, every Thursday at seven.

- The bigger the better here, and it's 20%.

You've actually added another live on Mondays.

So now we're doing two lives a week and we're open in store shopping twice a week.

- [ Chris] When stores are open, shoppers stay six feet apart.

Masking up hasn't been too big a problem for most people.

- We had one lady who insisted that what she was doing was mask.

And I said, "Well not really."

Well do you want me to throw up and faint?

And I was so close to saying, "Kind of."

- [Chris] Leon and Lulu, like Hips has found the solution online.

- The bonus for us is this is the year that we finally got our eCommerce up and rolling.

We found the right solutions to something we'd tried to do twice in the past.

We've had a pretty decent first run with a real website.

You can now stay up midnight and it can be drinking a glass of wine, sitting in you night gown, shopping online, just as nature intended.

- Meanwhile, Clawson's Warp 9 Comics has found that focusing on in-store selling rather than online is their key to success.

- We thought we were gonna lose a lot of business to online which at first that's kind of where it was going, but I don't think anybody could foresee the USPS kinda failing as much as they did.

- Right.

- So because of that, we saw a lot more in store shopping than I thought we would.

And we had a lot of people I'd never seen before that were like, I wanna a 100% support local and not just us, but just all of their shopping.

They were saying they were trying to do it with local businesses.

- Dan Soffins said that Warp 9 did better this past December than they did the year before with strong sales in trade paperback.

- We were just hoping to hold our own you know.

We were, that was the goal was just try to hold our own, you know.

because we've already lost a ton of money this year.

- The second shut down was much harder at first to, I'd say mentally and emotionally deal with.

And it took me a good two three weeks to kinda get in to my groove.

- [Bob] As Zeoli's Modern Italian perfects it's carry out menu, owner, Scott Brown has boxed lunch orders to fill.

- At this point, it's just about paying the bills.

- [Bob] The lunches are frontline medical worker paid for by a program that began last spring.

Zeoli's did well last summer after the first shutdown lifted then the COVID numbers rose, by fall the ride was over.

- Yeah, we had 50% capacity and the ability to seat out doors, but we had no one coming in.

You know, people were making that choice on their own.

- [Chris] Meanwhile, across the street, there's Pumachug, a restaurant so new that they missed out on the first wave of state and federal assistance having just opened their doors in the summer.

But now they are featuring a greenhouse, courtesy of Oakland County.

One way to allow people to sit down and eat outdoors.

- The city plans to distribute more greenhouses soon, limited to parties of six, presumably family members, and very close acquaintances.

To dine out in Metro Detroit it's sitting outside or in greenhouses, igloos or tents.

Are those effective?

Are those safe?

Well what's the general take on that?

- I think the jury is still out on whether those are effective or safe.

The state has some really kind of guidelines that I would say surprise restaurant owners when the most recent shutdown was announced in November.

- [Bob] The tents have to be open on three sides - An enclosed tent it's kind of like an indoor dining room in a lot of ways.

- [Bob] For Pumachug, the greenhouse brings customers, but nowhere near enough.

- I would say conservatively, we're losing $10,000 a month.

- Despite everything that we've done to push, carry out, we can't survive on food volume alone.

- But how would you be able to stay in business.

- I think not receiving any government funding not much longer, to be honest.

I'm really hoping that they open things back up on the 15th this Friday.

If they don't and we're aint successful getting any government funding... - It's not worth staying open.

- I don't know how much longer we can make it.

- [Bob] As restaurants fight for survival, expect more ideas to expand their carry out market.

- Another thing that I've seen recently pop up more is restaurant subscriptions.

So there are a few restaurants in Detroit right now that are sort of piloting these subscription services.

- Subscription dining that's restaurants trying to find a more consistent cash flow.

- Meanwhile, Clawson's Three Cats Restaurant has a concept though not a subscription to let you travel the world without leaving your house.

Owner Mary Liz Curtin calls it, three cats will taste you there.

Sample regional menus from around the world, paired with recommended music and movie playlist.

- (speaks in foreign language) - Saying you can even get your virtual passport stamped.

- It's nothing that you could do with your friends.

You could do a Facebook watch party, watch the same movie together.

You could have dinner in your house, I can have it in mine, we can all chat.

- (speaks in foreign language) - [Chris] First stop France, and then on to California and Poland.

- Every business I have spoken to whether it's in Clawson or anywhere else has discovered, as we, have things that we can do better, ways we can change our businesses to get through this time all of which will have a positive impact later.

- For our previous stories on Clawson and our daily COVID-19 coverage head to onedetroitpbs.org.

We will keep you updated as our world changes by the day.

Stay safe, be well and I'll see you next week.

Take care.

You can find more at onedetroitpbs.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our one Detroit newsletter.

- [Woman Advertiser] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Man Advertiser] Support for this program provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for journalism at Detroit Public TV.

The Kresge foundation.

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan.

- [Woman Advertiser]The DTE foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV among the state's largest foundations, committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit dtefoundation.com to learn more.

- [Man Advertiser] Business Leaders for Michigan, dedicated to making Michigan a top 10 state for jobs, personal income and to a health economy.

Nissan Foundation.

Ally.

And viewers like you.

(piano music)